Tanyalee Davis first appeared here back in 2001, having forged a name for herself both at home in the US (though the three-foot-six comedian is Canadian-born) and across the UK.
She has recently wrapped performances at the Soho Theatre, featured on Live At The Apollo’s first Christmas special, and is unleashing her updated show on Australian soil after 26 years of honing her craft. Actual Size arrives direct from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and is already being hailed as an enlightened and entertaining hoot.
“It’s kind of a different ball game for me this time,” Davis explains. “Back then I was very fortunate to meet up with Fahey [Younger] and Linda [Haggar] from Miss Itchy, who I met online through a comedy forum. They came to Los Angeles and we had a kind of reunion of all the comedians who were on this forum. I’d told them I’d love to go to Australia, but I didn’t know anything about it – at that time I’d never done anything like that. [MICF] being an invite-only thing, they ended up bringing me over, which was an amazing experience, but I really didn’t have enough material. We padded it out with a video of me at Disneyland with the two of them walking up to me thinking I was a lost little girl, trying to help me find my parents. It was funny and a cute gag, but it was also to gloss over the fact I didn’t have enough material for a full set.”
She laughs. “Now, I’m very happy with this show – I think my act is really solid and the audience is going to get a good laugh. I feel like this time around, it’s my time.”
Davis has every right to feel excited. Her voice is bright, full of energy and comic asides, and the lessons learned in a life of stand-up over 25 years are employed to full effect. This was not always going to be the case, however. Growing up in Canada, Davis had every intention of breaking into the world of acting, but fate (in the form of a penguin) intervened.
“I grew up in the ’70s, where parents plunked you in front of the television instead of actually parenting, so I watched a lot of American sitcoms. I loved Robin Williams in Mork & Mindy. I’d always try out for school performances and end up in the background playing a tree or something nonsensical. Never the leads – they eluded me. When I graduated, my family told me I needed to go to university. But when I got there I realised you really are studying theatre – we didn’t really get to perform, dammit! So I started doing community theatre and auditioned for a Christmas performance and got the lead. I was Perry The Penguin, and the other adult in the production, I started dating. Apparently he had a thing for penguins. But he asked if I wanted to go down to the comedy club to watch him, and that was my first ever exposure to stand-up.
“When we got there and I saw people just stood up and performed, I thought it was amazing. And then I realised how badly this guy sucked. I could tell instinctively the things he was doing wrong. And he was like, ‘You think you can do better than me?’ And I thought, ‘Well, yeah!’ So they got me up there on January 23rd, 1990. And here I am. He later dumped me for a seal, but hey – now I’m living the dream.”
Tanyalee Davis’ Actual Size runsThursday April 21 – Sunday April 24 at Enmore Theatre, as part of the Sydney Comedy Festival 2016.
