Scottish comedian Fern Brady on George Pell, Jordan Peterson and online creeps

He has been convicted of child sex offences in a high-profile case that has made global headlines, but – as comedian Fern Brady found out – telling jokes about George Pell is risky business.

How heartening it is when an in-your-face, toe-stomping, take-no-prisoners radical feminist comic tackles edgy material head on.

But sometimes things don’t quite work out.

For two nights at in Adelaide, Scottish stand-up firebrand Fern Brady tried out some touchy material about George Pell, the Australian cardinal and former Vatican high flyer recently convicted for child sexual abuse.

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The first gig got laughs, “but there was always tension,” recalls Brady. “Then, the next night it was just … nothing.”

Best known for her affably aggressive approach to issues such as homophobia, gender identity, the patriarchy, Brexit, stripping, sex and sexuality, Brady is still in two minds about how much Pell to include in her Melbourne set.

“Aussies hate it if you criticise the Catholic Church,” she says, admitting she’d been warned by a local comic.

“Honestly, people are so defensive about it here. It was just interesting how on edge people got.

“When I perform in Ireland or in Scotland it’s just so well accepted that priests are dodgy. That is the most surprising thing about comedy. I had no idea how much people loved Jesus.”

Fern Brady will bring her edgy brand of comedy back to the 2019 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Picture: Supplied

Brady swears she’s not self-censoring for fear of the feedback she might get.

“It’s not about political correctness, it’s more about whether I can come up with a bit (that’s funny),” she says.

Her concern is how well a Pell bit will travel in her new show, Power and Chaos.

“I’m going to do this show in the UK for the rest of the year,” she explains.

“So it’s whether there’s any point in me writing stuff about George Pell.”

FERN BRADY ON JORDAN PETERSON

That’s one example of Fern Brady suffering for her art.

Another involves her attending a talk by controversial speaker Jordan Peterson, who has just toured Australia promoting his book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.

She saw Peterson with a mate on some free tickets, hoping to get material.

“We had to leave halfway through, not for any exciting reason, just because he was so boring,” Brady says.

“He’s a middle-aged academic that’s just got lucky.

“He was just going on and on about lobsters and you could tell all the men in their camouflage pants and mullets in the audience were (thinking) ‘get to the bit about how all women are bitches’.

“The most disturbing thing was that all the men in the audience looked like the men that come to my shows!

“So I think I’m actually saving a lot of men’s rights activists from going on to murder women.”

FERN BRADY ON ONLINE CREEPS

One of the nastier occupational hazards Brady faces each day is having to deal with “instapervs”, men who proposition her online.

“For some reason men think I’m doing comedy to pick up d---, which is probably the last way I would go about it,” she says.

“It is pervy. Any woman in comedy gets that kind of thing all the time. I’ve got a really low tolerance for it.

“I just treat them with contempt by asking them really stupid questions like how much they can deadlift.

“A lot of my male peers get hot women cracking on to them, but all the guys asking me out are absolute sea monsters. They’re all mental and ugly and they always seem to be into wrestling.”

Though Brady’s routine is broadly framed by her feminist beliefs, her formative gigs on the weekend club circuit taught her that any idea she wants to sell to an audience must primarily be funny.

“It’s exciting when you manage to articulate something that people haven’t seen before that they recognise in themselves,” she says.

“That’s my favourite thing. I don’t necessarily want to try and make people take my point of view, I just want people to think that they’re not isolated in their experience and to laugh about it.”

OUR REVIEW OF FERN BRADY, POWER AND CHAOS

Rating: ★★★★

Reviewer: Patrick Horan

The house was almost full but the front row was empty. Strange.

Fern Brady may be a no-nonsense Scot with a history of mental illness but there is very little to fear from this charming performer and her unique, mildly off-kilter style.

Probably not one to bring the grandparents too — unless they particularly enjoy material about porn, oral sex and bisexuality — but Brady is no shock comic, all topics earning their keep via well-constructed bits and memorable descriptors.

Proceedings flagged a wee bit before the finish with what appeared to be some road testing of new material but a thoroughly enjoyable hour that deserves to fill every seat.

Fern Brady, Power and Chaos, until April 21, ACMI.