I just got this e-mail through my newly established MySpace spot – boy, I’m getting so many comfy corners in cyber-space I’ll soon be living in a computerised box…
I had the pleasure of seeing you the other night at the powerhouse.. You were fantastic!!! Keep up the good work and i look forward to seeing you perform again 🙂 Hayley
How lovely…and to think I almost mistook it as spam, seeing as Hayley’s pseudonym is “Forbidden Lust”. Well, evidently Forbidden Lust ain’t as nasty as it’s cracked up to be!
Now….to answer the questions posed at my press conference:
1. When can we hear you on 4ZZZ? Friday afternoons, from 3pm to 6pm. It’s 102.1FM. Make sure you call in and suggest something for our improvised radio section!
2. What made you get into comedy? My husband. He just needed me out of the house. Oh, the mirth. No seriously, I guess the idea had crossed my mind every now and then, but I had no idea how you even did it. I came from an acting background, was almost always cast in comedic roles but I didn’t really give it any major thought more than occasionally (like when I had the great joy of interviewing Fiona O’Loughlin for my Mums who Dare to Dream book; that got me thinking, but again, only fleetingly). Then a little under two years ago a random conversation led to me getting into a weekly impro show (you can click here if you want the full story), which gave me confidence that maybe I was funny enough to entertain an audience.
A few months later I saw a poster advertising the Triple J Raw Comedy Competition, and I immediately entered. I hadn’t written a scrap of material, I had no idea what I would even talk about, but I knew once I had a deadline I would have to come up with something. The first gig I did, I didn’t even know how to plug in my guitar!! I felt like such an idiot, but it actually went really well, I ended up going through to the State Finals and have been performing regularly since. I remember after that first ever gig, the sound guy coming up to me and saying ‘Jenny, I have to tell you, when you didn’t even know how to plug the lead in the guitar, I was thinking ‘oh my God’, but seriously…that was fantastic.’ That made my night.
I think the more potent question might be…what keeps me in comedy?
3. What is your biggest fear? Hmmm….aside from Celine Dion recording a duet with Mariah Carey which I am then forced to listen to while eating sprouts?
Losing the people I love. Those of you who’ve been with my blog for a while (oooh, how I love you) will know that my own mother died when I was five, and subsequently I am rather paranoid about losing the people that I love. I’m not scared of death in itself, just the pain of being separated. But that said, I also find this awareness of death incredibly motivating to get the most out of life, plus it makes me treat people a bit nicer. So you know, it’s not all bad.
I’m also really scared of Hannibal Lecter and snakes. Or Hannibal Lecter wearing snakes. That’d suck.
4. What is your most embarrassing moment? Childbirth…okay, that’s a cop-out – it’s just so incredibly obvious (though true) that it’s immediately rendered unacceptable.
Probably dyeing my hair black at uni – not that it looked bad, it actually looked cool, but then as soon as my grandma (who I call mum, for future blogging reference) decided she liked it, I immediately re-rebelled and tried to dye it back to blonde. Which you can’t do. Unless you like multi-coloured hair that clumps and falls out. In the nine months that followed, I started two things: hat-wearing and an internet relationship. Nuff said.
*hanging head in shame*