Interview: Susie McCabe on Domestic Disaster

Susie McCabe on good housekeeping and toxic feminism

feature (adelaide) | Read in About 2 minutes
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Susie McCabe Domestic Disaster by Aemen at Jiksaw
Published 26 Feb 2019

Nine years ago, Susie McCabe told the teacher of a standup comedy course, "I don't think I've ever spoken into a microphone."

Nine years later she's a Scottish Comedy Award winner, has sold out at both the Glasgow Comedy Festival and Edinburgh Fringe, and is a regular headliner and MC at Glasgow's comedy clubs.

After touring Domestic Disaster all over Scotland she brings it to Adelaide. McCabe's excitement to be here for the first time is effervescent. "My promoter had been asking me for a few years to come out, but circumstances wouldn’t allow it," she says. "Then last year I took a sabbatical off work, dipped my toe in the water with Perth [Fringe], and had a great time." She adds that "being on the other side of the world" is helping her develop her craft. "I had to change certain points of reference – it's how you do that and how you learn to do that. And your diction has to be better because I have a broad Glaswegian accent."

It was being out of her comfort zone that spurred Domestic Disaster into being. After a marriage breakdown, McCabe found herself moving back in with her parents before meeting her new partner, Nicola. "The difference between when you're dating in that beautiful rainbows, hearts and bubble of dating and then you move in with them – it all changes. The things that you don't notice when you're dating and they don’t notice about you. There were a few disasters along the way."

While McCabe is willing to poke fun at herself, her show has a deeper meaning. "Both my mum and Nicola came to me and said 'you're terrible at this [housekeeping] for a woman' and I said 'that's massively sexist'."

McCabe dives into toxic feminism and the internalised misogyny that sees women criticising other women rather than being kind and supporting each other. She promises audiences can expect "an hour of laughs, storytelling and fun. But they will walk away thinking, 'I've done that, and I’ve watched that.' … It's not a monologue, it’s an hour of funny stories that you can relate to."