In her 21st year of performing, comedian Fiona O’Loughlin will not be retiring, instead she has forged ahead with a whole new thread of material.
This time around, at 58-years-old, Fiona says she is preparing for a fabulous third chapter of life, and much of this optimism is due to her recent diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Is this a case of over-sharing? The success of Fiona’s latest performance suggests not.
Similar to the decades of positive responses the mother-of-five received from baring her soul, including her fight with alcohol addiction, the audience is connecting with the fresh insights and truths that cross-stitch together this comedy of errors.
Her latest stage show ‘Truths from an unreliable witness’ is adapted from her book by the same name. Reviews have noted that the book contains “bolder content than ever before”.
She is performing as part of the Sunshine Coast Comedy Festival, which brings artists together for four days across various venues, including the Events Centre, NightQuarter and Venue 114. It begins on Thursday, November 11. Information and tickets: sunshinecoastcomedyfestival.com
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Fiona was born in Adelaide to an Australian-Irish family. In 1985 she married dentist Chris O’Loughlin and together they had five children (they were married 27 years before divorcing and lived in Alice Springs).
In the 1990s she began writing a column for the Centralian Advocate and emceeing cabaret shows at the Araluen Arts Centre.
By 1994, she was doing a weekly radio segment on the ABC. In 2000, she performed at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. However, it was in 2009, after she collapsed on stage at a Brisbane show, that she outed her alcohol addiction and subsequent jumps on and off the wagon.
“I’ve now been sober since December 17, 2019,” she says.
Despite the ups and downs, her creativity and audience appeal have seen her become a favourite Australian personality. She is a regular at the Melbourne International Comedy festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has also appeared on television shows such as Spicks and Specks, Rove Live, Good News Week, All-Star Family Feud, Studio 10, The Project and others.
In 2014, she was the subject of Australian Story where she spoke about her struggle with alcohol. In 2018, she showed off her survival skills, competing in and winning the reality television show I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and the title of ‘Queen of the Jungle.’
Fiona was thrilled to win and also thrilled to find out she could add ADHD to her personal history.
She says she found out purely by accident, but also because she has regular neuro examinations due to her suffering blackouts from frontal lobe damage caused by drinking.
The ADHD diagnosis has given Fiona “a glimpse of my mind”.
She explains that it has given her an opportunity to understand herself, how she works, why she does some things well and not others.
“I look at myself and think ‘You poor thing, no wonder you drank’,” she says.
“I see that alcoholism doesn’t make up the full picture of my life — it’s about 20 per cent of the picture.”
Fiona believes that the universe hands you a bill for your life and this diagnosis has allowed her to come to terms with her bill.
“I’m now at peace with my bill, my circumstances,” she says.
The ADHD medication has also meant she is now more fully able to sustain her focus. As a result, she was able to sit down for five hours and compose the material for this stage show.
Of course, it would have been wonderful to have been give an earlier diagnosis, but the ever-optimistic comedian is delighted to know now and reckons this knowledge will only add to an even better third chapter of her life.
