Effie is on fire for the Sydney Comedy Festival
The Sydney Comedy Festival has had us in stitches for 20 years since the inaugural event in 2005, and over 270 local and international acts are sure to have you rolling in the aisles at venues including the Concourse in Chatswood.
Iconic Greek goddess of comedy, Effie Stephanidis (AKA Mary Coustas) is back with her new show, UPYOURSELFNESS, at The Concourse on 10 May.
Mary burst onto Aussie screens as Effie in sitcom Acropolis Now in 1989 – with attitude as big as her hair – and Effie is still entertaining Aussies over 35 years later.
Mary, now 60, says Effie was inspired by a conversation she overheard in a bathroom in a café on Lygon Street in Melbourne.
“While I was in a cubicle, I heard these girls talking with this very thick accent,” Mary tells NL. “They were obviously Italian or Greek, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I just love the sound of that.’ They were talking about typical girl stuff – about a guy and whether he liked her or not, and they were doing their makeup. It was a bit like a nightclub, but it was a coffee shop,” Mary laughs. “When I walked out and saw the hair, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I am so doing this.’”
Mary felt seen and appreciated growing up in multicultural and working class Collingwood, Melbourne, and says she’d have probably been Effie if she hadn’t left the area. When she was thrust into the white middle class after leaving Collingwood, she felt like the odd one out.
“That’s when the racism really started to kick in,” says Mary. “But it ended up informing my career to do shows like Wogs Out of Work (stage show) and Acropolis Now that changed the social landscape in the country, which I’m very proud of.”
Effie became an ‘unlikely feminist,’ outspoken, and audiences love her honesty on topics such as love and relationships, the COVID-19 pandemic or, as in her new show, political correctness.
“She talks about the contradictions in the battle between political correctness and freedom of speech. She’s not anti PC, but she’s saying, ‘Let’s not just judge people by the words they use. Let’s look at their intention above all things.’”
As a Greek, Mary was always around a lot of larger than life characters and storytellers, people who were comfortable putting their opinions out there.
“We’re very verbal. We’re very loud and we’re very okay with our big emotions,” explains Mary. I was always attracted to funny – is there anything better than being around people who can make you laugh?”
Mary will join a host of Australian icons hitting Sydney’s stages this year, including award-winning sketch comedy duo Hot Department, First Nations comedians Leon Filewood and Dane Simpson, and actor, TV writer and comedian Greg Larsen.
Global comedy superstars include Red Richardson from Ricky Gervais and Friends, Taiwanese-American funny man Jason Cheny, and Hong Kong- bred bilingual comic Vivek Mahbubani who performs in Cantonese.
Lavish gala events will kick off the hilarity, while the End of Fest Gala at the Enmore Theatre will close the festival with a bang.
SYDNEY COMEDY FESTIVAL
21 April to 18 May
Expect sketch, satire, improv, musical, magic and laughs galore
Venues: Sydney Opera House, State Theatre, Enmore Theatre, Riverside Theatres Parramatta, The Concourse Chatswood
For Information and tickets, visit: sydneycomedyfest.com.au
For accessibility information, email info@sydneycomedyfest.com.au or call 9550 3666
