“TransTasmanian” comedienne, Sacha Jones, chats with me about her struggles in New Zealand’s comedy circuit.

Stand-up comedians and comediennes have never claimed to be our therapists, or politically correct commentators, as far as I’m aware. They’re brash, edgy, irreverent, and controversial, which is basically their job description. At least, that’s how it used to be. Now, there are venues which “don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable”, as Sacha quotes one venue manager in the video below. They fear the backlash from those who might be offended by any of the comedy routine’s content.

Here in New Zealand, much of what we’ve heard about comedy artists being cancelled, is from overseas. And much of that is due to threats of serious disruption by transactivists, and boycotts from a venue’s transactivist staff. Not so much, of course, if the comedy artists are Ricky Gervaise or Dave Chapelle, although neither is a comedienne.

Being a country with a small population, the ‘cancellation’ here appears to be more covert, and much less direct than the overt cancellation which overseas comedy artists can experience. The ones here are still equally as subject to the whims and fears of those running the show, though.

Australian-born Sacha Jones, who now resides in New Zealand, refers to herself as ‘TransTasmanian’. It alludes to how she pops back and forth over the Tasman Sea between the two countries, or “straddles the ditch”, as she also puts it. Due to Sacha also being a terf, her use of ‘trans’ in the expression ‘TransTasmanian’ could be considered – gasp – somewhat controversial and irreverent. Imagine that - a comedienne being controversial and irreverent!

To add to her sins, Sacha is not a young woman, and the comedy circuit, apparently, shudders at such non-conformity. Weird, eh? One would think that the comedy circuit would embrace non-conformity, but only, it seems - and especially now - if it falls within acceptable non-conformist parameters. Older women have always been expected to be invisible, but there’s a growing cohort of older women who are rejecting that, and maybe the comedy circuit needs to get on board.

TransTasmanian Sacha Jones talks with me about NZ's comedy circuit, and her book 'The Fatter Sex'.