An interview with Lou Pardi
Lou Pardi describes her debut Comedy Festival show Fran and Roxanne are Best Friends as a celebration of the significance of the bond between best friends. “It kinda came from the idea that …best friends are the really important relationship,” says Lou, “perhaps more important even than romantic relationships now, and there is just so little written about that.”
Lou has joined forces with Jackie Claff, for this show. “We met in Impro but we have completely different skill sets,” says Lou. “Jackie, her background is musical theatre, which actually comes out in the show, she sings a couple of numbers and she just has this insanely good voice… she’s also an actress…I am a stand up and a writer…the writing is my strength and the performing is Jackie’s strength…it’s a nice compliment in that way.”
Drawing on the diversity of their backgrounds, Lou says that “Fran and Roxanne are Best Friends” incorporates a variety of elements in it’s final makeup. “It’s a play, so it’s kind of theatre but there are quite a few monologues where someone who turned up to see standup will feel comfortable seeing that…there’s us interacting as best friends and there’s quite a few asides where I’m talking and she’s singing, so it’s a bit of everything, but it probably is …more theatre than it is stand up.”
This is Lou’s first Melbourne Comedy Festival outing. “I’m learning lots of things, very, very quickly,” she says, describing coming from a stand up background and “deciding to do a play, deciding to write, not only a script but lyrics…and deciding to act…I don’t strictly have those skills, but we have an amazing director, and we have a great script now.” Lou and Jackie have been working hard with their director Ged Cogley on the show and Lou says the experience has been “fantastic, Ged’s done quite a few Festivals and he’s done stand up for a long time, he’s written a feature length film, he’s done a million things and he’s just a great writer as well…Jackie and I both have so much respect for Ged and he has fantastic ideas and explains things so, so easily.”
The collaborative process has been a challenging one for Lou, but also full of rewards. “It’s a challenge, collaborating, especially for me as a stand up writer collaborating in writing,” she says, but adds that she is also enjoying ‘the wins’ which come out of the process. “The things people see on paper…obvious jokes that you hadn’t seen and highlighting those things or going ‘yeah, take that a bit further’...it’s so rewarding I would never do it another way.”
Go to Fran and Roxanne are Best Friends for booking details