On a wing and a prayer: Fiona O’Loughlin performs in Geelong on April Fool’s day.
ERIN PEARSON
A public battle with the bottle has failed to stop comedian Fiona O’Loughlin doing what she does best.
The mother of five is still making audiences laugh despite collapsing on stage in Brisbane in 2009.
She later explained the incident as a symptom of her serious alcohol problem.
But two years later the Alice Springs product has a belly full of fire once more.
O’Loughlin’s latest routine, On a Wing and a Prayer, recounts how she prised the dancing shoes off her feet and the devil of drink off her back.
“I think I’m missing some gene where you should haven hidden in a cupboard for three months but I chose not to,” O’Loughlin told the Independent.
“I felt very grateful for being in the public eye because it kept me safer. This assisted in my recovery.
“I decided when I was going to talk about that troubled year that not everything was going in the shame basket.”
O’Loughlin said she was blessed to have “such wonderful” friends in the very industry that exposed her flaw.
“I’m really grateful to have people like Mikey Robins, Paul McDermott, Akmal Saleh and Tom Gleeson as my peers because they let me be who I am.
“Comedy is an extraordinary profession to be in because it’s so small even on a global scale. It’s a fairly unique club to be in.”
O’Loughlin waited until she was 36 before having a serious crack at comedy.
After realising at a young age her talent for “telling stories”, O’Loughlin decided to lean on family tales for inspiration.
O’Loughlin said transposing her “dinner party self” from dining room to stage was harder than it may have appeared.
“Open mic contestants are like the frontline of the armed forces – you need them or you’ll have none in 20 years but you never do it as tough,” she said.
“I really did need my thick skin in my early days.
“I find those memories far more humiliating than what’s happened two years ago.
“I guess though if I was a bank manager it would be more awkward.”
O’Loughlin will perform at Geelong Performing Arts Centre on April 1.
