Storytelling Resilience with Andrea Gibbs

Imagine being captivated by a voice that weaves humor and vulnerability into a tapestry of tales, drawing you into the very heart of storytelling. That's precisely what Andrea Gibbs, a storyteller extraordinaire, does as our guest. As she unravels the intricacies of performance, from the raw exposure of acting to the subtle rhythms of narrative comedy, we explore how each story, whether whispered in a theatre or laughed over at a comedy club, forges connections that ripple through our lives.

Andrea takes us into her world where humor and hardship dance in the delicate balance of storytelling. Through tales of personal challenges and career highs, such as captivating audiences alongside Cate Blanchett, she reveals the resilience it takes to not only succeed but also to genuinely impact others. The art of crafting stories, Andrea shows us, lies not in grandeur but in the authenticity and relatable moments that resonate on a universal frequency.

In the ever-unpredictable arena of the arts, Andrea Gibbs stands as a beacon of hope and adaptability. From the profound connection made with a delivery guy in a Love Actually styled encounter, to hosting WA's most authentic and unique storytelling event, Barefaced Stories, Andrea's narratives are a testament to the transformational power of storytelling. Join us around the warm table, and let Andrea's journey of creativity, change, and the pursuit of passion inspire you to see the extraordinary in the everyday and the strength in sharing your own story.

Links:
Andrea Gibbs
Barefaced Stories
Think Back Stack
Andrea's TedX Talk

Warm thanks to:
Sponsor: Females Over Forty-five Fitness in Victoria Park
Sound Engineering: Damon Sutton
Music: William A Spence
... and all our generous and inspiring guests around the warm table this season!

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My Warm Table, translated into Italian is Tavola Calda. These were the words my Papa used to describe a table of good friends, good food and good conversation. I always aim to create a tavola calda in my life and I hope this podcast encourages you to do so too!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
You rehearse the play and you don't get fully naked.
You might get down to yourundies or whatever, but you
don't get fully naked untilyou're ready to.
And actually the end of theplay was the two actors would
get undressed very slowly whilewe were saying our lines and
then Steve's character wouldwalk off and I would be left

(00:25):
alone on stage completely nakedand my final line was please
don't make fun of me.
So we would rehearse up to thatpoint We'd get down to our
undies.
We were probably about twonights away from preview, I
think we were in the change roomand I just said to him like a
little kid I'll show you mine ifyou show me yours.
I don't know how like it'sprobably against the whole Me
Too rules or whatever.

(00:46):
But anyway, I was just like andI dacked myself and then he
dacked himself and we just madeit really funny.
Do you know what I mean?
We took all of like theseriousness out of it.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Thanks for joining me , sonia Nolan, around the warm
table, or the tavola calda as myItalian papa used to call, a
welcoming table of acceptance,positivity and curiosity.
My Warm Table podcast aims tocreate that and more, as we
amplify stories of WesternAustralians making our
communities better.
My Warm Table, season three, isproud to be sponsored by

(01:19):
Females Over 45 Fitness, with astudio in Victoria Park and also
online all over Australia.
So now please take a seat andjoin us for Season 3 as we
explore Stories of Hope.
The stories we tell aboutourselves and each other are
powerful.
In the end, all we are is aseries of stories, a mass of

(01:42):
memorable moments.
It is what we remember aboutour family and our friends.
Stories are what we share inwedding speeches, at birthdays,
at funerals and when wereminisce over old photos and
memories.
Our life is one big storybookand the stories we choose to
focus on can lead us to manydifferent places.
It can lead us to dark placesof despair and loneliness places

(02:07):
.
It can lead us to dark placesof despair and loneliness and,
thankfully, our stories can alsotake us to places of joy and
hope.
Hope reminds us that we are thenarrator of our own story and
we can flip the script and findtruth, humanity and beauty in
our everyday stories.
I'm excited about the storywe're going to uncover today, as
I am joined around the warmtable by the quintessential

(02:27):
storyteller, andrea Gibbs.
Andrea is an actor, comedian,improviser, broadcaster creator,
mc trainer and, of course, sheis a storyteller.
Studied the art of storytellingin New York before returning to
Perth to create one of ourstate's most exciting and

(02:49):
entertaining storytelling showscalled Barefaced Stories.
Andrea, welcome to my WarmTable.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
So lovely to be here, thank you.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
I've been so excited about speaking with you, Andrea,
because I've sort of followedyou a little bit in the
background and the more that Iscratched, the more that I
uncovered how incrediblyconnected you are with every
sort of form of art in WA.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, when I'm at parties and I start listing off
the things that I do, it kind ofsounds a little bit like I'm
begging for a job.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
And I can do this, and I do this, and I do that.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
I think that is just what my life has become being an
artist that has chosen to stayin WA because you know to make a
living from the arts, you justhave to I don't know attach many
strings to your bow, really,yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
And constantly recreate yourself.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
I mean, and I have just followed what I've had a
passion in as well.
So you know, your passionschange over your life and yeah,
I've just kind of tended to gowhere doors have opened and
what's made my heart sing andthat's just been storytelling
and acting and comedy and yeah,I've moved through a few

(04:02):
different worlds.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
So tell me about the first passion and that road of
passions as they've changed, asyou've grown in your field.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Well, I used to always think I didn't, because I
grew up in the country, Ididn't really have opportunities
and I didn't really have peoplewho I could directly look to to
kind of say, oh, they're in thearts, and so I wouldn't have
even known what the arts was.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
To be honest, Did you do anything artsy at school?

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Oh, like I was creative, like for my, we had to
do speeches to try to become,like year seven prefect, and
mine was by far the mostcreative.
Most people got up there withjust a speech that they read.
But I used the photocopier atschool and I made a life-size

(04:51):
cardboard cutout of myself and Idressed up as a scientist and I
called myself VerityAttenborough, david
Attenborough's sister, and Iproceeded to do this
presentation, pointing at thiscardboard cutout of myself,
saying this is the perfectprefect, and I didn't end up
getting it.
I don't know, I think itprobably had been predetermined

(05:13):
who was going to become prefectanyway, and my mum was a teacher
, so I was probably kind of shit.
We can't, you know, let her inthe door here.
But um, you know, I was quiteperformative and creative, I
think.
Think back then, and we did do aschool.
We did a school play and thingslike that, and I was always
really keen to get involved, butwe didn't have specific drama
classes or speech and drama.

(05:35):
That wasn't until I went toBunbury High in year 11 and 12.
And then, you know, they had awhole performing arts centre and
that was really a way that Imade friends with some of the
Bunbury crew.
You know it was my way in tojust be funny and you know to
make jokes and be playful allthe time.
So I know and I was good atthat and so you know, when
you're good at something, youjust kind of keep doing it.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
And when you get the laughs, you just want to keep
making people laugh.
Yeah, yeah, exactly Is thatsort of, I guess, contagious, or
is that the way it feels?

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yeah, well, I mean, you know people always say about
barefaced stories oh they'realways funny.
And they're not always funny.
The laugh just comes frompeople being very, very honest.
But if you are honest and youdo get laughs, then you're
immediately warm to people,you're immediately trustworthy

(06:26):
to people.
So that's how humour, you know,helps you make friends really.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
It's so true.
And actually let's talk aboutbarefaced stories, because it's
really quite, I think, iconic inWA.
I think it's an amazing.
I've heard about it years andyears ago, before I even
realised you were the creator ofthis, and I've recently started
listening to the fact you'venow converted all of those
stories onto podcasts.
Oh my gosh, I was doing I don'tknow folding the laundry or

(06:52):
something the other day and hadmy ear pods in as I was
listening to these barefacedstories and I was laughing out
loud at the I don't knowabsurdity of life, like the
things that people findthemselves in, just an everyday
situation which becomesextraordinary.
And I think we've all got ourown stories, haven't we?

