There's a story in that: Brisbane Comedy Festival puts life at the centre of laughs
If the adage that 'you're never too old to try something new' applies to anyone on this year's Brisbane Comedy Festival line-up, it's definitely Janty Blair.
Blair, a proud Butchulla, Mununjali and Woppaburra woman, spent more than three decades working as a nurse and midwife. Supporting birthing mothers was her area of expertise.
But a series of events in her mid-50s changed her course towards comedy. Or as she puts it: 'comedy found me'.
'I had just gotten back into [nursing and midwifery] and I had moved up to Hervey Bay,' she explains. 'Then my sister cousin who I was very close to passed away.
'And I said to myself, 'what would I do if I couldn't fail?''
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A few months after COVID ended, Blair helped her sister produce a comedy show in Townsville. It was a huge success.
By the time she found herself on a Bumble date in Byron Bay at a comedy afternoon, her destiny was all but writing itself.
'There were all these non-Indigenous women performing, and I thought, no one looks like me,' Blair says.
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