By Ashleigh Fielding | posted on January 31, 2020
FORMER Albany resident Rose Bishop has well and truly made the big time in comedy, performing in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for the past two years and now, she’s bringing the show back home.
The Breast of the Fest is a female-only line-up of comedians coming to the Albany Entertainment Centre on February 8.
Bishop and a group of friends put the show together in 2018 “just for an excuse” to do a show in the Comedy Festival and have since roped in names like Celia Pacquola and Claire Hooper to headline.
Bishop said she stumbled into comedy as a career purely by chance while living in Melbourne.
“I made a new friend at a party and she’d just started doing stand-up, so I started tagging along to her gigs for moral support and just out of curiosity and realised that there are heaps of places in Melbourne to just try it out and sometimes be bad at it,” she said.
“I’ve always had pretty bad stage fright, but I also love a challenge, so I just gave it a bash and started doing open mic spots.
“I was 31 the first time I got on stage, which is pretty late compared to most comedians, but I’m glad I didn’t start when I was younger because I’m much more resilient these days.
“Performing can be pretty brutal at times.”
Despite still dealing with the odd spat of stage fright, Bishop said she abso- lutely loves what she does.
“I’ve always been a writer in some form or other, and I’ve always been impatient, and the thing I really love about stand-up is that you can have a vague idea on the tram in the morning, write it into dot points on your lunch break, then get up at an open mic night after work and riff around the idea and expand on the bits people are laughing at and boom – you’ve written a joke,” she said.
“It’s so immediate.
“The comedy scene is just so fun.
“I mean, it’s an excuse to hang around in bars with your mates on weeknights, laughing heaps.
“What’s not to love?”
While she’s home, Bishop will make some much-needed visits to favourite people and places.
“My most important stop in Albany is always and forever Gull Rock beach,” she said.
“We’ve been going there as a family since I was tiny, and it’s probably my favourite place on earth.
“I’m also always stoked to catch up with my friend Shannon who I went to ASHS with and who’s moved back to Albany now and is always down for a wine and a good long chat; love you, Shanners.”
Bishop encouraged fellow Albanians to come along to the February 8 show and give the February 7 open mic night at Six Degrees a chance.
“We’d love to see heaps of friendly faces at our show,” she said.
“We’re used to performing in dingy Melbourne pubs so it’s all very exciting and fancy and we’re going to try very hard not to disgrace ourselves.”
Tickets to The Breast of the Fest are on sale now via albanyentertainment.com.au and people keen on the Six Degrees open mic night can register on the event’s Facebook page.
