Fun, fruity, fabulous _{by Fun, fruity, fabulous}

Banana Jolie is a pun-slinging princess of peel who’s been electrifying audiences across the Antipodean festival circuit for the past decade. With her unique blend of witty comedy cabaret, dance, improv, riffing, and high-octane vibes, she’s the complete package, all wrapped up in one neat yellow peel. 

‘Neath the ‘nana skin? One Joana Joy, who I caught up with ahead of her upcoming appearances at Pōneke’s vibrant street festival CubaDupa.

First and foremost, why Banana?

I was named Banana Jolie by Miss Friby (Elizabeth Dawson-Smith), who I worked with a lot in Australia. I lived in Melbourne from 2010 to 2021-ish, and she got me into the festival, carnie, vaudeville scene. Her and I did Australia’s Got Talent together – we were in the final – and she was a solid mentor for a decent time in my life. We still have a great creative partnership. She directed my first one-woman show, and she named me Banana Jolie. Banana rhymes with Joana, and Jolie means pretty, happy. So, pretty banana in French! When she first named me that, I really didn’t like it, but I’m embracing it more and more. It’s great! 

You’re now based in Wellington?

In 2020 I came here and everything flowed so well that I have done several summers of performing around the North Island, and now I’m based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Zooming in from my house in Newtown.

Ah, over yonder! How does the character Banana Jolie fit into your comedic career trajectory?

Banana Jolie’s probably the thing I’ve spent the most time in comedically. Sometimes it’s the actual name of the character, sometimes it’s a Banana Jolie production. If it’s anything that’s not stand-up comedy, it comes under Banana Jolie. She named me that in, I want to say 2014. I think 2016 was when I first made a fruit hat and started to really embody Banana. I started doing a lot of emceeing, festival gigs, and shows, and using that name in the title. As Banana Jolie, I’ve got several shows that I’ve done. Spiritual Banana, Let’s Talk About Peelings, Banana Jolie’s History of Dust and Other Mysteries of the Home, Banana Baywatch, Changing Lives with Joy – a street show that I initially did as Joy, a character who’s an aerobics instructor and an alter-ego of mine, but now I just call that Banana Jolie doing aerobics. There’s been 10 years of me making one-woman shows, and for the last two and a half, I’ve been mostly doing stand-up comedy. I still have all of these skills in circus and dance and cabaret, so it’s really nice to still work in these domains. Which is what I’m doing at CubaDupa!

Great segue. What does your CubaDupa set look like?

Great question – I need to have a chat with Imogen [Stone, managing director of COLOSSAL] about that today [laughs]. I know that Banana Jolie will be hosting the Circus Hub Student Showcase on The COLOSSAL Container Stage. Within that I’ll be doing some classic stuff, stuff from my street show, which involves the Handstand Walk of Life, and other clowning stuff. Banana Jolie shows, and anytime I’m onstage, I’m very interactive. So, we’ll have some kind of activity for people to do together. And then I’m going to be doing Joyrobics, so I’ll be in full aerobics getup, roving the site, going up to people, inviting them to participate in spontaneous aerobics sessions – or if people don’t feel that energised, we could do motivational quotes with each other [laughs]. I’ve got funny names for the moves that we learn, like the happy crab, crazy frog, titties in the wind… There’s also a dance group that I’ve choreographed for, who are going to be working with Crash Bandihoot.

I’ve actually never been to CubaDupa because I’ve been out of the country for the past two years at Adelaide Fringe, and otherwise not living here or touring in other parts of the country. So, pretty exciting! It feels really cool that this is my first one, and there’s a lot of things that I’ve been involved in for the festival with the arts community here.

What most excites you about CubaDupa as a first-time audience member and performer?

I really hope I can get some time to be an audience member [laughs]. I’ve heard the streets are really alive; people from all walks of life just come together for these community events. I love site-specific work and am really excited by the crossover of different artforms. That’s what excites me: a real sense of the city being alive, people enjoying culture and participating. As a performer, festivals invite a level of openness for participation. Crowds just have more openness and a higher level of generosity. A willingness to have this reciprocal energy exchange.

A lot of your shows explore aspects of the human condition – like peelings/feelings! Why do you think comedy and Banana Jolie serve as such great gateways for accessing these big topics? 

It’s interesting: I’ve been making more stand-up as myself because I’ve been feeling less like I need to have a character. But with the things I’ve been making lately as Banana Jolie, it helps me to explore the human experience because I can say things that are even more challenging, potentially, than what I might say as myself. I have this great jazz-singing shark character called Jaws Jolie. I’m wearing a shark mask, my face is poking through this head – I’m a shark, I’m not from here! I can say things I might not necessarily say, or things that I feel might need a bit more fluff or gentleness to get there for where I’m at in my career.

Banana Jolie is fruity, high-energy, ridiculously confident a lot of the time. Something people say is that watching those shows helps them feel bigger – like they can be like that too.

In terms of comedy – and this is part of the reason I’m moving more into stand-up – I see it as a great medium for helping us be comfortable with potentially uncomfortable things. As well as, I love experiences of collective effervescence: this feeling that we’re all part of something. More and more, I’m just trying to say what is true, and what is real – to recognise how funny that is. And play! I’m a huge fan of it. That’s why I do comedy.

What words does Banana live by?

If I was to answer that as Banana, I would say ‘You can read about the words I live by in my book, Calming Your Tit. But Leave the Other Tit, Because That’s the Party Tit. Or, you can try listening to my podcast, Does it Hurt When You do That? Don’t Do That.’