Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow touring to The Regal Theatre with Alex Ward
'I was once told I look like I work in every building I'm in,' she explains.
'So I'm constantly being approached by people, which gets me into these crazy conversations.'
One such conversation was with Ward's eccentric neighbour after he invited her into his house one day. Her response during the interaction inspired her stand-up show Clip Clop Don't Stop at this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
It was a welcome return for Ward, who after a decade on the comedy circuit had decided to step away from performing at the Melbourne event in 2024.
'I was just sort of going through the motions a bit and was a bit scared to take a year off, but it was exactly what I needed, because this year I just loved it so much,' 35-year-old Queensland-born, Melbourne-based Ward says.
Ward will tour 20 minutes of her Clip Clop Don't Stop material to Perth as part of the 27th Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow line-up, alongside host Tom Ballard, Danielle Walker, Harry Jun and Takashi Wakasugi.
'They've really lined up quite a diverse group in a great way, so there'll be something for everyone,' Ward says, who is no stranger to the annual comedy road trip across Australia.
'It's such a unique experience I do not take for granted, where I get to see all sorts of places in Australia I absolutely otherwise wouldn't have thought to go.
'When I was a teenager, I remember seeing signs for the Roadshow coming to Brisbane and being like, 'Oh, wow' because I didn't know much about comedy. I just thought it was the gala every year. You can tell how much it means to the regional towns.'
Ward's formative years were spent growing up in Ipswich — a place she cites as annoyingly famous for Pauline Hanson's fish and chip shop — before calling Brisbane home during her high school and university days, and much of her 20s.
It was Ward's brother Tom who first started doing stand-up, and while others in the comedy scene suggested she would be good at it too, Ward did not want to copy her brother.
'But then he left Brisbane and about a year later someone was still telling me, 'There's hardly any girls doing it, you should do it' and so I gave it a crack,' recounts Ward, who is a regular guest contestant on Have You Been Paying Attention?
'I'd picked up this job working for geologists doing drafting. No offence to the geologists, lovely people, but I was so bored out of my brains in that job that I was inspired to do something else in my life. I hadn't felt that boredom before, so I was sort of driven to find a hobby, and I loved it.'
The move to Melbourne in her late 20s not only proved successful for Ward's comedy career but also her relationship status, meeting graphic designer Hannah Conroy, who she married last November.
'We got engaged four years before the wedding, and it was definitely a lockdown engagement, because in Melbourne couples did one of two options: you broke up or you committed for life,' Ward says.
'When we got out of lockdown, we both realised 'Oh, we don't have to spend our money on a wedding. We can go back to going to bars and cafes.' So it got put off until we found this great venue just down the road, and that's what convinced us to finally get on with it, because it was actually rather convenient.
'Hannah's a graphic designer so I have a personal poster-maker at home for my shows. I'm not a very good client. Everyone else gets a certain number of revisions. I take full advantage of having unlimited revisions, and often it's my own fault. I'll be like, 'I want this hat, a little hat on me' and then a week later I'm like, 'What was I thinking?''
Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow is at The Regal Theatre on June 28. Tickets at premier.ticketek.com.au.
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