Lawrence Mooney to tour Sydney with Embracing Your Limitations stand-up comedy show

Lawrence Mooney’s new tour lampoons society’s obsession with self-help and wellness, which is ironically what he sought after suing his former employer. Here’s what the show has in store.

Lawrence Mooney gets ready to tour the country.

Society’s obsession with self-help and wellness takes centre stage in Lawrence Mooney’s stand-up comedy tour – where the audience will be liberated from the deluge of info flooding social media and asked to embrace their inner loser.

His Embracing Your Limitations Live 20-show tour mocks the self-help and wellness industry, which the former Triple M radio broadcaster admits he turned to after he reached a settlement, believed to be $1m, from his former employer last year.

The “Moonman” says he turned to Buddhist philosophy of replacing a negative thought with a positive one.

“I really did after that enter a period of just getting into the cells and asking a few questions to actively let go,’’ he says.

“It’s kind of accepting the world you’re in.’’

Lawrence Mooney subscribes to the self-help industry but also mocks it in his most recent stage show.

The former breakfast host successfully sued Southern Cross Austereo, the owner of Triple M, after he was sacked 13 months before his contract ended.

His show starts at Wenty Leagues on Saturday October 7 and is “pretty politically free’’.

“It’s pretty much tapping into the rich vein of self-help and wellness which is taking over the world,’’ he says.

Mooney, 58, admits his search for a silver bullet comes from a lack of discipline and has devoured self-help literature since Tony Robbins emerged in the 1990s.

“I will pick up something, read it, become a devotee, give it a lot of lip service, make some radical changes and huge resolutions, and a month later I’m on the couch with a kebab,’’ he confessed.

“If anyone says they’ve got the answer … they are just charlatans, they’re just like any other guru. They’re going to take money and you’re going to fall through the gaps.

“So this obsession with self and improvement, and finding out what your issues are and all that, this show will set you free from that.

“Put your activated almonds down.’’

His late mother Olive, who died last year aged 89, gets a nod in Embracing Your Limitations.

“My mum gave me my very dark sense of humour,’’ he says.

“My dad loved to laugh but my mum loved to make people laugh.’’

His much-loved impersonation of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull “inevitably creeps in here and there” during the show but fans can expect to welcome him back online soon ahead of the Voice referendum.

Mooney channels Malcolm Turnbull, one of his best-loved impersonations. Picture: Tony Gough

“Malcolm’s not going to virtue signal and tell people how to think or how to vote,’’ he says in his plum-in-the-mouth Turnbull voice.

“He’s going to speak to Australians as he always has – down to them and above their heads – and of course he’s going to address the fact that Anthony Albanese can’t be understood because he aspirates everyone of his S’s.’’

Melbourne-born and raised, Mooney now lives in the NSW Southern Highlands “the bush eastern suburbs” after stints in Sydney and he is keen to hit the road on tour again.

“What happens to you when you move away from the city, and the place that you’re from, is your reclusive gene really kicks in,’’ he says.

“I’m becoming more and more reclusive, which suits me fine. And when I do interact with other people it’s lovely, rather than run-of-the-mill every day.

“So when I get on the road and perform in front of the audience, it’s really something that’s quite exciting.’’

Embracing Your Limitations is even better with regular crowds back after Covid.

“We learned that during Covid when for a long time we took audiences for granted and then all of a sudden they weren’t there and you start to realise how privileged you are to assemble an audience in a place and perform in front of them,’’ he says.

Mooney’s Australia-wide tour runs from October 7 to December 2. Tickets cost $42-49.

Originally published as Lawrence Mooney to tour Sydney with Embracing Your Limitations stand-up comedy show