An Evening with Elizabeth Day

Have you ever heard the front door click shut behind you just as you realise the keys are still inside, the oven’s still on, and you haven’t fed the cat, only to immediately pour coffee down your freshly laundered top for good measure? Nope, neither have we, honest. But some days it does feel like you’re failing from the moment you get up, right?

Well, best-selling British author, journalist and How to Fail podcast host Elizabeth Day reckons you should lean right into it. “If I have learned one thing from this shockingly beautiful venture called life, it is this: failure has taught me lessons I would never otherwise have understood,” she says. “I have evolved more as a result of things going wrong than when everything seemed to be going right. Out of crisis has come clarity, and sometimes even catharsis.”

If you are one of the squillions of avid followers of her invaluable guide to making the most of giant flops, you’ll be succeeding when you hear she’s bringing her intimate brand of heart on her sleeve honesty and witty banter down under, appearing live at both the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne’s Hamer Hall in February 2024.

Day’s adventures in podcast land kicked off with a coup, securing a sit-down chat with Fleabag star and creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who shared how her hot mess twenties and a litany of terrible dates made her the success she is today by taking a slew of bad dates and turning them into semi-fictional gold.

Since then, she’s blethered with everyone from Presidential no-dice Bernie Sanders to School Strike for Climate activist Greta Thunberg’s failure at being a ‘normal’ teenager via Booker Prize-winning The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood, who may never have spun that game-changing feminist fight-back dystopia had a prior novel not crashed and burned. Other guests include the Marvel star Simu Liu, the outrageously hilarious Miriam Margolyes spilling about letting down her parents and The Umbrella Academy star Elliot Page about letting himself down before embracing his truth.

You can bet Day will have plenty to say about her incredible guests on How to Fail, and sharing the limelight with best friend Emma Reed-Turrell as a co-presenter on their mental health podcast Best Friend Therapy. She’ll share how listening to them has helped her reframe misgivings about her journey in such a way as to help listeners along their pathway. Day’s particularly keen to examine how a lonely life at school led to burning through too much personal energy trying to build up a battalion of ‘best’ friends in adulthood, but how, in giving it her all to way too many folks, she wound up feeling worn thin, something far too many of us can relate to.

So, if you want to hear all about how the standards of success we set for ourselves can do more harm than good, advice on turning catastrophes into triumphs, how to figure out who’s the best fit for you and gently let go of those who aren’t, and glean some self-care tips make sure you snap up this hot ticket.

Tickets to see Day are on general sale from September 7 at 10am, and are likely to fly out the door (keys still inside or not) as fans scrabble to witness Day on the pointy end of the interview for once. You can get tickets on the Arts Centre Melbourne website here.