Victory lap for a sober O’Loughlin

Fiona O’Loughlin’s latest show The Essential is a greatest hits collection of sorts, with the comedian retelling selected stories from her decade-long stand-up career.

But given her very public 2009 battle with alcoholism was followed by the admission that she’d been drunk for much of her professional life, the show isn’t the water-treading excercise cynics might expect.

“It’s so good to revisit these stories sober — the delivery’s so much sharper now, and I’m so much in control,”  O’Loughlin told the Star Observer from her Alice Springs home.

“I’ve realised that when you have enough alcohol to take the edge off your nerves, you’re also taking the edge off your wit — you’re blunting your tools.

“It’s scarier now before I go on stage, but nothing’s going to help you when you’re on stage anyway. All booze did was make my head foggy. God, I’m a slow learner — fucking hell, it took me so long to work that out!”

Audience members can request their favourite stories via O’Loughlin’s Facebook page ahead of her three-night stint at the Comedy Store this month.

“Comics don’t get to do this sort of thing very often, particularly in Australia where it’s such a small scene. It’s different in the US — I’ve known of comedians who’ve lived off the same 50 minutes for eight years. That’d send me barking mad, but it is fun to get out an old story and polish it up again.

“The longer you’re at it, the better you get at it. It did take me a long time to find my voice as a stand-up, but I have now. It’s a very liberating feeling.”

And giving up the drink doesn’t mean she won’t still relish telling audiences her boozy war stories. If anything, she enjoys sharing them more now, safe in the knowledge those days are behind her.

“Not everything has to go in the ‘shame’ box. There have been some really wonderful, wild times, and I can celebrate them even though they’ve come to an end and the party’s over,” she said.

Aside from her battles with alcohol, much of O’Loughlin’s stand-up material centres around her love-hate relationship with children (in her case, her own brood of five). It’s a message many gay and lesbian audience members can probably relate to: kids are great and all, but please don’t make me spend much time with them.

“Do you know, in the past few years I’ve seen a real increase in the number of gay and lesbian punters at my shows. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around why, but I think you might’ve just summed it up.

“And I like to think my alcoholic decline was very Judy Garlandesque too, which must have helped,” she cackled.

info: The Essential Fiona O’Loughlin, Comedy Store, June 23-25. www.comedystore.com.au