Kirsty Webeck Photo: Supplied
Kirsty Webeck is one of Australia’s busiest comedians. But her path into comedy was anything but conventional. Moving back to Australia after spending six years working and living in Taiwan, she found herself in a government department role she wasn’t enjoying so after having an epiphany one morning - signed up to a comedy course then and there.
The comedian is bringing her show I’ll Be The Judge of That back to New Zealand after a successful run at the NZ International Comedy Festival earlier in the year. This time, she’ll be taking the show to Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North and Christchurch between the 25th and 28th of September.
Webeck had always been told by family and friends she was funny and should try standup. But entertaining those who know you, versus jumping on stage to be intentionally funny, not to mention crafting a show, she says are entirely different skills.
To appeal to strangers, Webeck often opens her shows with personal information as both an introduction and to set up the atmosphere. She’s been described as a “clean comedian” - meaning she rarely swears or writes overtly sexual comedy. She says it wasn’t entirely intentional or even reflective of what she’s like off-stage but she gravitates towards observational comedy and finds humour in the mundane.
A regular fixture on the live comedy circuit and a regular guest on radio and podcasts across the Tasman, Webeck has appeared in Channel 10's Just For Laughs, Question Everything and The Project. In 2022, her first stand-up comedy special Silver Linings was released on Paramount Plus.
Kirsty Webeck spoke to Culture 101’s Perlina Lau about unexpectedly pursuing comedy as a career and being a gay woman in the Australian comedy industry.
