Okay everyone – the pandemic is over now (kind of). Stand-up comedian Carolyn Swindell reckons it's about time we start to get back into it and put an end to all the 'Casual Bullsh.t’.
This show was met by sold-out crowds at Sydney Fringe Comedy Festival, and now Carolyn is bringing it to her OG hometown for one night only.
It's a plea for a return to a slightly higher standard of attire post-COVID, and this will be the first time the show has been performed outside of her new home, Sydney. Carolyn will be joined, in this show, by Sydney musical comedian Sarah Gaul, the break-out star of Aussie feature film 'Hot Mess'.
Here, in the spirit of returning to Queensland, Carolyn reminisces about Brisbane ahead of her show at The Sit Down Comedy Club.
“I left Brisbane in late 1993 at the age of 24. Much of who I am has been shaped by the ten years before that. No movie soundtrack has ever come close to the quality of the 'Footloose' soundtrack in 1983 and yes, this is a hill I’m prepared to die on.
But sadly, some things change. And coming back to Brisbane, there are a few things I don’t exactly lament the passing of, but certainly notice in their absence.
Yes, it would be easy to list the obvious things – dancing on the sprung floor at Cloudland before Joh’s mates the Deen Brothers worked their 4am demolition magic on it in 1982; drinking in the middle of the afternoons with the old men at the underground bar at Lennons Hotel because they didn’t check ID there; smorgasbording yourself sick at Queen Street’s fancy-arse New York New York; riding an actual rollercoaster in the Myer Centre (did anyone do that though?); driving around in un-air-conditioned cars with vinyl seats so hot they would burn your bum; corruption, fascism, police brutality.
Yes, anyone can be nostalgic about that Brisbane.
But my top five things you could experience in Brisbane when I lived there that seem unlikely to be repeatable now?”
One
You could do the Chicken Dance with thousands of people at what is now the Southbank Beach and it would not only be deemed acceptable, it may even have been the teensiest bit cool.Two
You could go to Ballymore and watch the Wallabies win back the Bledisloe Cup (just 1992 for this one I’m afraid – sigh).Three
You could buy a gun in Red Hill at what now seems to have become a Pilates studio. I never did, but it was good to know where I could pick one up after rollerskating if I wanted to.Four
Before the Big Day Out was even thought of by those dickheads down south, you could go to Livid and watch The Go-Betweens sing about the Spring Hill Fair which you also used to be able to go to and it was awesome.Five
If Powderfinger were still playing Neil Young covers for a bottle of rum at your friend Trish’s 21st in 1989, you could helpfully suggest they give up this music nonsense and get real jobs like the rest of us (NB: for maximum impact, you need to be working at a Chinese restaurant while you finish Uni for this one, just before you graduate into the recession we had to have).“Brisbane, you’ve grown. You’ve evolved in the years since I left, much more than my taste in music has, and some of these forgotten things – not all – I really miss.
But like that goody-two-shoes Dorothy, I agree, there’s no place like home. . .
Who loves ya baby?
Carolyn x”
Carolyn Swindell plays The Sit Down Comedy Club (Brisbane) on 16 March. Her book 'We Only Want What's Best' is released 28 March.
