If you found yourself astounded that toilet paper turned out to be the most precious resource on our planet during lockdown, then fast-rising comedy star Lizzy Hoo has news for you. Apparently, the most valuable asset we leave behind us when we depart this topsy turvy world turns out to be shoes. Who knew? Hoo did, because her dad called her distressed that mumma Hoo was press-ganging him into wearing a bag-load of dead man’s footwear, as bestowed on them by a widower in her aqua-aerobics class.
Hoo delivers intimate overshares about the inner workings of her mortality-obsessed family with winningly deadpan charm. And it’s safe to say they give her plenty to work with, particularly her brothers. One ambitiously opted to become a YouTube travel vlogger during the global pandemic, while the other’s get-rich-quick scheme is so utterly ludicrous that I won’t spoil it here. What she never does, however, is take a mean shot (or excoriate her audience). Radiating goodwill, even Hoo’s most on-the-nose jokes are stitched into pure gold recollections. Like the time her dad took her on a trip to Malaysia to meet her dying gran and it was the best thing ever, because she got fully blinged up with so much jewellery she felt like Ja Rule.
One of our most promising up-and-comers, Hoo recently chucked in the day job and relocated to Melbourne to pursue comedy full-time, lucky for us. But office politics from her previous gig still pop up, like that time they made her do a personality test that assigned her a colour, and she awkwardly got ‘Yellow’. Yikes. No wonder she skedaddled, though she’s still receiving weekly Seek ads from one ex-colleague who obviously doubts the validity of her career choices. Nothing new: she gets it from all sides but is taking it all in her stride, partly through kick-starting an acting side hustle. Because, as she says, drama queens are chock full of self-confidence against all the odds, unlike comedians who hate themselves. Hopefully this means we’ll soon be seeing heaps more of Hoo, because she’s grand company. Just bring your own shoes.