(07:13):
We've all got our stories whichcould become a bare face story.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, and I think a lot of people may get
intimidated when they think, oh,I haven't had anything epic,
that's happened to me, so Idon't have any good stories.
But the best stories come fromthe everyday because they're the
most relatable.
So it's the minutiae of lifeand it's just like having an
awareness of the absurditiesthat happen in your day-to-day

(07:38):
life.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
yeah, so walk us through.
How do people go from havingyou know an absurd thing that
happens in their life to then,all of a sudden, being on stage
in a you know sort of a Perthpub telling their stories to a
live audience, like what happensin between?

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Well, if you want to go great guns, you do put a
little bit of work into yourstory before you get up on stage
.
But I mean, if you were in myworkshop, one of the very first
questions that I ask is justtell me something odd or
interesting about yourself, andimmediately, and it can just be
something like oh, my first carwas a Kombi van.
I guarantee there will be astory attached to that.

(08:17):
So it's just thinking aboutthose, anything that is a little
bit odd or interesting aboutyou, I guarantee there's a story
attached to it Any time.
Thinking about those, anythingthat is a little bit odd or
interesting about you, Iguarantee there's a story
attached to it.
Anytime you've ever been out ofyour comfort zone.
So think about I do thisexercise, which is like you
write a column of like I am.
So I am this type of person.

(08:37):
I'm definitely not this type ofperson.
So, and I'll give just basiccategories like appearance, your
house, sports and people justbrain dump, and then I get them
to read it out and immediatelyyou see their eyes light up.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
They don't even know they're doing it.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
But when they're talking about I am this and I am
that they'll have a realpositive attitude towards that
Everything in their I am notcolumn, is this like hatred
towards?

Speaker 4 (08:59):
and it's there for a reason right.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
That's something you've had to confront, a
situation that you've been in.
There is a reason why you arenot that type of person.
So quite often in the I am notcolumn, it's a good idea to have
a look at that and go oh, isthere an out of my comfort zone
story there?

Speaker 3 (09:14):
And often you find out what you're not because
you've had to try and do itright and therefore you realize,
yeah, I am not, you know, I amnot going to be a skydiver.
I am not, you know.
Whatever it is, it's becauseyou just know that you've been
there and you hated it.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yes, yes, yeah, and if you've hated something,
there's a story there becauseyeah you've got an attitude
behind things as well.
We like to see people up onstage with an opinion of
something.
You could actually create athird column, which was I was,
because you're always to tell agood story.
You're looking for a moment ofchange and we've all changed.
If you've lived a life, there'syeah, I mean you can just look

(09:49):
back at the music that you usedto listen to and has that
changed?
Or, yeah, the way you used tohave your hair.
You know, we all change in someway.
So you're looking for thosemoments where you can begin the
story as one kind of type ofyourself, I guess, and then, by
the end, how has that experiencechanged you?
There's got to be a change.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah, I like that.
I actually like that thirdcolumn, the.
I was because we do move andchange and morph into different
elements of ourselves as we age,don't we?

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, yeah definitely yeah, and that's fun to share
and it's totally relatable aswell.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yeah exactly, and it's also reassuring that you
don't have to be stuck insomething that you were.
Yeah, you're allowed to not bethat person anymore.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah exactly and be truthful with that as well.
Storytelling's all aboutlearning from the past, owning
who you are right now, so beingreally honest with what's
happened to you and becoming thefuture.
So I suppose that's where kindof hope may come in.
You know, I always people say,oh, do you need to end a story

(10:50):
on hope?
It's like, well, your endingneeds to be satisfying, right.
So that means that it needs tomake sense, but it also needs to
be surprising as well, and italso does need to point to the
future.
We do need to know if someone'stelling a really difficult
story on stage, that they areokay, so that becoming the
future could just be an outlook.

(11:11):
You know how's their outlookchange?
Or what do they hope forthemselves in the coming years?
Yeah, whether or not they getit, we don't know.
But to be left on a little bitof like hope is important in
stories, hard stories.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, I agree with that, but I reckon the ending's
always the hardest thing instorytelling.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Am.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
I right on that, because you don't want it to
make it kitsch or try hard oryou know, tie it with a bow.
I read a lot of stuff and youknow sort of think, oh, I can
just see what the ending's goingto be, because they're going to
tie it with a nice little neatbow at the very end and then
we're supposed to be satisfiedwith that.
I do think the endings arehardest.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Endings are really hard.
My trick, when I do it myself,I write out the ending in the
most cheesiest way possible.
It is like just dripping withcheese.
I would never, ever say it outloud on stage.
But then I look at that and gohow can I say that with an image
?
So it becomes a bit more visual.

(12:10):
So I'll just make up an example.
So if your story is about youwanting to become a good mother,
in the end you do become a goodmother.
Instead of saying that's when Irealised I had achieved my goal
, I was finally the mother thatI've always wanted to be.
An image, for example, could beI arrive at work, I open my

(12:32):
lunchbox and there's a note fromBethany that says I love you
mum.
Yeah, nice, that's like morevisual.
Yeah, think of it as a shortfilm.
Your story Like what scenewould you finish on at the end,
which would say what you wantedto say, so that you can avoid
doing all the cheesy stuff?

Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, yeah, I like that, I like that visual element
.
Yeah, yeah, and quite often.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Sometimes you can butterfly your story.
So I'll often get people tostart off in that same way in a
story.
So be really present.
Like I'm standing there at theedge of a cliff, I'm looking
down, I'm thinking how the helldid I get here?
So can we get back to the cliffat the end?
You know what I mean.
So I'm standing there on thecliff and I'm thinking I can do

(13:12):
this, I've got this, I trustmyself and I jump, you know.
So, yeah, you can sometimes,yeah, fold your story in half
and what you started with youcan finish with.
I mean, that ties into thelittle bow, but it's less cheesy
.
It's less cheesy and keep itsnappy.
With a real-life story, weunderstand, once the climax has
happened, just you can get outof it as soon as possible.

(13:33):
We don't need a huge anotherstory of like and then this
happened and this happened.
We understand life goes on,right.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
Absolutely.
And you know what?
I was watching a movie theother day and the narrative arc
just kept going and going.
I was going, I got it.
I got it 15 minutes ago.
There's enough now.
And so I went off and did Idon't know.
I probably doom-scrolled onFacebook for a little while
while my husband's stillwatching it and then finally we
get to the end and he goes ohyou, sort of switched off.
Halfway through.
I said I knew what was going tohappen.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
It just went on too long.
That's enough now.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, yeah, actually, because I'm in the process of
adapting my play Barracking forthe Umpire into a film, and I'm
working with two screenwriters.

Speaker 4 (14:11):
Oh, that's exciting.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
The process of writing a screenplay is quite
different.
You know, like with a six toeight-minute story that you tell
on stage, it's a very simplenarrative arc.
You don't have time to, youknow, to bugger around too much.
But yeah, just the format of ascreenplay, just the I don't
know what needs to happen beforethe first act and then the

(14:31):
second act, and you know you canpretty much pinpoint what's
going to happen on a 30-minutemark of a film, like yeah, so
it's a very different process,yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Oh, that's so interesting.
And look, Barracking, for theUmpire.
I'm super excited because youmentioned this to me when you
and I crossed paths a few monthsago and then I all of a sudden
saw it come up in my feed to saythat it's back, we're at the
Regal and I'm going along to itin a few months and I'm so
excited about seeing it.
I didn't realise you wereadapting it into a screenplay as
well.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Well, we're at early stages, so we've got some
funding from Screenwest and nowwe're on the hunt for a producer
.
So it's good timing, the play,actually, because we can invite
producers along to check it out.
Yeah, but the script version isquite different from the
theatre version.
It takes place over a weekendand is mostly set in this

(15:21):
family's living room, and that'sjust purely because of the
constraints of theatre, right.
But yeah, to expand it intofilm, then we can, you know
totally.
You've got more licence to dosomething more there might even
be a car chase in there, oh mygosh, how exciting.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
Can we get Daniel Ricciardo to do that?
Oh, we could yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Because, you know he's a local boy.
Yeah, absolutely, why.

