Brisbane-based Canadian Jasmine Fairbairn has achieved a lot in her short time as a stand-up comedian.
In the two-and-a-half years Jasmine’s been living in Brisbane with her husband and two sons she has become a regular in comedy rooms across Brisbane and the Gold Coast, runs Knockoff Comedy at Brisbane’s Powerhouse Theatre, and co-produces Yarn Storytelling shows. But for her, a lot of failures occurred on the way there, some of which make up the content of her Bris Funny Fest show ‘Swimming The Seas Of Failure’.
“I think the funny thing about succeeding in things is it’s just a series of failures that you insisted on continuing doing,” Jasmine explains. “You fail at something and instead of quitting, you’re like, ‘No! I’m going to keep failing!’. If you add up enough failures, it’s going to look like success sometimes.”
Jasmine has always been interested in comedy. At 15 she was performing improv at the Loose Moose Theatre in her native Calgary. But after becoming a mother, she focused all of her attention on her children. It was in 2014 she moved to Brisbane with her Australian husband and their kids. Now 34, Jasmine itched to get back on stage and did Brisbane comedian Fiona McGary’s stand-up comedy course.
“I have always wanted to do stand-up; it was always the scariest thing, as far as I was concerned. So, I thought I might as well give it a crack now that the boys are back in school and I have nothing to do with my time except watch ‘Deadliest Catch’, which is a great show but there is only so much you can watch,” she jokes.
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For the second year of Bris Funny Fest, Jasmine will perform her debut hour of comedy ‘Swimming The Seas Of Failure’. She explains much of the show will feature stories about parenting: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
“Basically, it’s about having expectations as a parent and having every single one of them thrown in your face the second you have a baby – everything you thought you were going to do right will be the exact thing you do very wrong when you have kids. There’s no helping it, so you’ve got to laugh otherwise you’ll cry, and it will be a lot of ugly crying and nobody likes an ugly crier.”
“It’s a hard thing to explain to people how much you love your kids, but also how they’re simultaneously the best and worst thing to ever happen to you. But, man, do I not like them sometimes! You grow them yourself, and then you’re never allowed to go to the bathroom by yourself again. How can you not resent something like that?”
Jasmine will also be performing as part of the show ‘Am I Right, Ladies?!’, a show featuring the best female comedians in Brisbane, but she says her solo show will offer a lot more than just comedy.
“If you ever have a feeling like you’re a bad parent, you should come to my show and I’ll prove to you that you’re a better parent than I am. I want everyone to come because I think everybody will enjoy this show. If you are a parent, have a parent, are thinking of becoming a parent, or if you want a reason not to become a parent, this is an excellent show.”
