In her home in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, comedian Geraldine Hickey is excitedly sharing a story about a bird she recently spotted.
“Last year I got a pic of an orange-bellied parrot and that’s been a huge highlight,” she says. “That’s a good bird because it’s so rare. It’s slightly bigger than a budgie and there’s less than 50 left in the wild. They only live in parts of South Australia and along the coastline of Victoria. It flies all the way over to Tasmania and that’s where they fly to breed. It flies to Tassie, gets a root, hangs out there, and comes back.”
Birdwatching is a recent hobby for Geraldine, having taken it up during the Melbourne lockdowns of 2020 on the advice of a guest on her old radio show. The bird that sparked her interest – her spark-bird, she jokes – is “Toucan Sam. Does that count?”
However, her passion is performing stand-up comedy, a gig she has pursued ever since entering Raw Comedy in 2001. Considered an underrated favourite of many comedy fans for years, Geraldine has since become a household name after winning the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s (MICF) award for Most Outstanding Show in 2021. Now, the MICF is taking its Roadshow across Australia for its 25th anniversary, and Geraldine is along for the ride.
Born in the regional New South Wales city of Albury, Geraldine’s first exposure to live comedy was on a class trip to Melbourne to see the festival’s all-female ‘Upfront’ show.
“It had Kim Hope, Jackie Loeb, and Miss Itchy closed the show,” she says. “Miss Itchy were this duo and they were the first people to win the Barry Award. They did a beef luncheon fight, and it was just these wild women running around and throwing slices of devon into the audience. It was the most absurd, amazing thing. I turned to one of my classmates and said, ‘I want to do this. This is what I want to do’.”
Rather than food fights, Geraldine has gained acclaim for her effortless storytelling. For her latest show, ‘Of Course We’ve Got Horses’, Geraldine tells stories about her birdwatching adventures, marriage, and her wife’s newfound interest in endurance carriage driving. “It’s like four-wheel driving, but they’ve got horse and cart,” she says. “I’ve sat next to her on it and it's white-knuckle stuff. It’s terrifying!”
Due to her radio commitments, Geraldine hasn’t had the chance to tour for a while. Now that she has left her radio show, she is excited to return to the MICF Roadshow once again. Past Roadshows have given Geraldine some great experiences, from long road trips to Alice Springs to rushing off stage in Griffith to puke. This time, she hopes to get tips on seeing more birds, and maybe be a spark-comedian for a regional comedy fan.
“It’s great because when you’re on tour you might be in a place for a night it’s a good excuse to get out of the hotel and see some of the world,” she says. “The shows are always really good fun and it’s a really good mix of people you might’ve seen on TV to people that are just starting out. Maybe there’ll be some person out there that comes to a live show and goes, ‘I want to do that’.”
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow is on tour now. Geraldine is part of the Brisbane show, which plays Brisbane Powerhouse 16-17 June. She's joined by Kevin Kropinyeri, Bronwyn Kuss, Nath Valvo and Takashi Wakasugi.
