Daniel Nicholls chats to Courteney Hocking about her new show Courteney Hocking is Miss Right.
You are fairly well known in the Melbourne comedy scene for both your previous solo show and your work with other comedians, but assuming there are people coming to the Comedy Festival who haven’t heard of you, how would you introduce yourself?
I’m a 26 year old comedian who writes for Good News Week, has been on Fox Fm at 7am on Sunday mornings when you were in bed, guest-hosted a radio show with Daniel Kitson and is a member of the Anarchist Guild Social Committee. Hopefully you will have heard of one or some of these things before and can draw inferences about my funnyability from them.
Tell me a little bit about your new show, “Miss Right”.
Having been a left wing political comedian since I started out, I’ve discovered that there’s no money in it so I’m switching teams. I know Kevin Rudd has been given an approval rating of 74% but that’s like saying you approve of eating dust 74% more than you approve of eating glass. It doesn’t mean he’s the Princess of Wales. Anyway, this is a show for anyone interested in political satire and especially those 26% of people brave enough to eat glass.
In your last solo show, “Mixing Pop and Politics”, you asked: ‘What does my generation stand for? What does it mean for someone who has lived their whole life under a Howard government to finally reach the light at the end of the tunnel?’ Is “Miss Right” a reaction to that question? Did you ever come to a conclusion?
I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to be a whiny little left wing bitch anymore. And it seems the light at the end of the tunnel turned out to be economically unsustainable so they had to turn it off. I’m pretty unimpressed with life post-Howard. I don’t miss him, but I don’t much like the new guy they got to play him, either.
How do you feel about the current state of Australian political satire?
I think Mathew Kenneally is a wonderful, inspiring young comedian who is really unique and clever. Other than that, I don’t really see very much, which is a great shame and I would love to see more of it on television and in the media but I think it’s tricky because politics isn’t popular mass media content and I think we have a massive reliance on the US to give us what we should be generating at home (i.e. the Daily Show, the Colbert Report).
In your last show you came off as incredibly nice. Have you been honing your acerbity in preparation for this show?
Not really. It was actually more work coming across as nice because I’m naturally pretty dark and acerbic. So it’s a relief to break out of that persona. I feel like I’m coming home, really.
You are also participating in the “Anarchist Guild Social Committee”, tell me a bit about that show.
Well, we’re doing a charity show on the first Saturday of the festival which is all new sketches, international guests and music. And every Sunday we’re doing a best of show featuring all the best sketches we’ve done over the past nine months at the Bella Union. Being used to doing solo stand up shows, it’s so much fun to work with people who are both funny and talented and just fun to be around. And I think that joy really translates into our shows, too.
Do you feel that participating as part of an ensemble has changed your onstage style at all?
Absolutely. It’s made me a lot braver and a lot more aware of the performance aspect of making material work rather than just writing jokes. It seems obvious in retrospect but I’m a bit of a slow learner.
I recently interviewed Lawrence Leung and Andrew McClelland and asked them if they would reunite with you to do another episode of your podcast, “Nonstopical”. They seemed keen- are you?
I don’t know. I’m like Michael Cera with the Arrested Development movie – I want to see the script before I commit to anything.
What shows are you most looking forward to seeing at MICF?
Hannah Gadsby’s tour of the NGV sounds like a blast & I really enjoyed seeing Dave Quirk at last years’ Melbourne Fringe so I’m hoping to see him again. I’ll also be seeing my own show nineteen times, which should be an absolute treat.
For more info on Courteney’s show and for booking details go to Courteney Hocking is Miss Right