‘It’s the best job in the world making people laugh. It’s the visual impact you get back. Think about being a dentist – they look into a face of fear all day long I’m always looking at laughing people.’ That’s ‘Australia’s favourite six-foot, ex-Mormon, lesbian, diabetic, comedian and writer’, Sue Ann Post describing her chosen career to me by phone from Melbourne. Sixteen years after her first show ‘A Bit of a Postscript’ blasted it’s way into the Australian comedy circuit with it’s killer laughs on the very unfunny topics of incest, coming out and all things Mormon, Post is every bit as funny and controversial.
Today, much of the controversy and humour centers on Sue Ann’s poly-amorous relationship with her two girlfriends. In an interview with queerplanet.com, she described the highlight of her holiday as ‘three way lady sex’. When I asked about her poly-amorous ways, she quipped, ‘Indeed I do still have two girlfriends. It’s the Mormon blood – I guess you can blame it on that. It’s hard work – the mono-conditioning is so through your brain, but we’re working out the lumps and bumps.’
Although poly-amorous relationships don’t land you in legal trouble for polygamy because gay and lesbian marriages are not legally recognised, Sue Ann is well aware how far from accepted poly relationships are: ‘Lesbians freak out about it, they hate it, they shrink away and clutch their girlfriends closer. Gay men don’t seem to care so much…’
Post is currently working on the theory that three is the hardest ‘poly level,’ as according to her ‘it always breaks down into two plus one. I’d like to break through to four or five.’
Theory, it seems, is a pet hobby of Sue Ann’s. She is currently working on a new book, which she hopes to finish by the end of the year. Entitled ‘How to Save the Whole Damn World (No Really)’, Sue Ann describes it as ‘Clever funny thing – a manifesto’. She aims to bring back the golden era of the manifesto, with a contribution to the genre arguing for more money, less work, frequent sex and legal drugs.
Meanwhile, Sue Ann continues to be as passionate about stand-up as she is about manifestos. When I asked her how she felt about stand-up after so long in the industry, she explained, ‘Every comedian gets a gig, usually in their first year of comedy, where you’ve surprised the audience and the energy just flows back and forth. You might never get another like it but you get totally addicted,’ adding that as time goes on ‘it gets easier, you’ve got material generated, so you’re not constantly worried about finding new stuff.’
As for what’s in store for her upcoming show in Perth? ‘I haven’t decided what to do yet. It’s always a last minute thing with comedians. I have a list of things that I just go through on the plane and then decide, because I think fresh is better.’ Sue Ann did say that it would be what she calls ‘A wedding show – something old, something new, something borrowed and something very, very blue. With possible topics including polyamorous relationships, drugs, aliens and higher mathematics Sue Ann promises ‘It will be fun, unless you’re a separatist….’
