For some, the trouble with dreams is they don’t come true.
But for comedian Brodi Snook, it’s best that they don’t.
“There was one I used to have that is apparently quite common where I was looking at a hand mirror and looking at my reflection and all my teeth were falling out,” Brodi says. “It’s apparently an insecurity one. I also used to have one when I was a kid about being inside of a washing machine and going around and around and around. It was in a laundrette, and all these people were just lining up at the glass window out front and just watching me and not helping me. I wonder what childhood trauma that was.”
Dreams have been on Brodi’s mind quite a bit lately. In particular, it’s what she calls her ‘murder dreams’ that have bothered her so much to the point she has created a new show about them called ‘Villain’, which she will be bringing to comedy festivals all around Australia.
Brodi is used to trauma, having overcome the trauma that is performing comedy after entering RAW Comedy in 2014.
“I was living in the UK at the time and had just popped home for summer and heard the call outs on the radio and went, ‘Oh, I’ll be home for six weeks; that seems like a cool bucket list thing to do. I’ll try that’. And I had to keep delaying my flight back to London because I kept getting through to the next round. My fourth gig was at His Majesty’s Theatre in Perth to 1,200 people. It was an interesting start!”
Upon returning to the UK, Brodi threw herself into what she calls the “fairly cold and brutal” London open mic circuit. “If you can deal with all the deaths and get up the next day and do it all over again, then you’re on the right track,” she says. Pushing through, she has gained acclaim for her droll delivery, including being crowned Chortle’s Best Newcomer of 2020.
Also in 2020, when the world was stopped by the COVID pandemic, Brodi was trapped in Western Australia while her fiancé was still in London, forcing the couple into a long-distance relationship. During that time, her stress manifested in the form of murder dreams, which have become the basis of her latest solo show, ‘Villain’.
“It’s the story of how I started having dreams every night in which I would kill someone. Very light, comedy stuff,” she laughs. "It’s not just murder dreams, let’s just put it that way. But the selling-point is probably that I’m a serial killer in my subconscious.”
Initially horrified by her dreams, Brodi has found comedy within her murder dreams, despite her horror at her subconscious’ actions.
“I talked about my murder dreams in therapy to make sure I wasn’t about to commit a real atrocity. She was like, ‘considering what you’ve got going on in your life, they’re pretty standard’. But they’re really, really, really violent. She didn’t bat an eyelid. I don’t know if that says more about my therapist or me.” With comedy festival season approaching, and the stresses that come with it, Brodi has found her murder dreams returning. However, she promises that audiences will come away with laughs instead of trauma.
“Hopefully, I don’t come across as too much of a psychopath,” she laughs.
Brodi Snook plays Astor Theatre (Perth Comedy Festival) 3-6 May, Factory Theatre (Sydney Comedy Festival) 10-14 May and Brisbane Powerhouse (Brisbane Comedy Festival) 18-21 May.
