Laura Johnston is one of Canberra’s newest rising comedic talents. A 2023 and 2024 ACT Raw Comedy Finalist, she performed at the Canberra Comedy Festival for the first time in 2023 with her good friencomedian Sarah Ison in a duo sketch comedy show. Laura has a strong background in sketch comedy having performed in and helped create 11 different shows in just 6 years. Most notably in 2022 she co-directed the ANU Law Revue and was Executive Director of the 50th anniversary showcase put on in the Canberra Playhouse.
In 2022 Laura quit her job to pursue stand up comedy, despite never actually having done stand up comedy before. Now less than 2 years later she has already performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Sydney and Melbourne Fringe Festivals and the Lithgow Comedy Festival as well as being a regular in the ACT Comedy scene. This year, Laura is performing her first solo comedy show in the Canberra Comedy Festival to a sold out audience and has been given an encore show a week later that is also threatening to sell out. Her show “That’s…Brave” is a mix of musical, sketch and stand up comedy.
THE STREET TALKED TO LAURA BEFORE HER SHOW AT THE CANBERRA COMEDY FESTIVAL.
WHY COMEDY?
My very first open mic gig I couldn’t wait to get off the stage, I get awful brain- freezing-tear-producing stage fright. As soon as I was off the stage though, all I could think about was when I was going to get another chance to try again. There’s something addictive about making another person laugh. There’s something addictive about feeling yourself improve. There’s something fulfilling about fighting with how to phrase a joke for months only to work it out one night while brushing your teeth. I spent 6 years at uni so lost. I had too many different interests that any time I settled on one I’d stress that the grass was greener elsewhere.
Why comedy? There’s something comforting in the clarity of knowing that this is the greenest grass to me.
WHAT IS YOUR STYLE OF COMEDY?
I’m a big fan of things that make me laugh. Fortunately that’s SO MANY THINGS.
The two types of comedy that make the most sense to me are:
1. Musical comedy. I turn world observations or personal stories into exaggerated silly songs.
2. Sketch comedy. Mine looks like punchy often absurdist or wordplay based humour. I will often ask myself, what would happen if X were the case or if Y never happened and then create a joke or song about it.
Hands down my favourite type of comedy though is conversational comedy. When a comedian can get up in front of a crowd and make you feel like you’re mates hanging out in their living room having an impromptu belly laugh session. I’m still building my comedy muscles but I think I’ll always be a mix of styles.
WHERE DO YOUR STORIES COME FROM?
1. Anytime I see something that makes me giggle to myself or laugh with my mates I shoot myself a text. Every second day I will then spend 15 – 20 minutes trying to turn whatever bizarre sentence I’ve sent myself into a formed joke. Eg. My last text to myself reads “the HAADOOOKEN sound effect in Tekkan”. Now I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that, I don’t think that sound effect is even from Tekken but I’m sure it’ll become material at some point.
2. Most of my comedy songs come from me playing random notes on my keyboard or guitar and free singing whatever comes into my brain for 5-10 minutes. At some point I invariably land on a line that scratches the comedy itch in my brain.
3. My brain. I make them up.
HOW DO YOU TEST YOUR MATERIAL?
1. Something I like to call the sleep test. I will often find something I’ve come up with SO FUNNY until I’ve slept on it. If I still find the joke funny when I wake up the next morning I know I’m onto something an audience will also likely laugh at.
2. I LOVE testing out my material on stage, nothing beats live crowd feedback! I always record my sets and listen back to them on the way to and from gigs (this is extra rough when you’ve bombed).
3. I call friends and family and ask if they think I’m funny. Poor suckers.
If a joke isn’t landing I have a rule: I will test out a joke 3 times in 3 different rooms, if it still isn’t landing I will put it in a re-work later pile with some guesses as to why it’s not working.
WHAT WERE SOME OF THE EARLY INFLUENCES ON YOUR JOURNEY TO STAND-UP COMEDY?
