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 Ready to take up residency at the Brisbane International Comedy Festival with her new show, A Rare Sight, Irish comedian MAEVE HIGGINS takes time out from disciplining her cat to chat with JACK LANGRIDGE.
On the eve of her annual pilgrimage to Australia, bubbly Dublin comic Maeve Higgins has once again found herself consumed with the business of keeping her pet moggy in line. “I couldn’t find my cat,” she says. “It’s so stupid! She just got into my neighbour’s garden who’s a really old lady who loves gardening and my cat loves picking so it’s a terrible combination. I just had to call her, but you know cats don’t really come when they’re called so I had to climb out the window and all this...” Higgins laughs.
If you’re at all familiar with Higgins, you’d know her pet cat along with a love of cooking, are two aspects of her life as close to her heart as they are to her profession as a comedian. In 2008 and 2009 she travelled through Ireland, UK and Australia with an act aptly titled Kitten Brides: a show that featured “a lot of cat material” and “a lot of when-I’m-brushing-my-teeth material.” Prior to Kitten Brides, elements of Maeve’s first show, Ha Ha Yum, have now become crystallised in her more recent work on sketch show Fancy Vittles, featured on Irish television. Fancy Vittles, like Ha Ha Yum, features Maeve and her sister Lilly serving up generous slices of cute observational humour and piles of sugar-dusted baked goods!
With comparisons to a comedic Lily Allen, it’s little wonder that Maeve’s love of cats, baking and a genuine air of quirkiness have added to the impression that she has unwittingly become a kind of Twee Queen of the stand-up world.
Loved in equal measure for her buoyant personality as she is her humour, Maeve’s latest show, A Rare Sight, is the result of her collaboration with Australian funnyman and friend Nick Coyle.
“I met him in 2007 at the Melbourne festival. He was doing his show and was introduced to me. If I see a show that I like, I can’t really act like myself around people that have done it. I get tongue tied and kind of goofy. The first year that I knew him I was like: ‘Hiiiiiii, Niiiiiicccccckk, do you like ice cream? I’ve got some ice cream, do you want some ice cream?’ Just pathetic; [but] he’s dreeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaamy...and he’s really funny,” says Higgins breaking into another fit of laughter.
Co-written by Coyle and Higgins, A Rare Sight is essentially: Life According To Higoyle, with the pair playing a married couple who dole out ‘sound’ advice on all manner of everyday scenarios to their unsuspecting house guests. Certainly, two comedians are better than one.
“It’s bit different because in my stand-up stuff I used to do all observational stuff. This is darker and more imaginative because Nick, if you’ve ever seen his shows, they’re really funny in a different way so hopefully we can combine that and it will be KABLAMMO! I can’t say that we’re so confident but I think that’s happened and that’s what will happen – definitely by the time we get to New Zealand.”
MAEVE HIGGINS and NICK COYLE perform A RARE SIGHT at the Brisbane International Comedy Festival hosted by Brisbane Powerhouse: Thursday Mar 11 & Friday Mar 12 (previews) and Saturday Mar 13 – Sunday Mar 21 (no shows Monday) at 7pm. For details head to www.brisbanepowerhouse.org
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