MICF: Interview with Daisy Berry

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Performing her stellar show Am I Mental? at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, The Australia Times Theatre caught up with Daisy Berry and asked her about her MICF experience.

 

The Australia Times (TAT): Is this your first time performing at Melbourne International Comedy Festival? If so, is this also the first time you’ve performed this show?

Daisy Berry (DB): It’s not my first time performing in the MICF but it is my first full-length solo show. I’ve done double bills and line-up shows previous years but this is the first time I’ll be going out on my own and producing and performing on my lonesome. Which is terrifying, can I just add! I think I’m dreading flyering by myself the most. Please be nice to me people of Melbourne, it’s draining out there.

I’ve actually just done this show in Adelaide for the fringe festival so it’s not my first time doing the show. I just did two weeks’ worth of shows over there to test out if it’s any good. And thank goodness people actually really liked it.

 

TAT: What inspired you to write this show in particular?

DB: I just realised how much doing stand-up really is therapy for me and, I suspect, most comedians. So I wanted to take that to a whole other level and have the audience openly be my therapists. That way we get to explore how judgemental humans are of each other and also what exactly makes you a little bit crazy. It keeps it fun for me as well because I never know what the audience are going to say or decide. It’s been surprisingly 50/50 so far.

 

TAT: How important is breaking down the stigma of metal health and how can we achieve it?

DB: I think it’s incredibly important, but as for how we achieve that, I’m never going to speak like an expert on that. I’ve just never understood why there is one, so I wanted to act like there isn’t one, if that makes sense? To just talk and joke and laugh about it as if the stigma doesn’t exist. In a twisted way if everyone pretended like that then we wouldn’t be pretending. Or maybe I’m just too big a fan of denial and pretending problems away. It’s a great life habit.  

 

TAT: Apart from your show, what would you recommend in MICF?

DB: I honestly don’t even know where to start. There’s a ridiculous amount of talent every year and it just seems to get more and more intense. The people I’m going to aim to see are Sarah Pascoe, Sam Simmons, Lauren Bok, Kate Denhert, Nicole Henrikson, Megan Mckay, Celia Paquola and Anne Edmonds. A lot of women really, because we’re hilarious and there’s never enough of us.

 

TAT: Favourite place to get a post-show drink?

DB: I’ll probably just end up going to the Hi Fi Bar because that tends to be where all the comedians are. And of course, my venue the Highlander Bar, as I’m literally on top of it.

 

TAT: What are your plans after MICF?

DB: A friend of mine is planning on making a web series which I’m going to help on so that will probably take up a lot of my time and energy. I’m really looking forward to it actually; it’ll be fun to do some collaborative stuff after months of working solo.

Am I Mental? is playing at Highlander from 5th -16th April 2016.