Speaker 3 (15:40):
Why not, and tell me a little bit about Barracking
for the Umpire, because Ibelieve there's a real family
story behind it.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yeah, well, the title itself is taken from a running
joke in our family.
So my dad used to play footballin the 70s for Donnybrook and
he started quite young and hestarted getting head injuries
pretty early on, to the pointwhere the doctor just said you
shouldn't be playing anymore.
So he loves footy and it washeartbreaking for him.

(16:08):
He couldn't really fully giveit up so he became an umpire.
So he used to umpire in theSouthwest Footy League and he
was really good at that.
But my mum used to still go toall of the matches that he was
umpiring at and she would be theonly one there at the ground
ever barracking for the umpire.
So that's where that titlecomes from.
But yeah, the play itself is, Iguess, the journey.

(16:30):
If my dad didn't give up footy,playing footy, if he kept
playing, what the consequenceswould have been then?
So yeah, so Doug is thepatriarch of this family.
They're in Donnybrook, they'rea footy-mad family.
There's three kids.
Only one of the kids doesn'tlike footy.
She stayed in Donnybrook butshe's trying to tap out of the

(16:52):
whole football sycophantsituation.
The son is an AFL player andthe other daughter is a sports
journalist.
They both live in Melbourne andthey fly home for the weekend
for Dad's big presentation nightand, yeah, that's when they
start to kind of see things havechanged in Dad's world.
Yeah, because of the headtrauma.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
That's interesting because that's such a topical
issue.
The head trauma in contactsport yeah, is that something
you like to write about?
Like topical issues?
Is that where your, I guess,creative journey takes you?

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah, I think I probably gravitate towards like
I like characters that are maybehiding something vulnerability,
shame and then I also like tokind of pepper it with that kind
of good old Australian copingmechanism of laughter and humour

(17:47):
.
Yeah, I think that's reallyprobably how my family's like
dealt with a lot of things, youknow, a lot of heart and a lot
of love, but also, you know, notafraid to laugh, you know,
because laughter is a reallysoothing tool for us as well and

(18:07):
brings us close together.
So I think, yeah, I really likethat and I feel that it's
particularly Australian, like wehave the ability to laugh at
things in perhaps, what wouldmaybe be a very awkward
situation for other people,other nationalities.
But I think we're pretty goodat kind of, yeah, getting by
with some humour.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah, dark humour.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah, any sort of humour is pretty acceptable in
Australia, isn't it?

Speaker 3 (18:32):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
And I think you can live with both.
Do you know what I mean?
It doesn't.
The world is both.
The world is funny and theworld is darkness, light and
shade, everything in between.
So, yeah, why not try to liveit all the best you can?

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah, I agree, I agree.
Now tell me about your official, I guess, education in
storytelling because you wentoverseas.
Was it to Canada?

Speaker 1 (18:57):
I went to New York for storytelling.
Yeah, I've done a little bit oftravel because I was after uni
so I did performing arts at uniand then wanted to stay in WA.
So that's when I was like, oh,I've got to kind of do some
other things and I got intostand-up.
So, yeah, a friend of minesigned me up for Raw Comedy,

(19:17):
which is like the MelbourneComedy Festival competition, and
I ended up getting runner-up inthat and then got the wild card
to go to the Melbourne ComedyFestival to perform over there.

Speaker 3 (19:27):
So, yeah, I did stand-up for a long time and I
really enjoyed it Was that sortof based on your you know
insights and life experiences.
What did you use as material?

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Yeah, it was definitely rooted in.
You know comedy stories, so alot of stories about my family,
you know, which I wouldmanipulate to probably live
outside of reality, which youcan do with stand-up.
Do you know what I mean?
You do it You're basicallymassaging and working on
material until you get it to apoint where it's perfect and you
know it's going to go great,and then you start with that and

(20:01):
you finish with that materialand then new stuff, you work in
in the middle, um, and hope thatit goes well.
So, yeah, it was definitelynarrative based, um, but I
wanted to tell longer storiesand I wanted to tell stories
that did have a bit more lightand shade and depth to them, um,
which you kind of can't do on astand-up stage.

(20:22):
You know people are paying tolaugh and that's what you're
going to give them laughs every.
You know 20 seconds.
So, and storytelling is not likethat.
It's kind of.
You know you need patience atthe beginning to then have the
payoff at the end for anaudience and I was listening to,
I mean, the Moth was in thevery early days of podcasting,

(20:43):
so that was like 2009, I think.
What's the Moth?
The Moth is.
So in America.
The Moth is this storytellingnight which started on someone's
back veranda, and the reasonwhy it's called the Moth is
because there were moths flyingaround the porch lot.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
I love the backstories of names.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, yeah, Fantastic yeah and then that kind of grew
to be like pub stories and nowit's a huge organisation.
They have nights around theworld.
There's nights now in Sydneyand in Melbourne.
Their formats for theirstorytelling nights are a little
bit different.
So people come along and chucktheir name in a hat and they get
pulled out, and so I mean to behonest, the majority of the

(21:24):
ones that I've been to, thosePull your Name Out shows are
really hit and miss.
But then they have more curatednights where they have
celebrities and stuff, tellstories and stuff and they do a
lot of community work as well.
But they're huge in the Statesand I was lucky enough to get a
grant, which was a mentorshipgrant, and they said you know,

(21:45):
pick someone you want to learn aparticular skill off, think big
.
And there was no one inAustralia that was doing the
type of storytelling that Iwanted to do.
So I found a lady in New Yorkwho was a Moth Grand Slam winner
, so she's a really goodstoryteller, and she had started
her own night called StrippedStories, which was sexy stories
like late night ones, yeah.
So she used to do that at oneof the improv clubs over there

(22:08):
and the grant paid for me tostay in New York for three
months and just work one-on-onewith her.
So I was working on my ownstories and building a solo show
, so when I came back I couldtour that.
And then, yeah, there wasnowhere really to do the type of
storytelling that I had learned, and my best mate was managing

(22:28):
the Blue Room Theatre at thetime and she was a bit jealous
of my trip overseas.
She was like, let's bringMargot here, my mentor, and so
we actually racked up our creditcards to get Margot over to run
a bunch of workshops and so wehad about 30 people who were
trained up in the craft ofstorytelling and then we built

(22:48):
Bareface from that.
So, yeah, from the beginning,it's been really important to us
to have a quality night,because that's how you get word
of mouth.
So, yeah, and that was 2010.
So we're in our 14th year now.
So, yeah, it's excellent.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
It's excellent.
And didn't you do some sort ofcaravan conversations with the
ABC?

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah well, no that wasn't with the ABC, but that
was.
I've built a caravan called theChinwagon which is a mobile
recording studio.
Yeah, so I whipped that out forall sorts of events.
It's been right up to thePilbara to grab stories from up
there.
It's got no air con because, asyou know, you can't have the
background noise of air con,that's right.

