Fresh from the UK, Felicity Ward’s newest show Busting a Nut will teach you nothing. And that’s exactly how she wants it.
“If anything, I hope you get dumber by the end of it,” says Ward. “Nearly all my other shows have had a storyline, or angle, or something heartfelt in it. This show…has nothing.”
“It has jokes. That’s it. It starts, 55 minutes later you stop laughing, but you do not learn anything.”
It’s been a few years since Ward has graced Australian stages and she’s ready to catch you up on what she’s been doing. Her bullet point summary: she visited Italy with her mum, got married – by a slightly sexist celebrant, which was particularly ironic for the Guilty Feminist podcast host – and she moved in with her husband’s parents.
“[My husband] was there too, don’t worry. It wasn’t weird,” she reassures. “I mean, it was weird. I’m 38.”
While she has made a name for herself in tackling themes of mental illness in her previous shows, particularly with her 2016 ABC Doco Felicity’s Mental Mission, this time Ward is taking a step back from the topic. And she’s relieved about it.
“It’s nice. So nice – just that I didn’t have to drag anything up every night, or don’t have to worry about if an audience is going to get on my side, or feel nervous for me.”
She’s not ruling out addressing those topics again in the future, but for now she’s keeping things light.
“My jokes are like seasonable vegetables. I walk in and whatever’s available, that’s what I use. I work with what’s in front of me. And what was in front of me was what I’d been doing for the past two years.”
“There’s no theme, no politics – I’m just joyfully angry for an hour.”
After a sold-out UK tour and Busting a Nut being nominated for Best Comedy Showat the 2018Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Ward is looking forward to bringing her self-deprecating repertoire home.
Though she might not be able to stick around too long if she doesn’t want to slip back into her country-kid habits.
“I get so comfortable being back in Australia,” says Ward. Potentially too comfortable, she thinks; if a recent radio interview undertaken in an RSL carpark is anything to go by.
“While I was taking the call, I forgot what I was doing and just lit up a ciggie halfway through. And I got off the phone and was like ‘oh my god Felicity, you dirty bogan. You’ve been back in the country for ten days…have some decorum’.”
Welcome home, Felicity.
And just a note: please don’t take her invitation to bust a nut literally.
“I do not want an audience of people masturbating. Celebrate by masturbating, by all means, when you’re at home. But while you’re at the show, laughter and clapping will be fine.”
By Megan Whitfield
