It’s happened to the best of us: sitting in a theatre, perhaps the worse for wear, you find yourself nodding off during the show. It certainly happened to Fiona O’Loughin – but while she was on stage.

That incident was a warning that alerted this Australian comic that she might, just might, be an alcoholic. Nor was it the only warning; by the sound of her anecdotes here, for a few months her life had more red flags than a Communist rally.

The problem seemed to have crept up on her. Until her mid-thirties, she was an ordinary mother of five in the tiny and remote Northern Territories outpost of Alice Spring. But then she started comedy, and before too long those pre-gig nerve-settlers, and those post-gig wind-down drinks became a problem.

Comedy introduced O’Loughlin to alcoholism, and now she’s returning the favour. Maybe it’s one of the less well-known 12 steps: ‘Do a one-woman show about your struggle with the bottle.’

Put that way it sounds unsufferably pious; but fear not, no-nonsense O’Loughlin has no room for sentiment. She still thinks booze is ace – it’s just a shame she drank her lifetime’s allocation so quickly and isn’t allowed any more. She did, at least, get some hilarious drinking tales out of it – even if it was at the expense of her own dignity. She was once so drunk even Prince Philip thought she was inappropriate, the most ironic of the many rock bottoms she plunged through.

She’s a great storyteller – although this is not really a storytelling show, but a gag-packed hour of superb stand-up on her theme. As well as the self-deprecating lines about her own incorrigible behaviour, other jokes come at the expense of her tiny home town, where the very idea of Alcoholics Anonymous is oxymoronic, and from her suffer-no-fools attitude, even when sober. Being a reformed alcoholic just gives her latitude to be mean. ‘I don’t want to be a bitch,’ she protests. ‘But I’m not well…’ On top of this she has the menopause to contend with as well – heaven forbid she should get even more cranky.

Of course there’s a whole self-help industry built up around problems like hers, parts of it more useful than others; and O’Loughlin lays into the likes of Oprah and Dr Phil in routines which were less personal, but certainly seemed to strike a chord with those who do watch such things. A poignant song and slideshow brings the show to a close, but make sure you stick around till the end for the true message of O’Loughlin’s experiences.

She’s a top-flight comedian and this sincere, slick and disgracefully funny show is an great success. Cheers!

Date of live review: Thursday 18th Aug, ’11

Review by Steve Bennett

Source

Our lovely Fiona O’Loughlin was on the cover of The Scotsman’s Edinburgh Festival Pull-Out today, a few days ago she chatted to Susan Mansfield about finding humour in the darkest hours…

BATTLING WITH BOOZE

WHEN leading Australian comedian Fiona O’Loughlin lost her battle with the bottle, it was hardly a secret. Not only did she collapse on stage in Brisbane in front of 600 people, she was also a contestant on the Australian version of Strictly Come Dancing at the time. But even before she left rehab, she knew she had found the subject of her next show. “There was never even a question in my mind that I wouldn’t talk about it. I’m a very autobiographical comedian and I couldn’t wait to get back on stage. My mother was horrified – apparently it’s alright to be an alcoholic, but you don’t have to go telling everybody.”

Because of the public nature of her meltdown, it made no sense to hide it.

“Some people have said I was being very brave going public. I’m not brave, I was caught with my hand in the cookie jar. I knew I couldn’t lie about it any more. I was advised by the [television] network to say I was suffering from ‘exhaustion’. But I’d told an audience of 600 people to go f*** themselves just before I collapsed, I couldn’t call that exhaustion.”

Spirited (Tales from an Angel in a Bottle) is a frank account of her ten-year battle with alcoholism. “It is quite horrific, a bit shocking. I talk about depression, alcoholism, agoraphobia, I really made myself a very sick person. It doesn’t sound like a funny show, but always there’s a funny side somewhere in it all.

“Some of the stories I’m telling weren’t funny at the time, but they’re funny now. I’m highly embarrassed about some of the things I got up to when I was a drunk, but I’m not embarrassed about having the disease. And rehab is a gold mine of material – I laughed myself inside out just watching what goes on. It’s very cathartic, very liberating, being able to laugh about it and having people laughing with me.”

read the whole article here

learn more about Fiona’s show here

Buy tickets to see Fiona here