(23:29):
So that was a very sweaty eventbut that was a lot of fun.
The Highway to Hell.
So when Perth Festival didtheir Highway to Hell, I parked
it up on one of the main parks,put a sign out the front that
said come in, share your Akadakastory.
And my God, I got so manybrilliant stories from that.
Yeah, and I'm doing stuff withthe City of Mandurah in the
coming months about immigrants,people who have come over here

(23:50):
and lived in Mandurah for awhile.
So, yeah, all sorts of things.
And my favourite format in theChinwagon is to actually get two
people who know each otherinside and one of them
interviews the other one.
I just sit in the backgroundand help out if they need help
and help them wrap it up at theend.
But that's been really, reallylovely and I feel very

(24:10):
privileged to even be sitting inthe recording studio when
they're having a yarn.
You know, and have the space toask questions that they
wouldn't normally ask each other.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah, yeah, oh, how lovely.
What a beautiful concept.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, and so then they get a photograph of
themselves and they get a littleUSB with their own conversation
.
So, yeah, I've had, like youknow, grandparents being
interviewed by their grandkids,I've had work colleagues, I've
had neighbours talking to eachother.
Just brilliant, yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Just lovely.
And so what else do you do withthose stories, like, do you
publish them or broadcast themin any way?

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Well, some of them have gone to the WA Museum so
they have a section called theReflections Gallery.
So there's a couple in therenear the Wall of Love and Loss.
So just little snippets ofpeople's stories.
I have played some of them onthe radio.
Mostly they're just.

(25:03):
I mean that scenario is justfor those people to keep and
then to share with their friends, or just, you know, hold on to.
Yeah, how lovely, how lovely.
There's something special aboutyour voice you know, so I don't
know.
I had a friend who passed awaywhen I was like at uni and I
found some old cassette tapes ofus when we were kids, just
recording our voices.
And, my goodness, when youlisten and you can hear her

(25:26):
again, it is remarkable.
It's magic, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah, I agree, I sat down and had a conversation with
my dad some years before hepassed away and every now and
then I just sort of have alittle listen to that and, yeah,
it is special it is special.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
Your voice is so distinct, it's like your
thumbprint, you know.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
Well, it is.
I mean, I think there's beenscience about that actually that
your voice is unique to you.
Yeah, which is so scary, the AIsituation.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
I do a lot of voiceovers and everyone in the
voiceover world is likepanicking because, yeah, we'll
just be out of work.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
Yeah, no, it's true, there's a whole lot of unknowns
with AI at the moment, with ourimagery, our voices yeah, the
whole lot, but that's not a veryhopeful conversation to talk
about that.
No, no, with that idea ofhaving conversations and
reminiscing and conversationstarters, you developed

(26:20):
something that's just up there.
You know those things, theThinkBack stack, which I just
think is amazing.
It's a deck of cards which ourconversation started.
So tell me the story of that.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Well, I used them in my workshop.
So I've created like thishomemade box of just like
laminated cards that I made andI've got about how many in that
box.
I would have over 100 in thatbox, but people were like trying
to write them down and wantedcopies of them and I was just
like I'll just make a box that Ican sell you.

(26:57):
So, yeah, that's where thatcame from.
There was a while there where Iwas doing a little thing called
the Daily Egg On, which was Iwas sending out a daily prompt
to people who wanted to.
You know, follow along and Itried.
I got 365 prompts so you coulddo it for a whole year if you
wanted to.
But it's just.
I mean the stories that I hearfrom people, how they use them

(27:20):
is amazing.
Like some people you know justjournaling, I would have
expected that Other people useit for letter writing to each
other.
Oh right, yeah, so with a lovedone who's overseas or whatever
they'll just like be like.
The most romantic thing I'veever done is this and you write
that back Character development.
So people have used them for,you know, in their scripts and

(27:41):
things to like, blow outcharacters and try to find
little stories that theircharacters might have.
So, yeah, it's been prettyamazing.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Or just conversation starters People using that at
parties.
I've seen them as icebreakersyou know, sort of in facilitated
sessions.
So I just think they're amazingand it's such a good idea.
And I know, years ago myhusband and son went on a big
trip away, you know two or threeweeks, sort of camping trip,
you know sort of rite of passagetype of thing.
I guess you know that they didand I just thought this is such

(28:07):
an amazing opportunity for themto talk, yeah, and so I wrote
these conversation starters forthem and just very strongly
suggested that this might besomething they might like to do
at some point.
And they did actually drag themout at some point in their trip
and had a little conversationabout, you know, just about you

(28:27):
know life, and you know how Pauland I met and you know all that
sort of stuff.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so they'rejust such a divine thing to do
and I'm going to grab them, andI'm going to actually if you
don't mind, can I ask you somequestions from your stack?

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Sure, yeah, I don't know how good I'll be at them.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
I will put a photograph of these on our
Facebook site so that you canall see.
So they're called the ThinkBack Stack and they're all about
asking questions, and I just Iexpect that they would be just
such a beautiful thing to dowith a grandparent, or even
someone in an aged care home, tohelp them reminisce and bring
back memories that are reallymeaningful for them.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah, you just have to be aware of one of the cards
in there.
I've got friends who areteachers who have said oh yeah,
we take the sex card out.
Probably a good idea.
There's a card that says howdid I learn about sex?
So yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
Well, I'm going to.
I've actually stumbled uponthis one.
I think this is a really,really good question for us
today.
Andrea, if I had to trainsomeone to be me for a day, I'd
get them to.
Oh, that is a good one.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
It's a good one.
Call your mum, make a to-dolist, have an anxiety attack.
That's probably my three things.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
Just to be honest.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
Love it.
I mean, I have, like thisprobably changes week to week,
but at the moment I'm tryingreally hard to strip back a lot
of things so that I can focus onwriting.
Yeah, because I'm so used tohaving a lot of things going on,
but I'm I don't know if this isjust an age thing, but I'm

(30:07):
starting to feel like things aregetting quite foggy and it's
very hard to focus on things now.
So I just need to clear myplate so that I can work on the
big, important stuff and thescary stuff.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I'm writing a new play atthe moment and it takes so much
energy and just even thinkingabout it.

(30:27):
Do you know what I mean?
You can't be busy with otherstuff because the weeks and
weeks just go by and thensuddenly you've got this
deadline, which is, you know, acouple of days away, and you
just haven't given yourself theenergy that it needs and the
dedication that it needs.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Do you work better under pressure?
Because that's the excuse Igive myself when I leave things
and sort of think, no, no, but Ireally work better under
pressure, so it's going to befine.
It's going to be fine.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
Yeah, I fine, yeah, I do, I do, yeah, so, but I'll,
so I've learned now to setmyself kind of deadline dates
that involve other people.
So, yeah right, you'reaccountable yeah yeah, yeah,
that's sort of be like I need tohave this on the table for them
in a play reading by thisparticular date, you know.
So if I give myself thosedeadlines, I'm okay, yeah, but
yeah that things that skideadlines that ski are important
.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
They are, they are, that's so true.
They just make you get there,make you get there yeah yeah.
So what's the most favouritething that you've done in your
career?
Is there a real highlight thatyou can share?

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Well, I can tell you one that I've been thinking
about this recently because onThursday night at Bareface we
had the theme was celebrity andstardom.
So there were a lot of storiesabout, you know, celebrities
that people had met and I hadbeen cast in this show called
Eight Gigabytes of HardcorePornography.

(31:47):
The show itself Was that herein Perth.
Yeah, it was in Perth and itwas in Sydney first.
So it was a co-productionbetween Griffin Theatre Company
in Sydney and Perth TheatreCompany here.
And I remember when my agentcalled me I was touring around
New Zealand doing stand-up andshe said I'm going to send you a

(32:08):
script, but just a heads up, itcontains nudity.
And I was like, oh okay,because no one I mean, I'm not
the kind of person who'scomfortable in that space to be
nude on stage.
Anyway, I started reading thisscript and I was in from the
get-go.

Speaker 3 (32:23):
Oh really.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
Yeah it was very kind of confessional.
It was a double-hander, so itwas just two actors was a
double-hander, so it was justtwo actors, um, and they were
the middle-aged single peoplewho were really lost in their
life and they end up kind ofmeeting online, um, and the kind
of the.
The title itself is kind of abit of a kind of throwaway.

