Check Youssef Before You Wreck Youssef

‘I tell the most embarrassing story I’ve ever told on stage,’ Susie Youssef promises, in discussion about her upcoming comedy show, Check Youssef Before You Wreck Youssef. ‘There’s sketches, stand up, storytelling, and a bit from a character I’ve developed over the years called Anya. It’s got jokes in it too, so I promise it’s funny!’

The show’s a bit about anxiety and shame. Susie tells us how she manages to find good in the world when there’s so much bad going on. ‘My dad in particular, but my family in general, are who help me find the goodness in the world,’ Youssef tells Milk Bar Magazine.

Youssef is performing at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) from Thursday 24th March – Sunday 17th April. Youssef admits that she is terrified.

‘I’m really excited but I’m also terrified. I’ve run the show a few times in Sydney, but this will be the official debut of the show,’ she says. ‘It’s a little bit different to my last two shows, which were a little more sketch heavy. This show’s a bit darker, and I tell lots of stories.’

The comedian, actor, writer and improviser admits that she hasn’t always wanted to get involved in the world of comedy. ‘I wanted to be a history teacher, but after getting into a degree, I realised I loved the history part of it, but hated the education part of it,’ she says. Youssef deferred the degree and began an improv comedy course. ‘That was eleven years ago, and I haven’t look back since. I never went back to university, I just kept performing.’

She says getting experience came from constantly saying yes and putting her hand up for as many jobs and gigs she could. ‘When I first started out, it was improv and theatre shows that I would say yes to, where there were lots of people involved,’ Youssef says. ‘It was through that community that I met a Sydney sketch group called The Delusionists, and I started performing with them, and then from that sketch group I did a two-person show with one of the guys from that group, and from there I went back into producing comedy, which I found was a good way to learn the business.’

The Sydney-based comedian says there’s no average day on the job. There’s typically about nine months of preparation for the festival season, which begins in January. ‘I walk around writing notes; I have a billion different notes in my phone of ideas for sketches.’

If Youssef isn’t at the front of the venue “flyering” and encouraging people to come see her show, she’ll be backstage trying to quell her anxiety. ‘Usually about half an hour before the show, my hands start to shake really bad, so I try and do breathing exercises, and I dance around and try and distract myself as best as possible.’

She’s participated in the MICF before, and says that performing night after night can be a roller coaster experience. ‘Sometimes you have amazing nights and you just don’t want it to end, and other nights you’ll get a bad crowd, or a small crowd, or you get a bad review, and it can shake you up,’ she says. ‘The best thing is, that after doing the festival for a few years, you’ve got all of these mates who are doing the exact same thing. Sometimes it’s a good dinner with a friend that’ll get you out of a slump, sometimes it’s a whisky.’

Youssef says that the crowd at MICF are generally well behaved and supportive. ‘You go in there and you’re like, “I can handle anything, come at me”, and then you go out there and they’re all just lovely and you realise that was all unnecessary preparation,’ she says.

Even though she’s been preparing for this show for months, Youssef promises that no two shows will be the same. ‘Some shows change because of the state of where you’re performing, and you have to address that. I did a trial show once that was in the middle of the Sydney siege, and we didn’t know how bad that was going to get, and it was absolutely horrifying. The theatre knew we were safe to perform, but there was so much tension,’ she says. ‘Also, sometimes something really funny will happen during your day and you’ll want to bring it up, and sometimes you interact with the audience a little bit, and that always changes the content.’

Check Youssef Before You Wreck Youssef
Melbourne Town Hall, Backstage Room, corner of Swanston and Collins Streets, Melbourne
Thursday March 24 – Sunday April 17, 7pm and 6pm (Sunday)
comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/check-youssef-before-you-wreck-youssef-susie-youssef