I’d love to know when you first found out that you had a knack for making people laugh?
When I was five I started imitating those around me. My mother thought it was a little inappropriate considering the person I was imitating was witness to my version of them but it got lots of laughs and because I was a kid I got away with it.

What would you say was your big break in the industry?
Wogs out of Work was the first big theatre show I did. It was a cultural phenomenon as well as a commercial hit. The audiences were extremely vocal, devoted and appreciative that we knew a national nerve had been touched. So many people saw the show multiple times over the 3 years it ran. It was incredibly satisfying to be part of something so ground breaking, so brave and so loved.

When did comedy turn from a passion into a career?
The minute I got my first laugh on stage I knew I was addicted. Laughter is one of my biggest passions – to be able to make people laugh for a living is incredibly satisfying. I don’t know whether I thought ahead of what I was doing at the time, I just wanted to keep working and luckily the opportunities kept appearing.

March 2016 will see you return as Effie for Effie: The Virgin Bride, what can audiences expect from the show?
It will be Effie’s finest hours – we will see her in all her glory, with all her heart and all her issues of which there are many – on the day she has been dreaming about her whole life. We all want to see people we love in their element – the audience has been witness to Effie for over 25 years I think they have earned the right to be part of the biggest day of her life – her wedding day. Historically my shows have been very interactive. I like my audience to be part of what they are experiencing. There will be a few surprises and lots of celebration and laughter.

What are you doing in this show that you’ve never done before?
Scale wise this is the biggest show I have done. It is being performed in big beautiful theatres that allow us to create the atmosphere that we want this show to have. The show will engage, entertain and uplift the audience in a way that makes them feel like they are witness to a very live event. My objective is to stretch myself further than I ever have before – to expose as many familiar and unforgettable truths as I can. These are the things that bind us, that prove to us that wherever were from, whoever we are – we are all pretty much the same. That’s where the laughter and pathos will spring from. Ok, so Effie more up herself than a Virgin Bride, but you get my drift.

This performance will include some very personal confessions, what inspired you to come forth about these issues?
I think the most liberating thing you can do is be truthful, to expose as much humanity as possible, to risk being judged. In the past reaped the benefits of that both personally and publicly, it’s why I chose to act and why I chose to create characters out of the community I live in. I want people to relate. I want people to walk out of the theatre feeling better about who they are. I want people to feel galvanised by the others in that theatre that feel that too. Life can be very tough – there’s no shame in admitting that. There is no avoiding the suffering – I hope that what I offer from the stories I tell is some comfort. I know how much it’s helped me to share it.

Was the creation of Effie: The Virgin Bride a cathartic process for you?
Effie is the girl I would have become had I not been ripped out of the multicultural working class suburb of Collingwood and thrust into the Anglo Saxon middle class suburb of Doncaster when I was nine. Effie is the love letter to that first decade of my life. Watching her grow alongside me for the last 28 years has been a lot of fun. This show Effie: The Virgin Bride is there show where it all comes together. The self obsessed, up herself, frigid, Effie is about to grow up and couple up. I have been so excited to write about that, it has been a lot hard work but a lot of fun too. I can’t wait to share that with her fans.

How did diving into the character help you confront the topics you discuss in your opening monologue?
There are no limits when you play a narcissistic, innocent, delusional and loveable character like Effie. I think that’s why she’s been able to exist in the public eye for such a long time. I love nothing more than to put her amongst real people, to talk about the real things we all struggle with and to be able to perforate the uncomfortable and awkward things with her naive and honest perspective.

What do you hope audience members will think, feel or take away from this performance?
More than anything I want people to have a great time, to laugh, to celebrate, to relate and to participate with all of it. I want them to go home with great memories and lots of quotes. I want them to want to go back to the theatre more because of my show. I know when I see a show I love it makes me more open to what else is out there. Theatre is a wonderful art form and the more people that see it the better.

How do you go about keeping such a long-running character fresh?
When I get into character I lose myself in a very happy place. I liken Effie to the feeling I get in winter when I put my Ugg boots on. Time stands still when I perform. It’s just my audience and me and that is a place I have been privileged to be able to visit so much in my life; I am never not conscious of that. She has bought much joy and allowed me to venture into places that I had never imagined.

Effie had a few words of advice for The Bachelorette’s Sam Frost recently, what is some of the best advice you’ve ever been given about life or love?
No matter what happens in life – never take the bitter pill, because that will only rob you of what’s possible and great. Stay open to being surprised by love.

You’ve had such an illustrious and successful career, is there anything you can pick that would be a career highlight?
There have been so many highlights. It’s a bit like the movie Sophie’s Choice – I can’t pick one so I’ll pick three. Wogs Out of Work was the biggest most unexpected thrill. We were just out of drama school and suddenly we were in the biggest non-musical show the country had ever seen, it was beyond exciting. My first one woman show Waiting for Effie was the scariest and most fulfilling show I had had done. I was full of fear with what I was about to undertake but somehow I silenced the sabotaging screams inside me enough to go out onto the stage and do something I had always dreamed of. And lastly writing my memoir All I Know a couple of years ago and telling what was the most difficult story of my life – sharing my biggest ever heartbreak – the loss of my stillborn daughter Stevie. That was harrowing – but I knew that it would help me to honour her memory and to be able to be the mouthpiece for so many other like me of which there are far too many, who too have had to live with the enormous and relentless grief that comes with the loss of a child. I have had so many people write to me since I told my story thanking me for speaking of the unspeakable. I was very humbled and privileged by that.

What do you love most about performing in Brisbane? Do you have any spots that you always love to visit?
I love Brisbane! There’s so much to love about it. It’s beauty, its community, its climate, its evolution – I’m a Melbourne girl who lives in Sydney – and I’ve always thought that Brisbane has the best of what those two separate cities have to offer all in one place.

What do you consider your life motto?
‘Never ever ever give up!’, that’s my mother’s motto and it has served me extremely well in my life.

Finally, what’s your personal definition of ‘success’?
Great health, loving relationships and staying grateful.

Tickets to Effie: The Virgin Bride at The Tivoli are now on sale through TicketMaster. Grab some friends and head to what will be the social event of the year.