(32:45):
It's not about pornography,really, from my character's
point of view, um, anyway, Iread this script and I said, oh
yeah, I'll audition for it andwe'll see how we go.
Anyway, I auditioned for it,got the part and really kind of
put the just the nudity bitwhich happened at the end of the
play in.
Just I just put it in a littlebox and tried not to think about

(33:07):
it until we had to.
And it was really funny inrehearsals in Sydney, just the
process of that.
You know you rehearse the playand you don't get fully naked.
You might get down to yourundies or whatever, but you
don't get fully naked untilyou're ready to.
And actually the end of theplay was the two actors would
get undressed very slowly whilewe were saying our lines and

(33:32):
then Steve's character wouldwalk off and I would be left
alone on stage completely nakedand my final line was please
don't make fun of me.
Oh yeah, it was a reallyheartbreaking ending.
So we would rehearse up to thatpoint, we'd get down to our
undies and then, once we wereprobably about two nights away

(33:53):
from preview, I think we were inthe change room and I just said
to him like a little kid I'llshow you mine if you show me
yours.
I don't know how, like it'sprobably against the whole Me
Too rules or whatever, butanyway, I was just like and I
dacked myself and then he dackedhimself and we just made it
really funny.
Do you know what I mean?
We took all of, like theseriousness out of it.
Anyway, the show was abrilliant show, it was a great

(34:14):
success and it was reallychallenging for Steve.
Actually, I didn't know anyonein the audience and we could
fully see the audience becausethe way that it was lit.
The Griffin Theatre is thistiny little space seats about 60
people.
It's like one of those spacesin theatre history that you know
the greats have performed atthis tiny little hole in the

(34:35):
wall.
Yeah, and, but the audience waslit up as well as the stage so
you could see everyone.
And every after every show I'dget off stage and I'd text my
dad and I'd be like, oh, youknow the actor who played
Terrence in A Country Practice,he was in the audience that I
could see him.
Him, and you know Rhonda fromthe AMIA, she was in there as
well.
And then one day we werewarming up on stage, the

(34:57):
audience hadn't come in yet andthe stage manager walked up to
us and said, look, we don'tnormally give you a heads up
when there's, you know, peoplein the audience that we know,
but Kate and Andrew are going tobe in.
So Kate Blanchett and herhusband, andrew Upton, and we
were like, oh, okay, and thatwas the year that she had taken

(35:20):
home the Oscar.
She was like basically the goldmedalist of acting.
Anyway, doors open and you knowI can see her the whole time.
I could probably just likereach out and touch her
beautiful cheeks when I'm onstage.
But I acted my little heart outthat night I bet you did.
I just acted my little heart outthat night and I could see, you

(35:41):
know you could see otheraudience members kind of looking
at her throughout theperformance.
She was just stunning and atthe end of the show you know, as
I have this story like I'mbeing- completely naked in front
of Kate Blanchett.
That's a great party storyStanding there naked and then,
yeah, the show closes, theaudience left, but they stayed

(36:03):
in and then they came backstageand, yeah, hung out with us when
we were still nude and stuff.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
You didn't have time to put your clothes back on.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
She was so lovely, she was so Aussie.
She said that we made her cryand that was just like oh, my
goodness yeah he was the bestactor in the world, telling me I
did a really great job and that, oh my goodness, when I got
home messaging Dad you will notbelieve.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
Oh, no, oh, that's so awesome, isn't it?
Yeah, that's a great highlight.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
Yeah, so that would be definitely a highlight.
So I was doing a brilliant showthat I was incredibly proud of,
and then getting to do it infront of her and meeting her
afterwards was just amazing.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
And then, what was the reception for that play in
Perth?

Speaker 1 (36:43):
It was great, yeah, and I actually all of my worries
about being naked on stage hadgone away by then, because I
just trusted the show andeveryone loved it.
And so I mean to get your kidoff for a show that people hate?
That would be the worstscenario, right.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
But we were really proud of that work.
But yeah, and it was funny thenight that my parents came, that
was funny.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
My dad stood up and gave me a standing ovation at
the end which was just like ohbless.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
That's so cool.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
He didn't see me in my birthday suit because I was a
bubba.
You're so close to your dad,aren't you?
Oh?

Speaker 1 (37:16):
really close, yeah, and my mum yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
Yeah, it's a beautiful thing.
I know that listening to theBarefaced Stories podcast, you
always get your dad to do theads for the gin that sponsor you
.
So it's just hilarious, it'sjust a love banter between you
two and it's just precious.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
He makes me laugh so much.
Yeah, Actually, I'm writing asmall piece for a show that's
coming out for Black Swan, whichis a bunch of writers
responding to written works andDad's story.
He had a really, reallychallenging childhood, so the
script that I'm responding to isabout family violence and that

(37:57):
was a big part of Dad'schildhood, and so I sat down
with him the other day and I wasjust asking him all about it
and he was so open with me youknow, he never like growing up
he wasn't that open about thatstuff.
I think he just wanted to shieldus from anything bad in the
world.
He was like we're taking yourkids, yeah, yeah, open about
that stuff.

Speaker 3 (38:11):
I think he just wanted to shield us from
anything bad in the world.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yeah, yeah, and actually the first time that he
was very open about thisparticular story that happened
to him when we confronted hisfather.
He told on the bareface stageWow, yeah, that was really
amazing.
That was probably one of thefirst times I was like, oh,
we're doing bareface so wellright now, if my dad you know

(38:34):
true blue kangaroo countryfarmer can get up on stage in
front of a hundred people andshare the most intimate moment
in his life, you're doingsomething right.
Doing something right.
He felt like he went into somuch detail in that story for an
audience more detail than he'sever shared with me and my
brother and since that time he'sbeen so because he had people

(38:54):
come up to him afterwards andsaid I've had a very similar
experience and you know, itbecomes this shared space and
makes him feel okay with thathistory that he holds on to.
Yeah, yeah, and so he's beenmuch more open about those
stories as he's aged.
But I just was reflecting theother day about how he's
completely like.

(39:15):
He's completely changed hislife.
You know, he could have justpassed on all of this toxic
stuff that he received as a kidonto us and he's totally broken
the cycle.
Wow, like in a way that blows mymind, because we had the most
blessed childhood, you know,living on a farm and just I

(39:38):
don't know just the way thatthey would.
My brother rode BMX and we'dpack him up in the car and we'd
travel a long distance.
We drove from Perth to Sydneyso he could compete, you know,
and we would borrow a pony, so Icould have a pony and ride
around and Dad would take, youknow, borrow a float and we'd be
off to pony club and you knowit was like just saying yes to

(39:58):
us all the time.
Yeah, to give us those greatexperiences.
It was amazing, yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
Yeah, it sounds very idyllic.
Yeah what a special man, what aspecial parents you've got yeah
, yeah.
Oh, that's so good.
So, coming back to barefacedstories, though, how do you
convince people to stand onstage and tell their stories,
like, how does that work?
Or do you think that there's aninnate thing in some people
that they just want to be heard?

(40:22):
They just want people to listento their story?

Speaker 1 (40:25):
Yeah, I think it's different for everyone.
It might be a danger if peoplewant to be heard and they want
people to, because it cansometimes get a bit preachy.
Yeah, I think it's important toyou know the best way to kind
of convert people to anything isprobably to share your story
and just let them make up theirown mind.

(40:45):
Many different ways.
Sometimes I'm like twistingarms.
I become a bit of a like likemother to them.
You know, in that kind ofcoaching sense I'm pretty frank
with them that it's a prettyterrifying experience and it's
really not a natural space forthe majority of us.

