Susie Fagan is an Irish writer, performer, comedian and poet based in Australia, currently developing her solo show, Snakes & Ladders, with Merrigong Theatre for 2027. A regular on ABC Radio and a passionate arts advocate, she supports regional and underrepresented voices while secretly trying to finish her next Sydney Fringe show.
She’s been an ArtsHub member since 2021.
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Susie Fagan: video transcript
My name’s Susie Fagan. I’m a writer and performer, originally from Ireland.
I write poetry, for spoken word. I love listening to other people’s poetry readings and stories. There’s a big movement at the moment towards storytelling events and I find they’re quite powerful. It’s really quite cathartic, not only for the person reading it but also the person listening.
But comedy is a different beast. I think a lot, obviously, about the writing and then I edit that because you have to go in a certain timeframe, and then you can rehearse it on your own – the way the lines are delivered, so you understand the lead-up and then the punchline and everything.
But then, performing that is obviously totally different because it also depends on the audience. It depends on the energy of you, the room, the set-up. The things that you feel you’ve mastered can fall flat, and then there are things that you just throw in and ad-lib, where you didn’t think too much about the writing but you just sort of chuck in, and everyone’s falling about and laughing.
And then you come back to that set and do it again. And then you’re going ‘All right, OK, OK – so I’ll drag the thing out that people did find funny that I didn’t think was that funny …’
Susie Fagan: juggling motherhood and comedy … and writing
If you’ve ever done juggling as a left-hander who is really uncoordinated – that’s kind of what it’s like juggling motherhood … You’ve got to carve time out to produce the work, and that can be when the kids are resting, when the kids are at a soccer match, or whatever it is. That doesn’t mean your headspace is in the place to do ten minutes of pick-up from the last thing you wrote or get into some weird comedy scene that you’ve just finished, on a practical level.
A corporate mind would think, ‘Oh, well, I need to finish this project, I need to finish this email, this thing, before I can sign off for the day’. And I was always under the impression that I should do that, so therefore everything became really overwhelming because it was like, ‘I need to write a whole chapter in various times of the day’. I’m finding pockets and finishing halfway through a scene or a quarter of the way through, because it’s easier to pick up where you left off from.
That’s been something I’ve learned just recently.
Meet the members: Greg Eldridge, Opera Director
I would say I clearly adore self-sabotage. On a practical level, I have to be really careful with my time. When I was starting out, I was just l doing every sort of room, which you’re supposed to do to get performance experience and figure out what works with an audience in that kind of way.
I’m very selective now about what I choose to give my energy to.
I really just did it for myself. I started it when I was pregnant and I kept doing it. I thought, ‘I just love making people laugh’.
Susie Fagan: advice for comedians starting out
My advice for someone starting out? Don’t be a dick. Just don’t be a dick. I’m still amazed when I go to a room and they might only be doing an open mic, but they might be someone I’ll eventually want to pay to go and see doing their own show. But if they’ve been an asshole on that stage that night, I’m not even going to bother following them, never mind helping to spread the word about them.
There’s a really good new energy in comedy at the moment – I’m hearing their perspective and their story, and I’m like, ‘brilliant’. I think it’s the sense of that camaraderie, that you’re all in it together. It just creates this lovely community.
