From Open Mic to Opening Night: Bron Lewis’s Rocket Ride in Comedy
Bron Lewis’s ascent from winning the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s (MICF) RAW comedy competition to hosting the festival’s opening night show has been nothing short of meteoric. MICF director Susan Provan herself confirmed the remarkable speed of Lewis’s career trajectory, a sentiment Lewis echoes, admitting, “There’s some days where it feels like it’s gone so quickly.”
This rapid progression is a testament to Lewis’s unwavering dedication, a mindset forged during her formative years in the Brisbane comedy scene as COVID-19 restrictions began to ease. She recalls advice from Fedele Crisci, director of the Brisbane Sit Down Comedy Club, who told her, “Whatever you do, just don’t take a break.” Lewis took this advice to heart, and the rewards have been substantial: multiple sold-out live tours, a regular spot on Channel Ten’s Have You Been Paying Attention, a significant social media following exceeding 300,000, and the publication of her own book.
Navigating States of Transition
Originally hailing from Canberra, Lewis, her partner, and their two young children relocated from Melbourne to Brisbane in early 2020. At the time, Lewis was heavily pregnant with her third child. Undeterred, she plunged headfirst into Brisbane’s vibrant, albeit smaller, comedy circuit, frequently performing four to five spots a week.
“I was lucky that when I got to Brisbane, people thought that because I was in my mid-30s and I was pregnant with my third child I was more established than I was,” Lewis reveals. “I’d only probably done like maybe 10 awful gigs in Melbourne, bombed more than I did well.”
Remarkably, just three weeks after welcoming her youngest son, Lewis was back on stage, tackling some of the city’s most challenging comedy rooms to maintain her momentum. “I did the really hard gigs, like the ones that sting, the ones that make your skin crawl, the ones that like make your ears ring from the silence,” she recounts. “You just have to kind of grin and bear it because this is what I’ve signed up for. And you just do a free gig, which is what a lot of comedy is at the start.” She would then dissect each performance, asking, “Okay, that hurt. No-one laughed at anything, but what did I learn from that?”
The demanding nature of motherhood and her work as a teacher provided Lewis with a crucial perspective that shielded her from the sting of less-than-stellar gigs. “I had this running alongside an early motherhood with a five-year-old, a seven-year-old and newborn, so I had this really deafening perspective the entire time,” she explains. “It was easy to wash off the hard gigs because I had a real job to do. Like people were depending on me to keep them alive.”
Her dedication soon bore fruit. By the end of 2021, Lewis was crowned the Queensland champion of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s esteemed RAW comedy competition. The following year, she clinched the national title.
The Intersection of Comedy and Motherhood
Lewis wasted no time capitalising on her RAW success. She quickly developed her first solo hour show, Probably, which earned her a nomination for Best Newcomer at MICF 2023. As opportunities multiplied, Lewis and her family moved back to Melbourne, immersing themselves in a larger and more competitive comedy scene. Simultaneously, she was navigating the demands of being a touring comedian, recording her podcast Work Hates with fellow comedian Brett Blake, and undertaking numerous television appearances.
Despite the pressures of her burgeoning comedy career, Lewis insists that motherhood presented a far greater challenge. “With motherhood, you are constantly confronted with potential failure or heartbreaking actual failure like, ‘I can’t believe I forgot the athletics carnival and you had to wait for me. I’m so sorry’,” she shares. “Motherhood feels like this insurmountable pressure that I often get wrong. Even though the kids might not necessarily see it as a failure, it’s like the top layer of your skin has been removed, all your nerves are exposed the whole time. So I had that running alongside comedy where I could actually see progress.”
Lewis has adeptly cultivated a strong connection with her growing fanbase through her savvy use of social media. Her Instagram feed often features a blend of skits about the realities of being a high school teacher alongside lighthearted posts about her everyday struggles.
Recognising a deeper need from her audience, Lewis decided to channel her experiences into her book, I’m Not Mad (Anymore). This work serves as a compelling hybrid of memoir and practical guide for mothers. “I document my experience of early motherhood, how brutal that was and how I dealt with it pretty poorly. My mental health went down the toilet and I had postnatal anxiety and postnatal depression,” she candidly admits.
While a departure from her typical comedic output, the response to Lewis’s personal narrative has been overwhelmingly positive. “So many people have reached out and been like, you articulated early motherhood exactly how I experienced it,” she says. “We don’t talk about that stuff. I remember when I was in the early stages of motherhood, when I was kind of drowning and thinking, ‘why did no-one tell me it was going to be this hard?’ I just wrote the book that I wanted to write when I was in that stage. And in doing so, I now have so many strangers that have had so much access to some really hard parts [of my life], but it’s been just positive.”
For any expectant mothers in their mid-30s contemplating a foray into comedy, Lewis offers this encouraging advice: “If it’s what you want to do, just go for it. And if it doesn’t work, who cares? Your kids will still be there.”
The Opening Night Comedy Allstars Supershow will be broadcast on Wednesday, 25th March, on ABC iview. Bron Lewis’s book, I’m Not Mad (Anymore), is available now through Simon & Schuster.
