Our community halls are so vital to our community connection and well being. They are where the community gathers to exercise, or have meetings, or plan, or celebrate or mourn a loved one. Bilambil Hall has been on the critical list, and it’s been up to the community to save this old girl. (She was born in 1910!)
That’s where Women Like Us, Mandy Nolan and Ellen Briggs come in. Stand up comedians who love a country hall. They’re donating all the proceeds of their national touring show to fundraise $10k to replace the foundation stumps on the heritage listed Bilambil Literary Society Hall.
In demand on the comedy circuit and adored for their ability to find the humour in everyday experiences, Mandy Nolan and Ellen Briggs believe it’s their regionality that gives them unique strength.
‘We both live in Mullumbimby. We’re 50 something mothers of teenagers and adult kids, we’re wives, and ex wives! We’re small town showgirls. And boy do we have fun on stage!’ says Nolan.
There are few sacred cows that Briggs and Nolan shy away from milking, pushing the bucket of popular opinion under the teats and then the jokes start flowing!
With seven children between them, parenting and their own recurring instances that they call ‘failure to parent’ are certainly the focus of some of their material, but then so is the beauty industry, getting older, getting fatter, strange surgeries, weird TV shows, obsessions, frustrations, and at the end of the day, who unpacks the flipping dishwasher.
Ellen Briggs is a nationally recognised headline comic, a RAW finalist, she’s featured on Hughesie We Have a Problem and is regular on ABC radio. Mandy Nolan is a columnist for the Byron Shire Echo, a writer for Mamamia, and most recently took her Award winning show The Candidate about her tilt to Melbourne Town Hall for the Melbourne Comedy Festival.
Women Like Us is stand up at its best. It’s about housework, chickens, love, feminism, small dogs, big butts, disappointment, resentment, sex when you’re drunk, fit bits, yoga farts and being a menopausal woman dealing with teenage angst. They’re overworked, overweight and over it…
Women Like Us at the Bilambil Hall on Thursday 1 August. It’s BYO food and drinks. Show 7pm. Tix are $40 on: womenlikeus.com.au.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
