SameSame.com.au ~ Inside Out Australia

Rosie Wilby - Girl, Corrupted

Feature, By dreadcircus, 2nd March, 2009

This year’s Mardi Gras festival has some great talents on offer for lovers of comedy – and really, who among us doesn’t love a good laugh? Same Same chats to London comedian Rosie Wilby who is a Girl, Corrupted.

Rosie began her career not as a comedian but as singer / songwriter touring around with her band. After many people commented that her onstage banter between songs was hilarious she decided to give comedy a go and has never looked back.

“The whole reason I tried to be funny between songs is because my songs were quite melancholy,” says Rosie. These days she occasionally ventures back to her roots and performs her music.

Since taking up comedy Rosie’s list of achievements has continued to grow, as each year she’s invited to participate in more festivals. She has made finals at some huge comedy festivals such as The Funny Woman Competition, 2006 Comedy Store and Comedian Of The Year whilst gaining MC spots all over London and the Glastonbury Festival.

On being a lesbian comedian Rosie says, “It’s definitely difficult to break to break into the straight market which is probably a worldwide thing. A lot of mainstream comedy clubs are not only homophobic but are also quite sexist.” Rosie plays predominantly gay venues but doesn’t like to limit herself.

“There are some clubs you go to when you see a woman walk on stage a lot of heterosexual males already have a preset idea that a woman isn’t going to be funny. Then if they announce that they are gay well these people are really going to lose interest. That is unless they are funny!”

She goes on to say, “It’s nice when you win people over as a gay woman being funny and sometimes it’s nice when you win people over and they come up afterward and say I normally don’t find women funny but you were good. It’s like this weird kind of back handed comment.”

I got a real sense talking to Rosie that she is very proud of being both female and a lesbian. She is very honest about herself and does not hide who she is. Which bought us to the topic of hecklers in the audience, “I think hecklers can be quite good fun, often people yell things which are quite unintelligible but if you just repeat it back and let everyone have a laugh at that.

“The worst response is when there is no response and you get nothing back, obviously there are times where audience members won’t shut up and let you get on with it which is annoying but for the most part it makes the show more interesting.”

So, is stand up comedy a great way to pick up women? According to Rosie, her first foray into comedy came from a breakup with a girl and she threatened to take up comedy as a form of revenge. “I kind of thought also if I did get on stage and do comedy and was funny that maybe women would talk to me after the shows. I went through a phase last year where quite a few women approached me after my shows though one or two of them I really wouldn’t want to pursue that much,” she laughs, before adding that she met her current girlfriend this way.

“I’ve been with her for two and a half years now. It was a very random gig with maybe less than ten people in the audience. My girlfriend’s mate was actually heckling me and afterward we got chatting and discovered we both play music and it went from there.”

So, being a comedian, is she always expected to be funny?

“When people ask you what you do and you say that you are a comedian people always expect to hear a joke, but it’s not like that. When I’m out in a social situation I just want to relax and some people don’t realise you are not the joke telling kind of comedian.

“I have one friend Rachael and every time we are together and out and about well we are a bit mad and do some crazy things. Other people just think we are weird not so much funny!”

Sydney comedian Jody Ekert is the one pulling the show together. “We’ve got some surprise last minute additions so we’re now up to eight sassy gals for the price of one ticket. It really is going to be a fab, funny night.”

Rosie Wilby will perform in Girl, Corrupted at the Mardi Gras Festival Bar on March 4, alongside a host of other awesome female comedians including Jody Ekert, Naomi Ekperigin, Linette Voller, Lila Tilman and Yvette Lia. Tickets are $25 on the door, $20+BF online. Click here for yours.