A woman of the world, comedian Brodi Snook has used her experiences living and working in the UK and Australia toward her new shows.
Following the success of her Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2019, Brodi took to the stage at London’s prestigious Soho Theatre last June. “It felt like such a huge career bucket list thing,” Brodi gushes. Though she returned home to WA last year and almost immediately hit up the festival circuit, Brodi’s experiences of performing to both British and Australian audiences have given her some interesting insights into differences of character; the only common factor is, of course, Brodi. “I think as with anything, it depends on where you are in each country,” she says. “I’m a regional gal from scratch, so I always love playing regional shows in Australia because everyone’s always thrilled you’ve brought something to their town. That’s always a fun one.”
“But then you find that some of your material might not go down as well as it does in more metropolitan areas. The jokes I could be doing in Sydney or Melbourne are things I might leave out of the set in a more regional area. Sometimes you do that pre-emptively, but sometimes it’s also good to see what flies.
“In the UK, I was lucky enough to tour the whole country. Personally, I think the northern audiences, Edinburgh and the north of England, the northern hospitality is some of the best I’ve experienced in the world.”
Brodi thinks that London, being such a cultural capital, has a high standard and are spoilt for choice. “They know what they like,” she says. “They can be a bit hard to impress but once you start to get that work in London and you’re invited back to clubs, you think ‘I must be doing something right’.”
With her show at the Adelaide Fringe, Brodi will be testing the waters of new material, interested to see how it will play out on stage. “I’m doing a work in progress for Perth and Adelaide Fringe, then the tour for it officially starts at Melbourne International Comedy Festival,” Brodi explains. “It’s pretty common for comedians to use the early festivals on the circuit to basically trial what is going to be their tour show.
“It’s funny, there’s a bit of an in-joke about the crowds at Perth and Adelaide, when they’re buying a ticket to something and the comedian’s got a clipboard and notes on stage.
“It’s very important to be open about the fact that it is a work in progress and that it’s effectively a trial show, there’s still things in the edit and you might be trialling things for the first time. It can be a fun, chaotic, seat of your pants kind of night!”
Admittedly a well-organised and forward-thinking style of comedian, Brodi attests to her new show running with the majority of the structure it will have on its full tour. “It’s mainly tweaks and things like that. Adelaide will be less work in progress than it will in Perth!”
Brodi Snook plays Alley Cat at Rhino Room (Adelaide Fringe) 14-18 March.
