Internationally award-winning Aussie comedian and mother of six – “three I made myself, three I outsourced” – Jenny Wynter says that her unusual family life reflects the way she works onstage: by throwing away the script.
Jenny is making her UK debut this May with Jenny Wynter: By Request – in which she quite literally abandons the script, instead asking the audience to put written suggestions onstage to help create an improvised musical comedy hour which has received rave reviews.
Her journey into comedy – from starting semi-accidentally “just to get a night out of the house when the kids were tiny” has been as improvised as her shows onstage, with Wynter carving a path while raising her family in small town Australia.
“I did my first festival when my youngest was two – and I brought him on tour. I’d perform, then pay the teenaged babysitter more money than I’d made that night, crawl into bed with my toddler and rock myself to sleep in a manner that was part-lullaby part nervous-breakdown. But then on the final night I won an award, which gave me just enough validation that I deleted my application to run an at-home day-care.”
Wynter has since trained and performed with some of improvised comedy’s best in the world including Second City and Loose Moose Theatre in Canada, home of the late great Keith Johnstone.
“It’s taken me a long time to finally get to the UK,” she says, “I just hope that to show their appreciation they’ll really pull out all the stops, like hold a coronation or an international singing contest while I’m in town. That’s my love language.”
SEE JENNY WYNTER PERFORM::
Event – JENNY WYNTER: BY REQUEST AT BRIGHTON FRINGE FESTIVAL
When – Thurs/Friday 18, 19th, 25th, 26th May 8.30pm
Where – Caravanserai Brighton: Junk Poets – St Peter’s Church North, East Sussex
Tickets – Standard £10 Concession £8
TO BOOK TICKETS www.jennywynter.com or https://www.brightonfringe.