(41:06):
I think it can, you can.
Sometimes, if you think it's aspace that you know is suited to
you, you can kind of come off abit arrogant, like I quite like
the people who are a little bitmore nervous and are honest
with that.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
Do they sort of script their stories beforehand.
Most of the time.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
Everyone's different.
Yeah, Everyone's very different.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
Yeah, they sound like they've definitely put thought
into it.
The ones that I've listened toon your podcast, yeah, Certainly
people you know really havegone through like a storytelling
process with you to actuallycome out the other end with this
real gold story.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Yeah, I think you kind of have to do that.
To keep it to this, like I say,prepare a six to eight-minute
story.
They'll tend to go for aboutten minutes once they're in
front of an audience, but tokeep it to that time frame.
I think it's important to towrite it out, know where you're
going to start, know whereyou're going to finish,
otherwise it just goes a bit onand on, but that's also to just
give yourself the confidence sothat then you can stand up there

(42:04):
and enjoy being up there.
You know, and receive like thelaughs when they come, or you
know the mm-hmms and peopleagreeing with you and yeah,
because you don't want to.
It's nothing worse than justbeing up there and being stunned
by the lights and just get itout, get it over and done with
as soon as you can.
Yeah, I think it's important toenjoy it.

(42:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
And you have monthly barefaced events, don't you?

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Yeah, so the events are every month.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:32):
And every month you've got a different theme.
Is that?

Speaker 1 (42:34):
what happens?
Different theme every month,yeah what?

Speaker 3 (42:35):
are some of the themes that you've covered.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Oh yeah, we just had Celebrity in Stardom.
We had Leap of Faith on LeapYear, oh nice one.
Our next one is One Small Stepbecause we're doing it at the WA
Museum under this huge, bigreplica of the moon.
It's a seven-metre diameterreplica of the moon, heroes and
villains, what else?
I try to keep the theme.

(42:58):
It has to be good for marketingone and then it also has to
inspire a bunch of stories.
And I like to keep it broadenough that you know a lot of
stories could fit underneaththat particular theme.
Like I'd probably never pick atheme like fathers, for example,
because it would just all bestories about dads or being a
dad.
It would be like family mattersor something like that.
So, yeah, you could put a dadstory in there.

(43:20):
You could do a mom or cousinstory, you know.
So there's enough varietybecause there's six stories in a
night.
So you want to be a light andshade and you know the
programming of those stories isreally, really important.
So people will submit stories.
Sometimes I'll reach out topeople if I know they've got a
great story.
Usually, if you've done aworkshop, I'll know a few of
your stories.
So, yeah, usually kind ofharass people after they've done

(43:43):
a workshop.
Or some people are like when canI tell a story as soon as I've
done a workshop?
Yeah, some people are reallykeen, others are just curious
and sometimes it just takes mejust planting a seed, of just
going.
I'd love you to get on the bareface stage one day.
Have a think about it andthey'll go.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
Hmm, and they might mull it over for six months and
then email me, yeah yeah, yeah,I know a friend of mine did it
and she was just then telling meit.
She just felt so liberatedafter being able to tell that
story.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
Once people have done it once, they're kind of pretty
quickly addicted to it yeah.
Yeah, it's the real sense ofpride you know that you have in
yourself when it goes well.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
Yeah, yeah, it's so good.
I mean, I just love how you'vetaken the concept of
storytelling and created a wholecareer around it, really, with
the Think Back stacks, which isall about stories, you know, and
with your bare-faced stories,which is all about stories, and
then your writing stories inyour screenplays and theatre
productions.
It's just, you are just thequintessential storyteller.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Honestly, sometimes it can be a nightmare to watch a
movie with me, though.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
Why is that?
Because you can actually seethe narrative arc is going just
way off.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
It's like well, it didn't get us to invest in that
character.
Yeah, you know like just yeahcan poke holes in a lot of
things, Of course, Absolutely,and as you should.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
As you should if they haven't, you know, not up to
scratch, that's right.
Yeah, tell me about your TEDxPerth experience, which is about
10 years ago now.
Yeah, that was years ago, inpreparation for you coming,
because I was so nervous abouttalking with you because I was
just thinking you're just theconsummate professional and so
interesting.
Honestly, andrea, you're sointeresting and so I was

(45:17):
watching this TEDxPerth and youhad me in stitches Like, did you
really do?
Yes, can you tell us?
Tell us the story that youshared on TEDxPerth?

Speaker 1 (45:26):
Well, I worked for, oh my God, yeah.
Okay, I ended up working at SDATravel at Curtin University,
which was like the travel agentthat I booked my you know big
trip, european trip on after Ifinished uni at Curtin.
And I ended up at SDA becauseI'd done like an 18-month stint
on the Breakfast Show at 96FM,which I didn't have a great

(45:49):
experience.
Oh really, it was just likethird wheel on that show.
It was you know the girl andcan you talk about dating and
all this kind of stuff, and itwas just like ugh, gross.
And so I ended up just workingfor SDA Travel for a year.
But I was in this office withall these other girls who were
all partnered up, were all youknow.

(46:11):
Some of them were married, um,and I was the only single girl
in the office.
But this delivery guy used towalk past our shop front window
every day.
He used to wave to me and Iused to wave back and it was
pretty cute, it was very cuteand we kind of just this would
just happen, yeah, and it got tothe point where it's like I had
to make a move and but I wastoo scared to like, like, go
outside and talk to him.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
Imagine that, yeah, imagine that.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
So I've made this huge, I've made all these like
this huge, big signs that Ishowed in the shop front window.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
And they remind me of if anyone's seen Love Actually,
yes, and sort of the guy thatturns up at the door and he has
these signs that you know, sortof telling a story or the you
know questions through the signs.
Yeah, there was that sort ofsigns, wasn't it?

Speaker 1 (46:55):
Yeah, yeah.
It was basically just liketoday's, my last day at work.
Will you miss me?
Do you like beer?
Wow, me too.
And I'm just like and then itwas said do you have a
girlfriend?

Speaker 3 (47:09):
No, do you have a Girlfriend, and then the next
one was wife, I think Wife orboyfriend, yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
But yeah, no, he ended up having a girlfriend.
So I was kind of stopped in mytracks and I didn't have a plan
B.
I just thought that that wasgoing to go so great and I kind
of crouched, I kind of slid downthe wall.
But he came into the shop andthen he gave me a bit of a hug

(47:37):
and yeah, and then I think wedidn't actually end up meeting
up.
Later I bumped into him at apub I think.
But yeah, I think kind of likeit was that relationship that
worked when we were on differentsides of the glass.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
It was a waving relationship, yeah when you take
the glass away.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
The relationship wasn't there.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
No, no.
But what I loved about yousharing that on the TEDx
platform was then you talkedabout you.
Can you know again?
You can take a story and it cangive you so many different
meanings.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:08):
So you know the meaning was.
For some people it could belike, oh my gosh, I'd die of
embarrassment.
That would be just horrendousand.
I'd never recover from that.
You know you could take it downthat path, but I loved how you
took it down the path of yeah,okay, it could have been
embarrassing, it was a bitembarrassing, but what I knew
that you know there was couragein there and you gave someone

(48:30):
the best story that they'll betelling for a really long time
about this girl at this travelagency that had these signs for
him so.
I just love how you turn thataround.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
Yeah, and actually I did.
I remember getting tagged instuff on that day when I told my
TED Talk, where it was like hewas being tagged this is the
girl.
So he obviously had shared thatstory with his friends.
Yeah, Little did he know one dayit was going to be like a TEDx
talk hilarious yeah yeah, but Imean I had I'd emceed a couple

(49:00):
of the TEDx Perth's before I haddone that and when they asked
me to do a talk of my own I wasa bit like, ah, do they?
You know, because they wantedit to be on storytelling and I
for a long time I was like goingto try to just nut out a talk
on this is how you tell a story.
But it ended up like theprocess of that is very dry.
It's actually really boring.

