source : the age
If the adage that “you’re never too old to try something new” applies to anyone on this year’s Brisbane Comedy Festival line-up, it’s definitely Janty Blair.
Blair, a proud Butchulla, Mununjali and Woppaburra woman, spent more than three decades working as a nurse and midwife. Supporting birthing mothers was her area of expertise.
Janty Blair will perform her first solo stand-up show at 60 years of age. Credit: Brisbane Comedy Festival
But a series of events in her mid-50s changed her course towards comedy. Or as she puts it: “comedy found me”.
“I had just gotten back into [nursing and midwifery] and I had moved up to Hervey Bay,” she explains. “Then my sister cousin who I was very close to passed away.
“And I said to myself, ‘what would I do if I couldn’t fail?’”
A few months after COVID ended, Blair helped her sister produce a comedy show in Townsville. It was a huge success.
By the time she found herself on a Bumble date in Byron Bay at a comedy afternoon, her destiny was all but writing itself.
“There were all these non-Indigenous women performing, and I thought, ‘no one looks like me’,” Blair says.
“I jokingly said to my date, ‘I think I could do comedy’ … two nights later I was doing my first open mic.”
Her leap of faith paid off.
Brisbane Comedy Festival returns in 2025 from April 23 to May 25. Credit: Brisbane Comedy Festival
In 2022, Blair won the National Deadly Funny award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Soon after she was asked to join an ensemble to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and in London.
Now, at 60 years of age, Blair is about to perform her first solo show at Brisbane Comedy Festival, leveraging a rich tapestry of life experiences, from love, sex and drugs, to osteo appointments and body aches.
“I think I’m a good storyteller. I’ve got a good stage presence,” she says.
“I’ve seen people [while nursing] at their most vulnerable, when they’re scared, tired, hungry or birthing a baby … so I have a good connection with people and know how to bring my story to life.”
Storytelling powerhouse Maeve Marsden is also bringing tales to the stage at this year’s festival with the return of her hugely successful project Queerstories.
Marsden created Queerstories 10 years ago while working in the creative arts with her then business partner, now program director of Brisbane Comedy Festival, Phoebe Meredith.
The premise was simple but powerful: invite local LGBTIQ+ storytellers and comedians to write a story and tell it on stage.
Over the last decade, the project has toured around Australia, has been turned into a book and podcast, and has shared more than 400 queer stories.
Queerstories has been performed at the Brisbane Powerhouse since 2018. This year’s show will feature six new stories from local writers and comedians. Credit: Brisbane Comedy Festival
“People really are just loving this personal storytelling with a mix of humour and heartbreak, and politics and ideas,” Marsden says.
“I always say to [performers] don’t tell your coming-out story, tell something unexpected.”
As for who the show is for, Marsden stresses it’s not just the queer community who will connect with these stories.
“The beauty of a line-up with five different stories plus a host is that there’s going to be a real variety of points of connection … they’re solid stories, and some that have nothing to do with queerness at all.
“People have said to me, it’s the kind of show you can come to alone, and you’ll make a friend with the people next to you.”
Brisbane Comedy Festival runs from April 23 to May 25 with events at Brisbane Powerhouse, The Tivoli, Fortitude Music Hall and The Princess Theatre.
Catch Queerstories Saturday, April 26, and Janty Blair performing her solo show on May 10 and 11, and at the Aboriginal Comedy Allstars on May 8, 9, 10 and 11.
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