Sydney Comedy Festival Roadshow
Byron Theatre, Community Centre | Saturday | 5pm and 8pm | $36
The Sydney Comedy Festival Roadshow rolls into town this this Saturday with five knockout standups. Under the spotlight are Jay Leno regular Dwane Perkins from the USA, Dusty Rich from South Africa, l Del Bene from the US, Rebecca De Unamuno, and Canberra’s funniest woman, Chris Ryan. We got to know a little more about Chris and yes, she really is freaking funny!
If I had one magic power it would be… to shut people up with my face alone. It’s too hard to use words to shut people up and they even get cross when you try to find nice words like: ‘My ears are bleeding now, please stop talking’.
When I am driving, I have an urge to… look uncharacteristically tough and serious while intensely singing R&B and rap music that I have no place identifying with, hoping people look over at the lights and think, ‘Wow, she seems really complicated and mysterious and cool’.
When I was a kid, I thought babies were made by… Mums and dads somehow, but I was not big on detail. My mum never gave me ‘the talk’; she outsourced it to Mrs Patterson from across the street who told me, ‘Sex is like a jigsaw puzzle: it’s when two people come together like the two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle’, and I remember thinking ‘two pieces?! What kind of jigsaws are you doing?’ It didn’t set me up well for uni.
My mother always told me… to stop swearing and pulling faces but I never took that on board. Advice has never really been Mum’s thing; she readily admits that she didn’t know what she was doing as a mum. She’s always been more of an action-not-words person, so through her I learned what a helpful gesture it is to bring a homemade meal to someone who is sick, how a bunch of fresh flowers can lift the spirits, and a foot massage means the world.
In the kitchen I like to… daggy dance with my teenage daughter – we have to keep straight faces while cutting extremely dumb shapes and it’s the best fun. Everything is funnier when you’re not allowed to laugh, like in Year 7 English. I also love cooking Indian food; I grew up there so it’s my favourite food in the world.
My favourite Sunday would be… Cook something extra like an omelet with tomatoes, chili, and coriander served with crunchy Italian bread and drink enough coffees for 12 people, slowly, over several hours, while reading something followed by a walk maybe a visit to the markets and a home-cooked dinner. The focus will always be good food and everything else is secondary.
When I am on stage, I like to… get a big reaction and some good chat with the crowd. Some of my favourite times on stage are those moments you can’t see coming when someone’s answering a question you put out there and it takes everyone by surprise and is just gold. I like to be in control as much as I like getting a bit out of control.
Catch Chris Ryan on stage with the Sydney Comedy Festival at the Byron Theatre on Saturday – two shows, 5pm and 8pm.
Tix are $36 at byroncentre.com.au
