Australian comedian Brodi Snook is back in London after heading back home to Busselton, a small town on the outskirts of Western Australia. Returning with her critically-acclaimed show “Handful” the comedian is excited to be wrapping up the tour with a few dates at the Soho theatre in London so we had a quick catch up with her about comedy, relationships and her obsession with the UK.
1. Thanks for your time Brodi, let’s go back to the start and you relocating to London. What prompted that and how did you find it give you’ve been open about your anxiety?
I think the anxiety came later on when I got older. I’ve always been obsessed with the UK and London. I was obsessed with the Spice Girls and I saw the movie and the Union Jack bus and all of that and I knew I wanted to live there. Growing up, I lived in a small town outside Western Australia where there nothing going on then I reached a point where I’d had enough and bought a one-way ticket to London.
2. Where did the obsession with the UK come from?
I blame my grandmother as she was English but relocated to Australia. She never let us forget she was English either! I also used to see London in all these books and she’d tell me about things so I knew one day I wanted to go there and experience all of it for myself. I was lucky enough though to be able to get heritage visa.
3. What about your early days in the UK? What were they like?
Oh they were definitely an experience. It was generally spent doing things like getting lost and not being able to understand things and getting on the wrong bus. I was very naive growing up and didn’t travel anywhere outside of my town so it was all completely new to me. I would think to myself about why we didn’t learn this sort of stuff in school instead of algebra or trigonometry.
4. Is London and the UK in general all it cracked up to be? What about things that you dislike about the UK?
Yes it is. Obviously, the weather needs sorting out and I know that is a cliched answer so what I would really like to do would be to have a parallel universe with Australia where I could just experience the best bits from both of them.
5. You do have the perfect job though in that you can travel around the UK and experience the rest of the country as well…
You’re right and in 2019 I was lucky enough to go on tour with Ardal O’Hanlon for a year. I got to experience all of these places that I would probably have never got to if it hadn’t have been for my job. Like I went to the Isle of Wight which I don’t think I would have done if it wasn’t for work and that was beautiful. It’s amazing how different the rest of the UK is to London so I’m looking forward to getting to some of the places around I’ve not been to yet.
6. How has the last two years been for you then?
Well, I pretty much had everything mapped out then well, the pandemic happened and I ended up going back home to my old house where I regressed back into my childhood. It was good because I haven’t been home much so it was nice to see family and friends but, even though I became this independent woman travelling to London, once I got home it was like how it used to be where I would shout for my mum to see if she could bring me a chocolate biscuit out of the cupboard.
7. That’s amazing and something I have also done when I go home to visit my parents. One of the things you talk about in your shows is toxic relationships and self-esteem. Does it feel strange talking about things like that in a humorous way, if humour is the right word?
Yes, I think humour is the right word because, for me, it’s definitely cathartic talking about that stuff and it certainly helps. I think it is important to be able to see the humorous side of anything really. I also think that when people come to see the show and hear me talking about stuff like that they can definitely relate to it as I get a lot of messages afterward from people saying they had had similar experience.
8. What advice would you give somebody about the murky world of dating and dating apps?
Ha, I’m very much the wrong person to be asking for advice on that sort of thing. I’m definitely not an authority on how to date someone. I’ve had so many horror experiences dating and made so many bad decisions that what I would say is that if you want to come and hear how not to do it, then you should definitely come along and check out my show.
9. What would your ideal date be?
You know, wow, that’s a really good question. I think it would have to be an evening in a dimly-lit secluded pub somewhere in London that’s really quiet. A bottle of wine and a board game. Something like Scrabble because that would be the perfect way to get an idea of what the other person is about. Playing Scrabble is an easy way to flirt so that would be my game of choice.
10. Brilliant. Well, thank you for your time Brodi. You’ve got the shows coming up next week, what can people expect from them?
Yes, like I said, it will be good to wrap up these shows at the Soho Theatre in London. Expect a stories and experiences. It’s funny but there are also some tough moments in it. Thanks for talking to me.
You can find tickets to the London shows here.