(49:21):
You know, just talking aboutthe process of writing.
You can do it in a workshop,because that's what people want.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
But in terms of the stage.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
I was just like.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
I'm just going to tell a story and I'm going to
show, you know, how engaging astory can be.
You know, and I do, you knowI'm very honest in it and I say
that at my grandma's funeralthat's what was left behind.
It was all her stories, youknow, and that's what we do
leave behind.
So it's kind of just like keeptelling your stories, yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
It's really important .

Speaker 1 (49:56):
And in fact, you do some work as well with Mental
Health Commission, Is that right?
I did, yeah, yeah, which can bea pretty difficult space to
work in, so I did a bit of liketouring through the Southwest,
yeah, and it is.
I mean, you're getting peopleto talk about some really really
difficult times and quite oftenin a space where they are still
in a difficult time.

Speaker 4 (50:14):
It's not reflective, it's actually very current yeah
it's really hard.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
So I mean, what I would do in those spaces would
be to get them.
I would use my ThinkBack stackand I would get them to talk
about things that perhapsweren't related to the mental
health challenges that they weregoing through.
So, just to give them you know,I would give them a reminder
that there are other things thathave happened to you in your
life.
Your whole story is not justabout the fact that you have

(50:38):
severe OCD, like it's you knowit's a part of the story.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
And that's what I was going to ask you know, with our
theme of hope, you know howmuch hope do you think there is
in the act of storytelling?

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Well, hope for me.
I mean, the story that I tellin my TED Talk is all about hope
.
You know, like I set it up,like I'm hopeful that this is
going to be the beginning of agreat romance for me, the
problem with hope is that youvery rarely get what you
imagined it to be.
You know you get byproducts ofthat, I suppose, but it's very
rarely exactly what you hadimagined.

(51:16):
Even if it's close to it, it'snot going to be exactly.
So I think hope is good forkind of propelling you with
optimism towards something thatyou might want, but then you've
also got to get to a point whereyou just like trust in yourself
.
So, yeah, I mean I would.
I've been thinking about, likewhen I've been so hopeful, like

(51:37):
I wouldn't as an actor, Iwouldn't stand on the side of
the stage going, gee, I hopethis goes well.
Like I would be panicking if Ihad that thought.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
If hope is your only tool in your toolkit.
You really need a few morethings.
Yeah, yeah, exactly yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
I would be standing on the side of the stage telling
myself trust in yourself, trustin the process, trust in the
hard work, and let's see how itgoes, you know.

Speaker 3 (52:01):
So I think, if you do the work in the right direction
towards the thing that you arehoping, the outcome that you're
hoping, then yeah, I do likethat imagery of hope being the
propeller, yeah, sort of likepropelling you forward towards
something that you then buildall your skills around, yeah,
but you know, just being thatreal sort of pushing you off

(52:22):
that inertia, yeah, and beingopen to you know, if you get to
the point where you haven't gotwhat you had hoped for, being
really open to receivingbyproducts of that.

Speaker 4 (52:33):
Yeah, I like that, yeah, things that you had never
expected.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
Yeah, I mean that's been my whole career.
Yeah, I mean that's been mywhole career.
Yeah, I would have neverexpected to have done half the
stuff that I have done.
Yeah, and I can't, I don't know.
It's so an unpredictable careerthat you kind of can't pin your
hopes on things.
It's not.
Yeah, I mean sometimes you getit's not a linear career is it.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
It's not.
No, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
And actually, after I did do that one in Sydney
because it went so well, I wasthinking this is the next step
for me.
You know, like you know, kateBlanchett and Andrew Upton were
running Sydney Theatre Companyat that time, so I was like I'm
going to be cast in a SydneyTheatre Company production after
this.
You wait, you know, I had in myhead this kind of almost like a
corporate ladder, which rung amI going up next.

(53:19):
But it just does not happen inthe arts, so you just become I
don't know if resilience is theright word.
But you just become a bit morerelaxed about what can happen
and what can't happen.
It doesn't mean you don't havehigh hopes.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
I think you become very you know multi-talented in
so many different ways you knowyou'd have to like.
You know multi-talented in somany different ways you know
you'd have to, don't you?
You need to draw on so manydifferent elements of the arts
which is so broad and beautiful.
Yeah, like improvisation.
I want to talk about thatbecause you were one of the you
know first improv type of peoplein Perth, weren't you?

Speaker 1 (53:57):
Yeah, well, I was in the first kind of the first
group of the big hoo-ha.
So we used to perform at theFremantle Hotel and that was a
little pub before it got turnedinto Notre Dame and we literally
would be performing in front offive people.
It was like the tiniestaudience.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
Very intimate.
I think it's called intimateaudience.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
Yeah very intimate, but it was so much fun.
And you're just mucking aroundon stage with your mates, really
, yeah, and I learned a lot offSam Longley, damon Lockwood I
met, you know, that's where Imet Kerry O'Sullivan, who became
my best mate, who, yeah,started Barefaced Stories with
me.
Claire Hooper, tim Minchin yeah, jumped up on stage with us.

(54:38):
So, yeah, it was a lot of fun.
A lot of fun, yeah, terrifying,but yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
And I'm actually reading a book, as I was showing
you earlier Aidan Date, anotherWA guy who's written a book
about improv called FunnyBusiness.
So I'm reading his book at themoment and learning a lot.
Like I didn't realise howstructured it is and how you
know there's so much toimprovisation and the history of
where it came from.
Like all of that, I'mfascinated by this book, yeah,

(55:04):
but yeah, how structured wasyour improv?

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Depends on how you would play it.
Really, yeah, I went over toCanada and studied with Loose
Moose Improv, so it's kind oflike the way I like to explain
it to people is it's pretty muchlike a game of football.
There's rules, right yeah, andyou know how to kind of bend
some of the rules.
You know how to use some ofthose rules to your advantage if

(55:29):
you're a good player.
Yep, that's exactly what it'slike.
So there will be rules for aparticular improv game and you
know how to work that game toget the funny and, yeah, to make
it fly.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
The rules are there to kind of help you to help the
scenes, yeah, to guide you,otherwise it can go into free
fall.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
Yeah, yeah yeah, but then the scene can be about
anything you know, yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
Yeah, is it a little bit like?
You know that fabulous show onTV.
Thank God You're here.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
Is that improv or is that a different genre?
No, that's improv.
Yeah yeah, pretty structuredimprov, though They've got a lot
of tools to work with and whatthey would be doing in that
scenario is really supportingthe person who comes into the
room who has no idea.

Speaker 4 (56:11):
Yeah, you can see that coming.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
Yeah, yeah, so they're just like feeding them
and responding to them.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
And when you've got a really good person who comes in
the room, it just actuallyfloors all the ones that are
prepared.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, they're having to like run
around and pick up the pieces,exactly exactly.

Speaker 4 (56:27):
And that's their game Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (56:28):
They're just going to be like I'm going to make this
chaos.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
It's just fun to watch, yeah yeah, do you do much
improv now.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
Well, I would say that a lot of my emceeing
barefaced stories is improv,probably because I spend a lot
of time helping out the sixstorytellers that we've got.
So by the time the show comesaround, I'm like, oh yeah, I'm
emceeing tonight.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
What am I going to talk?

Speaker 1 (56:51):
about.
But I can kind of get away withdoing little snippets of
stories in between them and yeah.
So I'll be kind of likefree-balling when I'm up there,
but in them.
And yeah, so I'll be kind oflike free-balling when I'm up
there, but in terms of likeimprovving with, like team
members and things like that, Idon't really do that anymore.
Um, yeah, even when I'm like,even when I'm in a scripted show
, there's not a lot of that.

