Abigoliah Schamaun - Fabulous Abs :
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
By Lisa Dib
New York comic Abigoliah
Schamaun has chosen a pretty bizarre topic for her debut Comedy
Festival show: becoming a yoga instructor. Luckily, in the hands of the
irreverent and buoyant comic, stories of NY yoga classes and “living
her reality of being a fast-food eating Jezebel” become laugh-out-loud
tales.
I chatted to Schamaun about becoming a New Yorker, Aussie comics and
dirty words.
“I was born and raised in Ohio” she explains. “I’ve been living in New
York for the last seven years. Comedy in New York works a little
different; you work five minutes at a time. New York is a great place
to start comedy, there are so many places to gig, you can do comedy
three times a night if you time it right, I wanna research Aussie
comics while I’m here".
"Jim Jeffries is one of my one of my favourite comics of all time. I
saw Bec Hill’s show the other day, she’s very funny”.
The inevitable question of being a female comic (the term “comedienne”
offended my gay housemate earlier this week) comes up; I must question
further. Does Schamaun feel the need to prove her mettle around male
comics, considering the idiotic stereotype of women being un-funny
still remains in some circles?
“I don’t really think about that, as far as proving myself, I’m still
young in comedy, this is my first time. I just have to prove that I’m
funny on a regular basis; I don’t necessarily think it’s harder to be a
female comic but then again I’ve never been a male comic. Just be funny
as possible and the show will happen for you”.
Schamaun does not shy away from touchy topics; from dick jokes (which
seem to be a popular feature this Com Fest) to being asked to do porn,
she bursts out with some outlandish material from time to time. Whether
she likes it or not…
“One time I had a huge group of ladies…I was assuming they wouldn’t
like it but they did! If I’m not sure if they’re gonna like it nor not,
I still do my hour of material and I’ve rarely had anyone freak out
because of it. Sex is a universal thing. I don’t like it when that
happens [someone is offended], I’m like ‘Sorry! It’s the type of person
I am, I can’t not do this!’. Sometimes I’ll stand at the door when
people walk and some people avoid my eyes, but on the whole it’s good.
People enjoy listening to someone talk about something that isn’t
articulated very often”.
Though happily instructing yoga classes, Schamaun, like most comedians,
is keen to make it her particular nine-to-five. And even though that
career may be difficult to achieve, the young New Yorker is cautiously
sanguine.
“It’s a great gig to have but I want comedy to be my source of income
and yoga to be my passion, the thing that I do that is not my job. My
biggest fear is failure in general. I don’t like disappointing people.
It crosses my mind and I freak out but on the whole I try to stay
blindingly optimistic. If I thought about the actual probable chances
of making it, I’d freak out”.
Abigoliah Schamaun
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