Fiona O’Loughlin moves on from personal demons in new comedy show
Comedian Fiona O’Loughlin is done with making her alcoholism and personal traumas the target of her own jokes — so where does she go from here? READ OUR REVIEW.
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The deepest fear any comedian has is when they start boring themselves.
In her new show, Fiona O’Loughlin Addresses the Nation, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival veteran admits how she had been doing gags about her battles with alcoholism and personal trauma for so long she was on the verge of heckling herself.
So, time to move on.
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“This is the first show in a long time where I’m not particularly focusing on my own screw ups,” she says, sitting in a cluttered stairwell above the Athenaeum 2 immediately after pleasing a packed house.
“The gun’s been at my own head for a very long time in my shows and I though, ‘hang on! I’m 55! I’ve cleaned myself up. I get to talk, don’t I?’ “
Having harped on those routines for 10 years, she says proudly: “It’s a beautiful thing to get older. I’m a people observer and what I love about this show is that I’ve widened the lens.”
Targeting the foibles of her Baby Boomer generation, O’Loughlin offers a critical take on those who came before and an appreciative look at those who came after.
Yes, you read that correctly. Unlike many Boomers, O’Loughlin steadfastly refuses to jump on the youth-bashing bandwagon.
“The younger generation get a terrible rap,” she says. “If I was part of the younger generation I’d be a bit pissed off. If my mother said, ‘clean your room’, I’d say, ‘well, you screwed up the bloody atmosphere and the ocean. How about you clean up your room and bring me a club sandwich!’”
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She lets out a loud laugh, one of her on-stage signatures.
“The absolute point of contention that Gen Y have against the Baby Boomers is that we cleaned up! Financially. We bought houses for 30 grand that are now worth nearly a million.”
Although...”I didn’t do that personally, so I don’t feel very guilty. I never bought a thing. Still don’t own a car.
“What I see in the young at the moment is astounding. I’m one of these eternal optimists. I just think we can all have a nap now, the young people are going to take over, they’re going to be fine.”
A fan of Joan Rivers, Bette Midler and Billy Connolly, whose storytelling techniques she deeply admires, O’Loughlin is eager to further sharpen her generational focus.
“Now that I’m a grandmother I’m interested in hanging out and finding more anecdotes from the young. Just pay attention. I reckon I’ll have plenty more to talk about.”
She’s exhausted as we speak, yet it’s clear just how juiced O’Loughlin is.
“The thing with stand up is that you never stop learning, you never stop evolving. I’m so excited now to be an old stand up because I’m a young, old stand up!
“The beauty of this game is that you can get as old and as fat as you want. As long as you’re funny, they’ll still come.”
As a Catholic, O’Loughlin does not rate herself very highly, though recent events have shaken her to her spiritual core.
“I prefer to believe in a Creator,” she says. “So much has changed for me in the last couple of weeks since Christchurch.
“When I saw that Muslim father and he had to tell his daughter that his wife was dead and he said to her, ‘I will now be your mother’.
“Then they asked him, ‘what would you do if you could meet the guy that killed everybody?’ And he said, ‘I would hug him, we’re all the same’.
“At that moment I thought, ‘I’m not going to be part of this era where we believe our God’s bigger than your God. It’s nonsense and it’s got to stop.”
She pauses.
“I’d hand over my faith to his in a heartbeat because he said everything.”
REVIEW: FIONA O’LOUGHLIN, ADDRESSES THE NATION
Rating: ★★★½
Reviewer: Jim Schembri
There was a fear, not too long ago, that Fiona O’Loughlin’s unrelenting self-flagellation about her demons was going to push her from being a comedian with a drinking problem to an alcoholic who tells jokes.
Thankfully, her sparkling new show signals a renewal of purpose and outlook.
Decoupling from that baggage (mostly, anyway), optimism now reigns as she contrasts the habits and achievements of the Baby Boomer generation with those on either side.
There’s no room for rainbows or unicorns, of course - she’s seen way too much for that - yet you can feel the upgraded intimacy O’Loughlin now shares with her fellow Boomers as she notes the strides they’ve made regarding issues such as race and tolerance.
Supremely relaxed, she lands her one-liners with seasoned precision, even when veering into off-topic anecdotes that could easily give way to more musings about the shrinking generation gap and the growing overlap.
Fiona O’Loughlin Addresses the Nation, until April 7, Athenaeum Theatre.