I’m writing from a hotel in Luton where we have spent the last 36 hours waiting for a 2.5 hour flight to Lisbon. We just received an alert saying there’s a further hour’s delay and thunderstorms are expected to delay all flights into Lisbon. Thrilling stuff.
I wrapped the Australian leg of my tour last week. We planned a holiday in Portugal to celebrate, then start the European leg. My leisure time is dwindling the longer I sit in this room and I have experienced the full spectrum of emotions that come with not getting your way - anger, frustration, sadness, begrudging acceptance that it is far better to be delayed than to have the plane fall from the sky and a stark refusal to have sex as I can’t imagine anyone having an orgasm in Luton.
I do not react well to change at the best of times. An interruption to a carefully planned and highly anticipated holiday? I’ll issue a wide ranging pox on anything and anyone related to Easy Jet that arguably - okay definitely - falls into the category of an overreaction. Still, I think everyone gets to issue at least one pox in their time and I stand by the use of mine.
On the upside, I’ve had a lot of thinking time. Many of the past weeks were focused on the twenty shows in five cities so perhaps this is a gift of rest from the universe.
Twenty shows is a novice level for a professional comedian but I’m still only a month into full time comedy so it’s a big deal for me. I’m also in the honeymoon stage so I loved it all - the travelling, the shows, the chats with the audience afterward and hanging out with family and friends I haven’t seen in ages.
I’m sure that if my show schedules ramp up or if I have to do many shows alone, I will tire. But with me at each show was either my manager Alice or my husband Charlie - both have done so much work behind the scenes. How many people get to do this with so much support? It’s all such luck. I’m soaking up as much joy as I can.
I got to meet legends working their butts off to keep comedy venues alive around Australia. I loved the houses on stilts in Brisbane, reconnecting with highschool and uni friends in Perth and checking out all the personalised license plates, drying off with everyone braving the apocalyptic rain to get to shows in Sydney, watching students drink out the bar at the ANU in Canberra and hearing Adelaide laugh in parts of the show that no other city laughed in.
I loved the stories of all my openers, each unique and creative in their content and delivery. Kushi Venkatesh in Adelaide is eighteen years old and pivoted to stand up comedy after blowing out her shoulder and deferring her tennis scholarship to an American university. AJ Lamarque in Sydney was in the 2023 MICF’s Comedy Zone and holds the very dubious honour of explaining cruising to me. Sam Silla in Canberra is British born, half Iranian and just became a dad. Michael Cho in Brisbane dropped out of law school and is pursuing comedy full time. Shayla Keane in Perth is seventeen years old and just won 2024 MICF’s Class Clowns. She doesn’t have a profile I can link to and she was accompanied by her guardian - that’s how new she is - but is completely awesome.
So much about comedy is the community, it’s a combination of the venues, the performers and the audience that collaborate to cultivate and grow a scene. So many people are working so hard in every city to make it happen. I truly believe that watching comedy, especially live with other people, can equate to many hours of therapy. It’s usually a lot cheaper too.
I hope much of the joy remains once I get past the honeymoon stage. I want to see many more cities around Australia on the next tour, add way more countries, discover more of the comedy community around this country and planet I get to call home.
So I suppose if I must choose one emotion, I feel lucky. Even in this hotel whose staff have the inevitable malaise borne of dealing exclusively with guests who have had their budget airline flights cancelled at Luton Airport. The guests’ moods range from sombre to irate but all fall under the large umbrella of get me out of here, fast. That’s a tough environment to work in.
I choose to feel lucky, even in this hotel room with a weird column that runs straight through the middle. Its only purpose appears to be to stop my shins from rolling off the bed and I always thought my own body could manage that.
Charlie insists that it must have a use but I’m sure its only purpose is to be in the way and there’s no one around that’s properly qualified to convince me otherwise.
Even with all the reflecting, there's a lot of time to fill. If eternal life is what you seek, abandon the search for the holy grail - come to Luton and wait for Easy Jet to fly you out. Time will stand still. We left the hotel to go watch Inside Out 2 at a nearby cinema yesterday. I got a bit teary during the movie but I’m not sure if it was because the movie was good or because I am in Luton.
I hope to board my flight in a couple of hours, start the holiday, end the holiday and get back on stage.
If you know anyone in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Amsterdam or Edinburgh - please send them to my shows.
I’m super excited to meet all the people I can, if I ever get out of Luton.
Big hugs and hope you’re all swell.
Sashi
OMG. I laughed the whole way through this. And this --" AJ Lamarque in Sydney was in the 2023 MICF’s Comedy Zone and holds the very dubious honour of explaining cruising to me." simply cracked me up. Stay safe, try to enjoy (yes, even Luton) and keep going Sashi!!!