(57:12):
Maybe there's some like theater, sport games that we'll use for
warm-ups and things like that.
Yeah, but I haven't done improvin a long time.
The big who I was trying to getme back for ages and ages yeah,
I don't know what it is.
There used to be this formatthat we would do God, what was
it called?
I can't remember what the nightwas that we made up, but we
would do 20-minute improvs, okay, so it would be you and another

(57:36):
actor and you would just go forit.
Be you and another actor andyou would just go for it.
So that was like some of thebig hoo-ha, just two people,
just two people for 20 minutes.
That sounds exhausting.
Yeah, it's pretty exhausting,but it's amazing the stories
that you can create and it canstill do.
You know, it can still sayscene and then start another
scene.
Yeah, but, you're creating likethis 20-minute story, just the
two of you completely making itup on the spot.

(57:56):
It's really like it isterrifying, but it's so great to
watch yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
I'll bet it is.
I'll bet it is, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
So I love doing that.
And then, yeah, when I was inthe States, I did a little bit
of improv.
I did that stuff in Canada, butthen I did a little bit of
improv in America as well.
They had this really greatformat where they would get an
audience member up to tell amonologue and then they would do
an improv scene around that.
That was really fun.

(58:25):
I remember a girl getting upand saying my grandfather killed
my grandmother.
It was this accident where heaccidentally reversed into her,
but then it was reallyinteresting to see how the
improvisers dealt with that yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
Interesting, oh gosh.
So what do you hope for next?
Like what's next for Andrea?
I know you're writing anotherplay at the moment, yeah, but
what else?
What do you see yourself doingin the next few years?
Well, what is hope going topropel you towards?

Speaker 1 (59:00):
Well, I'm definitely okay, film towards film.
I'd love to do more writing forfilm, yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
So Barracking for the Umpire is going to be?
Is that your foray into thatworld?

Speaker 1 (59:13):
I'm hoping so, yeah, yeah.
So I want to keep writing, eventhough I hate it and it is very
difficult to do.
I'm going to stick at it.
I'm just going to back myselfto do that.
And, yeah, I am interested infilm and what that might look

(59:34):
like.
That's a new world for me, soI'm very excited about that,
yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:39):
And telling real stories through your writing.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
Well, yeah, the writing that I do is not for
real stories, but it's heavilybased on reality and the
struggles of reality for people.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Reality and the struggles ofreality for people, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah.
I got asked the question likehow much research did I do for
barracking, in terms of liketalking to my dad and my brother

(01:00:08):
and I used to phone them up allthe time and I used to kind of
like secretly record them?

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
That's illegal.
It is illegal, but they'refamily.
Dad's very proud of me.
He'll understand.

Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
But it was mostly to capture their turn of phrase.
So there's a lot of likereality in when I can write
dialogue that is, yeah, steepedin reality and the way that
people talk because we don'talways.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
We don't all sound like abc presenters right.
So no, no, no, it's getting thelilt and getting the
intonations and where you know,I always find, if I transcribe a
piece of voice, you'll findthat there are ums and there's
repetition and it's reallysloppy.
Yeah, yeah, it's really sloppyoften, yeah, when people are

(01:00:58):
just talking naturally and thenyou're transcribing it and it
really doesn't look pretty on apage, it doesn't.
You actually want to go back andyou want to edit it, don't you,
and make it into propersentences and with a proper
structure.
But that's not how people talk.
No, which is why when you seegood scripting, it's just so
engaging.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Yeah, it's usually very few words as well,
depending on the character.
But yeah, I mean it looks uglyon a page but then when you
start to get around a table andyou start doing table reads,
it's this, oh the authenticity.
It just like reeks of reality,which is like I'm very
interested in that, like realcharacter dialogue.

(01:01:37):
So that's where, yeah, the kindof like the real stories come
from, I suppose.

Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
Yeah, they do.
Andrea, it's been such adelight to have you around the
warm table today.
I'm so glad you were able tofit our conversation into your
very busy and very excitingworld that you live in.
I have to say the arts is soimportant.
The creative industries that wehave in WA are so fundamentally

(01:02:06):
important to our humanity and Ilove that you're part of that
and not just part of it, butactually a pioneer of it in our
state and that you chose to stayhere in WA and create that.
So I'm so thankful because itjust means that you know it
makes us better, you know itmakes our communities better.
It makes us in touch with thevulnerability and the rawness

(01:02:26):
that we need to actually survivethe tough days but also rejoice
in the really good ones.
So thank you for everythingthat you're doing and bringing
to our communities.
Oh, thanks for having me.

Speaker 4 (01:02:43):
Hi, I'm Kelly Riley, creator and head coach of
Females Over 45 Fitness, or FOFas we are fondly called.
Our studio is located inVictoria Park and we are also
online all across Australia.
At FOF, our members range inage from 45 through to 84 years
of age at the moment.
They're amazing examples ofhope.

(01:03:05):
Let's meet one of our membersnow and be inspired by her story
.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
Hi, my name is Chrissie.
I'm approaching 70 and, at aninteresting point in my life, a
number of things have changedfor me in the last year or two.
Significant things.
I've recently retired and, as amother to two sons, I finally
accepted that I no longer needto play that role, obviously

(01:03:36):
always a reference point for mysons, but given that they're in
their 30s, late 20s, livingtheir own life, I need to move
on from that role.
What I realized some months agois that for much of my adult
life, my two major identityreference points were my career

(01:03:58):
and the fact that I was a motherto two boys, generally a single
mum.
So those two aspects of my lifetook up most of my time, all my
energy and my identity.
That was me, and in the last 12months or so I've had to face
the challenge that both thoseroles, the challenge that both

(01:04:18):
those roles, both those identityreference points, are gone and
who is me apart from thosereference points.
So it's been a challenging andinteresting time and I think I
see it as coming home to me andfinding out who Chrissy might be

(01:04:39):
, apart from mum, worker, youknow, juggler of a million
things, to actually who I am,and I still don't know.
I'm still on that journey.
One of the most interesting and,I think, revolutionary parts of
this stage of my life is comingto realise how much I have

(01:05:03):
rushed and hurried and stressedfor most of my adult life,
holding down a full-time job,raising two kids on my own.
I look back and realise thatmost of those years I was just
racing from one event to another, trying to keep the show on the

(01:05:24):
road, trying to ensure thateverything happened as it was
supposed to happen, and whatI've given myself permission to
do in the last months a year isto let go of all of that.
To let go of all of that toactually try and be in the
moment and give myself the spaceand time to stare into space,

(01:05:46):
to wander, to potter, and it'sin that space that I'm finding
myself again.
An important part of where I'vebeen and where I think I'm
going is actually the FOFexercise program All female,
older women, and I find itincredibly inspirational I've

(01:06:10):
got some major medical issuesthat I'm also dealing with and
to be in an environment thatencourages me to explore my
strength, my resilience, mydiscipline to stick at a program
, but does it in a way that isincredibly supportive and
actually very inspirational.
I look at women from in theirlate 40s, 50s, 60s and for me,

(01:06:34):
especially the women in theprogram who are in their 70s,
and they truly are inspiring.
I think ideas we have of ageingcan be questioned and what I
see happening in the FOF programis powerful ageing and I really
love it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
Thanks for joining us around the warm table.
My warm table is produced,hosted and edited by me, sonia
Nolan.
It's my way of amplifyingpositivity and curiosity in our
community.
I invite you to share thisconversation with family and
friends and follow my Warm Tablepodcast on Facebook, instagram
and LinkedIn.
Also, you can subscribe andfollow my Warm Table on Spotify

(01:07:16):
or Apple Podcasts, and maybeeven leave a review, because it
helps others to find us moreeasily.