I grew up watching a lot of British humour, Monty Python, Faulty Towers, Blackadder. I never really engaged much with stand up comedy as a child, more sketch and character based comedy. Australian musical comedy, specifically Tim Minchin and later Sammy J, completely stole my interest. I still remember in early high school competing in a very posh poetry competition with a rendition of “If I didn’t have you” by Tim Minchin. The judge wasn’t wearing a monocle but a – It would’ve suited him and b – It would’ve fallen out around 10 seconds into my recitation. After writing my first comedy song I sent it to Sammy J, he replied with encouragement and since then we have been pen pals (although I did ghost him for 3 years cause I was so awe struck that he’d replied).
TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR NEW SOLO SHOW – THAT’S…BRAVE AND WHAT AUDIENCES CAN EXPECT.
This show is me getting up in front of my family, friends, coworkers, trivia teams, ex partners, old school mates and random strangers and saying: “This is what I want to do with my life and this is why I want to do it.” Which is an incredibly vulnerable and scary thing to be doing, but also an insanely exciting thing to get to do. After years of creating sketch comedy shows with groups of (wonderful) people at the ANU, I’ve been given the chance to have complete control over what my solo show is going to look like. There’s been no one to reel me back in which means that my 55 minute long solo show “That’s…Brave” is not only a mix of musical comedy, sketch comedy and regular comedy but: It’s chocked full of things that make me laugh.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE FACE OF COMEDY AND THE GENDER BALANCE?
Look, I’ll be real it’s not great but it’s definitely getting better, particularly in Canberra. We have such a lovely and supportive group of women getting up on stage and cheering each other on and we really have Sarah Stewart to thank for that.
To give you a sense:
My very first gig (mid 2022) I walked into the backstage area to find I was the only female. One of the first questions I was asked by my fellow comedians was which of them I’d sleep with. A lot of the time over my nearly two years I have been the only women on open mic lineups. Towards festival time, however, you’ll often see a better gender balance at open mics! The paid comedy scene is also a completely different story with a more consistent gender balance. Still often unbalanced in favour of men but better than 1-12.
WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON THE COMEDY SCENE IN CANBERRA?
Here’s a haiku:
Our comedians,
Are a great bunch of people
They make me laugh lots
Here’s another one:
I wish more people
Knew about our comedy
You deserve to laugh
And some more:
Our room runners rock
I am so grateful thanks team
They give good fist bumps
They are all my friends
I love spending time with them
We get funnier
I’m gonna miss it
When I go to the UK
Keen for hugs when back
WHAT’S INSPIRING YOU AT THE MOMENT?
Bucket lists.
I love lists AND I love buckets. Put them together and I am a happy gal. I love having short term and long term bucket lists. I am also all for pushing to make the crazy things on your bucket list happen. I want future Laura to look back and say “damn, thanks for putting in the hard yards past Laura”. On my long term bucket list at the moment we have:
1. Go to Edinburgh Fringe Festival
2. Commentate the Olympics
3. Sing for Australia in Eurovision
4. Film a solo comedy hour for a streaming service
I also find my friends incredibly inspiring. They’re just so cool and wonderful! Also Sammy J, it’s a really incredibly feeling to have someone already living your dream tell you to chase your dream.
WHAT ARE YOU READING AND WATCHING CURRENTLY?
I just finished reading Adam Bloom’s Finding Your Comic Genius. It was SO good. 110% recommend it for anyone looking at improving their joke structure and formation. I am also a sucker for podcasts and audiobooks though and switch between listening to The Comedians Comedian Podcast by Stuart Goldsmith on my way to my day job and The Famous Five audiobook on my way home from my day job.
In terms of watching, I spend a stupid amount of time watching fb short versions of what I think are pirated tv shows cause they’ve sped up the show and made everyones voices higher… I also try to watch a comedy special a day, I just watched Shane Gillis’s Beautiful Dogs and I love unwinding by watching Alone cause it’s basically just people fishing for an hour.
That’s…Brave with Laura Johnston shows at The Street Theatre on Saturday 16 March at 9pm and Saturday 23 March at 6.30pm.
STREET TALK 