Funny girl
Lucy O’Brien talks to the UK comedian Rosie Wilby about her work and her girlfriend’s ex- girlfriends.
Lucy O’Brien talks to the UK comedian Rosie Wilby about her work and her girlfriend’s ex- girlfriends.
“It’s such a typical lesbian thing, staying with your girlfriend’s ex-girlfriend. I think I’ll put that in my show!” laughs Rosie Wilby, the London-based comedian who’s headlining the women’s comedy night at this year’s Mardi Gras. Her partner, Liz, backpacked around Australia nine years ago and met someone when she first arrived in Sydney. Though the relationship finished, they stayed in touch, and now Rosie and Liz will be staying with the ex-girlfriend.
“I like to talk about the interesting and quirky things lesbians do,” Rosie says. “Gay nights are great, they can be riotous and a lot of fun.”
She’s looking forward to doing her show in Oz: “The last international gig I did was in Lesbos at the Sappho Garden. There were local Greeks, German tourists and the core of the audience were the group from Hebden Bridge (a lesbian mecca in Yorkshire). The English contingent had to keep translating for the Germans.”
A former singer/songwriter, 38 year-old Rosie has a gift for seeing the positive side of life, even when things get tough. “In 1999 my mum died, and a year later my house burned down and I broke up with my girlfriend. That made me seize the moment. I put an album out, Precious Hours – which had some really nice reviews in Australia, actually – and played great gigs. Then an unexpected route presented itself.”
Rosie used to banter between numbers, and before long her little chats became as popular as the songs. “There was something about my awkwardness that would make people laugh.”
In 2004 she decided to try her hand at stand-up, and within a year she was a finalist in the Comedy Store’s Funny Women festival, and Funny Bones 2006. Now she is a key figure on the UK comedy circuit. Unlike more confrontational comediennes such as Katie Brand and Josie Long, Rosie has a warm, wry style – leading one critic to describe her as “an amiable, Kylie-sized pocket Venus who packs a punch”. Her show I Am Nesia, in which she plays a deranged scientist with a memory problem, was one of the highlights at the Edinburgh Festival last year.
Rosie feels she inherited the comic talent from her mother Geraldine. “She used to make people laugh, being deliberately inept and eccentric,” Rosie says fondly. “There’s a bit of her in my act. And there’s my naughty schoolgirl, who’s cheeky and sometimes says something rude.” At school Rosie was a self-confessed swot. “My parents taught at the local college: mum taught English and Dad did Maths, so I had a lot of homework covered.” She grew up in Lancashire, and by her early teens had become “quirky and crazy”, using humour as a way of coping with the fact that she was different.
“I knew I was gay. It was the 1980s, and in those provincial towns it was still very unspoken. In R.E. lessons my friends would say gay people were going to hell.” Fortunately Rosie’s parents were very understanding when she came out. “My mum got almost too excited, mentioning something she’d got up to with her friend Joan on holiday. It was very embarrassing!”
But it’s embarrassing moments that Rosie likes to celebrate. Check out her Sydney debut at the ‘Girl, Corrupted’ night in the Supper Club on March 5.
Lucy O’Brien is the author of Madonna: Like An Icon (Corgi)