Nicolette Minster

‘Uninterrupted Porch Thoughts’

If you’re familiar with Melbourne bred comedians who are making a splash in the world of laughs, then Nicolette Minster may have already served you up a barrel or two.

Nicolette’s highly acclaimed comedy act – Girls Uninterrupted, partnered with comedienne Louise Joy McCrae (otherwise known as ‘Lou’), took critics and audiences by storm earlier this year during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Between writing new material with Lou for their latest show, entitled FML, which will debut at the Fringe Festival in September, and filming their online series Northside, based on their comedy sketches, Nicolette has also been preparing for possibly her biggest role as the new comedic face for retail store Target.

Due to her busy filming schedule, I caught up with Nicolette on her Porch (eventually) – jogging around the industrial area of Hoddle Street / Punt Road in Collingwood.

I have to ask (please slow down Nicolette) - why do you consider this industrial area to be your Porch?

It’s a great place where I can be alone with my thoughts – mainly because no-one wants to run with me – except you today, but we’ll see how you go. Mark! Mark, where’d you go?

After our jog this morning, what are your commitments for the rest of the day?

I have in-store promotional work at Target in Doncaster. We are developing Instagram and Vine (short video) profiles for the new advertising campaigns in preparation for the official launch.

What exactly are you doing as the new international face of Target?

My comedic character, Rondelle, is obsessed with Target, and will be popping up a lot over the coming months in a number of commercials, which have just started to be televised. We’ve completed three commercials so far.

How would you best describe Rondelle?

Rondelle is a shopaholic with an incredible eye for a great deal, and she wants everyone to know about it. It’s hardly a stretch for me as an actress, I love a bargain. The ridiculous part is that, during my voice over recordings, I find myself being truly excited about what we’re advertising. They have to edit out some of my ad lib comments like, ‘this is REALLY cheap!’

When did you discover your love for acting?

I was encouraged by my parents to try acting at a young age, and, as I really enjoyed it, I stuck with it. My second choice back then was hairdressing –my ambition was to be the next Vidal Sassoon – so my lack of a remarkable hair-do is probably why my parents let me pursue the acting career.

What were some of your first professional acting gigs?

As a three year-old, I played the part of Kahlia (the second daughter of Lindy Chamberlain) in Evil Angels. I had a couple of lines of dialogue with Meryl Streep. I had no idea who she was. From there, I went on to play Paul Robinson’s (Stefan Dennis) daughter in Neighbours.

Australia and Melbourne have a rich palette of female trail-blazing comedians. Who did you enjoy watching growing up, and perhaps sparked your flair for a career in stand-up and sketch comedy?

Although I was influenced by a number of Australian, British and American comediennes, including Julia Zemiro and stage actress Kristin O’Leary, I would say Mary-Anne Fahey, and her ‘Kylie Mole’ character were my earliest inspiration. I’ve also seen that with many TV network channels now available, repeats of Fast Forward have been showing recently, featuring Gina Riley, whose work I’ve always admired.

What inspired your ‘Girls Uninterrupted’ comedy act with Louise Joy McCrae (‘Lou’)?

It was almost a happy accident. We were a year apart at Ballarat Uni and had shared accommodation for a while. We met again later as keen visitors to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. After an initial chat over coffee, and a brief try-out of our respective material, we happened to meet a comedy producer who affirmed that Lou and I had great chemistry. It made sense to combine our talents (and share the workload), and so a duo was born.

Your last show, ‘Good Value’ received an impressive 4.5 star rating from the Herald-Sun. How do you believe you’ve most won over your critics and audiences?

I think they see we’re not afraid to be authentically ourselves. Our humour is not about being particularly political or topical, but as simple and universal as being involved with basic human experiences, and having a good time with our audience.

Your new show FML will debut at the Fringe Festival in September. What does FML stand for and what will we expect to see?

FML is essentially a show that no acronym can’t describe. It’s a show about failure, small triumphs and life's sticky situations, that we tell by using our unique style. At times it borders on being an absurd brand of sketch comedy. It’s dark and full of pleasant surprises - it’s a lot of fun.

You’ve received critical acclaim at successive Melbourne International Comedy Festivals. How does each Festival differ from the previous one?

There’s a huge difference every year, as there’s no guarantee that what worked at last year’s festival will work again this year. Humour is very subjective (and there’s always a scary thought that we’ll be ‘found out’ as frauds!), so we have to be prepared for the highs and lows, but it’s always a relief when we know that the audience ‘gets’ us. We can then just get on with the show, and with having fun!

Your Northside comedy sketch series is based on Girls Uninterrupted, featuring yourself and Lou, has been released to social media sites. What is the series about?

Northside is an online series of short ‘webisodes’, with some running narrative, as well as short sketches built on characters we’ve developed from living on the ‘north side’ of the Yarra. These are often the type of sketch which is logistically difficult to do on stage, but lends itself well to video, particularly with the freedom that this medium offers to be ourselves completely. We worked with a fantastic Production crew (lead by Pennie Brown), and have done 6 webisodes to-date.

Why did you and Lou create the series?

We thought that during our stage-show ‘downtime’, we’d introduce our act to a different audience group, who are more used to online entertainment; they might then decide to come and see our live show in person.

What is your Porch Thought For The Day?

“If you’re putting in the long hours to be successful in your work, make it something you really enjoy; if you’re doing a 17-hour day, make it ‘fun and fast.”