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Well listeners. As you know, over the past few weeks,
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Kyle and I have been getting out and seeing a
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lot of shows at this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival,
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but we've also been sitting down and chatting to a
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few of the comedians who have shows in this year's
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festival as well. And the latest comedian that we're now
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sitting down to have a chat with is Jane Steer.
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Jane has got an amazing show at this year's festival
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called Addicted, and we thought we would get Jane on
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the phone to chat a little bit about it. So
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welcome to the program, Jane.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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No worries now, Jane, tell us a little bit about
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Addicted as a show, because this is a deeply personal
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show for you, So tell us a little bit about
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how Addicted came into being.
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Yeah. So, unfortunately, I had a really shocking year last year.
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I unfortunately lost my mother to motor neuron disease and
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we had a very strange relationship, and unfortunately it brought
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up a lot of you know, issues that I hadn't
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dealt with from a long time ago, and I found
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myself diagnosed with CBTSD, not long after she passed. So
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I ended up going to Thailand to this luxury retreat,
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and that in itself just was such an incredible experience.
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And that's what the show is about. It's really about
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that last year of just you know, really going through
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the worst that life can kind of throw at you,
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and going, well, you know, how can I take these
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lemons and turn them into lemonade, or you know, take
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the trauma and turn it into a text right off
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in air show? You know?
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So, yeah, I was going to ask that because that
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is such a terrible year and I'm so sorry that
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you've had to go through that. I know what that's like.
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I went through a really rough year a couple of
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years ago myself, and I know it's not easy to
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get through. So how do you go from going through that,
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getting through that, and then actually turning it into a
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show where you can laugh about it but also get
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other people to laugh about it as well.
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Yeah, I mean, I think for me, so, I'm the
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eldest daughter in my family and I had to take
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on mothering responsibilities from a very young age. I'm one
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of seven, and so for me, you know, part of
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helping kids through some really traumatic times as children was
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getting them to laugh. You know, if you can take
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something negative and somehow put a positive spin on it,
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even if it's really, you know, potentially inappropriate to other people.
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But that's just you know, that's how I've dealt with
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a lot of trauma in the past, and there's a
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lot of strength and beauty in that. You know, there
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are some people who will write music or write poetry.
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I personally have just always, you know, found comedy as
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the thing that came to me naturally. So yeah, now.
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I have to ask, because I've found Thailand to be
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a great place to go and recover and to let
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go of pain. And I'm lucky enough that I work
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for a Thai outlet, so I get to go over
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there quite often. But how did you find that experience
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of being in Thailand? Because I just find being around
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Thai people so refreshing, but also they seem to know
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the right things to say when you're going through a
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tough time.
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Yeah, you know, I think that there's a reason that
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a lot of Westerners find themselves in Thailand and particularly
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in Chang Mai. I think that it offers a different
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perspective to our lives and when I went to Thailand
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for the first time about fifteen years ago. I was
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just blown away by how simple life can be and
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how happy people can be, you know, whereas in in
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I guess in Australia, I feel like, you know, we're
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always striving for more, for better, for bigger, for you
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Load full transcript
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know this, for that, and we're still unhappy. So yeah,
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I think, and I think that's why I decided to
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go there for this retreat was because I thought in Australia,
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I'm going to be surround by that same mentality. I
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just need to get out and get away and get
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a different perspective. And yeah, it was wonderful. I really
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recommend anyone who needs a bit of a menty bee
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break to have a nice little trips Thailand.
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Yeah. I remember talking to one of the taxi drivers
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over there once and he said to me, as long
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as I can put food on the table for my
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family every night and my family are happy, I'm happy.
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And I thought that is such an amazing way to
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live life. It's not about having a fancy phone or
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a fancy laptop or anything like that. Just as long
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as your family's happy, you're happy. I thought that was great. Yeah, So, Jane,
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tell us a little bit about the name addicted. Where
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did that come from? As well, because I'm sure there's
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people out there thinking, oh, my goodness, what did she
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get addicted to painkillers? Alcohol? Tell us a little bit
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about the addiction side of things.
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Yeah, So I had actually been sober first seven years,
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and then unfortunately when my mom, just before my mom passed,
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I relapsed on alcohol. And unfortunately, you know, that kind
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of set me into a spiral where I realized that
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I actually had an addiction to a lot of things
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in my life. But because I wasn't coming to terms
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with what I was, you know, I wasn't coming to
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terms with a lot of trauma from my childhood or
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the fact that my mom didn't love me, and in turn,
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I developed this really unhealthy love addiction in rehab or
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in this retreat in Thailand. So yeah, so it was
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an observation of like, you know, as humans will naturally
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just jump from one addiction to another to another to another,
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and until we address that underlying trauma, you know, we're
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never going to be satisfied or be happy. And that's
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ultimately what you know, I try to get that massive
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message through at the end that you know, I've got
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to find that peace within myself before I start trying
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to fill it with other things like people, for instance.
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So yeah, yeah, definitely. Now I've noticed as well. But
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of course we're in the middle of the festival, so
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you have had some performances already and you've got three left.
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But how have you found the audiences have received the show?
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Because a few years ago, I remember going and seeing
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a show done by Sarah Marie, a very very talented
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comedian who was talking about fertility issues, and it was
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such a personal show, but so many audience members burst
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into tears and went up to her afterwards. How have
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you found that with talking about such personal things?
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Yeah, you know, it's really beautiful experience as a performer
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that you get to share a unique connection with each
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audience member. And honestly, like, I haven't had anyone cry,
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which is great because last year when I did my show,
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a different show, I did have someone cry. So this year,
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no cry. Yeah, but the people that come up to
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me afterwards, you know, I've had someone that also was
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two people that were in sobriety and just so happened
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to see my show, and we're like we'll just go
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check it out. And they said it was really great
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timing because it reminded them of why they were sober,
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and you know, it just that was really special to me.
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And then I've had a few people who have lost
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their mothers as well to motor neuron disease and them
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coming up and telling me, you know, I've never been
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able to laugh about, you know, how horrible this disease is,
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but you gave me a bit of space to kind
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of acknowledge that it's just really crappy and that's okay,
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like you know, and that's that is so beautiful knowing
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that something that I have written has then you know,
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also had an impact on someone else and made them
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feel seen and that is such a unique and special
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experience as a performer and probably the best part of
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it all, I think.
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So yeah, definitely Now for people out there, if you
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do want to head along and see Jane's show Addicted.
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It's on eight o'clock each night at Underground Comedy. It's
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got three shows left, so seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth, and
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you can grab tickets from the Comedy Festival website and
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we'll put a link up on our website as well.
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But Jane, to finish off, what would you like to
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say to people out there who are thinking about heading
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out and seeing Addicted this weekend.
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Yeah, I mean definitely come along. You don't have to
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worry about packing tissues, but definitely bring your Harry Potter
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knowledge that will be important and just be ready to
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have a good laugh at some really dark humor.
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Definitely, And once again for all our listeners out there,
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if you want to see Jane show. Addicted is on
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eight o'clock each night at Underground Comedy. It's got three
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shows left seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth and you can grab
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tickets from the Comedy Festival dot com dot au