Cool Mum debuts parenting jokes in Whangārei for Fringe Fest

Joanna Prendergast aka The Cool Mum is debuting in Whangārei on Friday.

When Joanna Prendergast's gig in the 2020 New Zealand International Comedy Festival was cancelled, she channelled her lockdown energy into writing a new show.

Fine-tuning it via Zoom meetings with friends and fellow comedians, she emerged with a well-polished show called The Cool Mum and it's coming to Whangārei on Friday.

The Cool Mum is an award-winning parody of a celebrity parenting seminar and the material derives from her own experiences with her children, aged 17 and 19, and is enjoyed by audiences aged 12 years and over.

"People particularly liked my Cool Mum comedy material (interspersed in previous shows), and it was relatable to all ages, so I decided to develop my solo show around that theme," she said.

Prendergast chose medical school over drama school, becoming a psychiatrist by day. However, she kept her finger in the pie with performing and it was while acting in a TV show pilot several years ago that a comedy producer suggested she try stand-up comedy.

"Stand-up comedy is most people's biggest fear but I like a challenge so gave it a go three years ago and haven't stopped since," said the 51-year-old, who went on to win multiple awards in comedy.  "It's an amazing feeling to have a room of people, having a great time and laughing at your jokes."

Although Prendergast's day job as a private psychiatrist gives her insight into how comedians tick, she has professional boundaries and respects mental health. For this reason, she performs comedy as the persona/character "Jo Ghastly" and avoids jokes about mental health content.

"A lot of comedians struggle with mental health and I think a lot of my comedian friends felt really down and lost their creative mojo during lockdown," she mused. "But Zoom kept ticking over so we had a silver lining out of it rather than just curling up in a ball.

"I think comedians thrive on a dopamine surge while performing live and having people laugh at material. Certainly, if you monitor your heart rate, it does have the same effect as when you go for a run but it can also be a bit like a drug," she said.

"Obviously when it's completely bombing it's different."

Her comedy developed from how she thinks her teenage children see her: embarrassing, trying to be cool and failing miserably. The show parodies how people believe "all sorts of rubbish, just because it's delivered by a charismatic celebrity". It mainly focuses on parenting challenges and observations of life and most of the content is light-hearted jokes. However, there are some truthful, take-home messages about parenting and life in the show.

"I have threaded some genuine parenting advice, surrounded by snippets of jokes so hopefully people might get some lightbulb moments," Prendergast said.

She said most of her humour is relatable content and her audience attracts grandparents with grandkids and groups of mothers on mums' nights out.

"The way the show works is there's probably something for everybody and I do try and pull everybody in. I think what's universally relatable is stuff to do with parenting so most of it is humour that is relatable content, rather than complex jokes that you need to be in on a particular thing.

"Young people find it funny and think 'How on Earth does a woman in her 50s know about that?'"

Prendergast admits to stalking her teenagers on social media, creating her own TikTok account, to become a cool mum and is well aware her daughter periodically blocks her in amongst sending dance videos to each other. However, both her children have fully-consented to the material for the show, including the slides of themselves used for illustration.

The Cool Mum debuts in Whangārei on Friday at ONEONESIX Bank St from 6.30pm as part of the Fringe Festival line-up. Go to: www.whangareifringe.co.nz for more information.