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Wendy Harmer |
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Wendy Harmer is one of Australia’s best loved humourists. She is also internationally renowned as a standup comedian and writer. A veteran of the Edinburgh, Montreal and Glasgow- Mayfest Comedy Festivals, she has worked extensively in the United Kingdom and America, performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival five times. Her one-woman show Love Gone Wrong received a “Pick of the Fringe“ award in Edinburgh before moving on to a sellout London season. See http://www.wendyharmer.com/ | ||||||||
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Wendy has written two adult plays. Her critically acclaimed What Is
The Matter With Mary Jane? was commended for contributing to a wider
understanding of young women’s struggle with eating disorders, while
her three-act farce Backstage Pass played to full houses. She
also wrote the libretto (lyrics) for Baz Luhrmann’s Opera Australia
production of Lake Lost.
In 1993 Wendy joined Sydney radio station 2 Day FM heading the Breakfast Show team. During the 11 years she presented this program it was rated number one in 84 out of 88 surveys. The news of her departure brought 3000 emails from disappointed listeners. Since then she has been an occasional presenter for ABC Radio National. Wendy’s career in television took off when she presented her own ABC TV chat show, In Harmer’s Way, followed by the much-loved series The Big Gig for three years. She co-starred in the illustrious World Series Debates and hosted the 2002 Logie Awards, then wrote, produced and presented Stuff, a lighthearted but penetrating four-part documentary series examining what a person’s ‘stuff’ says about them and what society’s stuff says about all of us. A former political journalist, Wendy has been columnist for numerous magazines including The Australian Women’s Weekly, New Weekly, HQ and The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend. She is the author of six adult books: It’s a Joke, Joyce, a hilarious review of Australian women’s humour; Love and Punishment, a droll exploration of the intricacies of revenge; Love Gone Wrong, a comical look at failed relationships; So Anyway, a collection of her pithy weekly columns from The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend Magazine; Nagging For Beginners, a mirthful ‘how-to’ book for both sexes; and Farewell My Ovaries, a witty, warm, wise and sexy novel of love and life which made the Australian 2006 bestseller list. She has also contributed to several books including 200 Years of the Best Ever Sports Writing, Ita Buttrose’s Motherhood and Marie Claire’s What Women Want. However, it is Wendy’s writing for children that has won her most recent celebrity. Author of the bestselling Pearlie the Park Fairy series, which sold around half a million copies in Australia and overseas, she has successfully adapted the books for stage and television, presenting Pearlie in the Park at the Sydney Seymour Centre followed by a national tour, before creating a fifty-two part animated series to be screened on Australian and Canadian television in 2010. Wendy is married with two children and lives in Sydney. In 2005 she was the subject of the ABC’s Australian Story, topping the ratings in three states including NSW. [Top] |
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It is rumoured that local comedian Emily Ingram is actually a beautiful, but deadly, spy who was recruited by ASIO after topping her political science class at UNE. Whether this is true or not cannot be verified for security reasons, but there is little doubt that she likes her Harvey Wallbangers both shaken and stirred. A woman of indeterminate age, she is thought to have twelve children, at least three secret lovers of unknown gender, a sulphur-crested cockatoo who usually rides on her shoulder and a spotted quoll that brings her freshly killed feral cats each night. She has also been seen at clandestine tango parties in Guyra on Saturday nights. An unconfirmed source reported that she has the body of a goddess and dances like Greta Garbo in Mata Hari. Rumour has it that she spends her weekends in the national parks hunting arsonists, three of whom disappeared without trace last month. | ||||||||
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Local comic Jenny Greaney came to Armidale in 1986 to fulfil a three month teaching contract with the Law School at the University of New England. More than twenty years later she’s still teaching and has developed standup comedy skills to help students stay awake during lectures on constitutional theory and other scintillating legal topics. A latecomer to comedic performance, Jenny provided support acts for Denise Scott, Mandy Nolan, Jackie Loeb and other visiting professionals, as well as providing occasional comedy entertainment at functions in the region. She claims to try out new material by chaining her three dogs and two cats to the coffee table and telling them jokes, using their howls of derision to practice her heckler handling skills. Her ambition is to be so funny that she can bring about world peace or, failing that, become speech writer for the Prime Minister. | ||||||||
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