By Violet Li
Casey local Alanah Parkin will bring their debut solo comedy to the upcoming Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF), saying the show is inspired by a real-life experience in the City of Casey.
The actor and the improviser of Cranbourne North said the show is a love letter to everyday families living in suburban areas.
“I think there’s not a lot of comedy that you’re ever going to see that’s about this specific experience of having a garage sale in the City of Casey,” they said.
“I think it’s very suburban. It clings to that suburban nostalgia.”
Directed by Issac Haigh, the winner of the MICF Best Newcomer 2023, Garage Sale tells the tale of a married couple of eclectic retirees in Narre Warren South as they navigate the emotional turmoil of downsizing their anarchic and sentimental lives together. The notorious couple in their sixties is having a garage sale because they need to downsize before moving to a retirement village up the road. There is a bargain, and there is a secret awaiting the audience. Both characters will be played by Alanah.
“I’ve wanted to do it for a long time, and I’ve been pretty scared of that. It’s a big thing to do it,” they said.
“It’s fifty minutes just me on stage running around getting change.
“I’ve done a lot of theater and a lot of performing, but I’ve never been on stage by myself for fifty minutes before.
“It’s a big deal for me. It’s definitely something I’ve been working towards for a really long time, and I’m really keen to get out there and finally do it.”
The actor said they came up with the idea when they were at a garage sale in Cranbourne North. They were wandering along, so was their train of thoughts.
“Garage sales are so interesting in that way because you go into someone’s garage, and it’s just their entire life, decades of their life, things they bought five years ago, things they bought fifty years ago, just all in a room,” they said.
“Where did you get this? Why do you have this? Thinking about the stories around all of the items that they have is really interesting.
“There’s just so many strange things there. You’re looking through the records and the books. You find a magazine from the sixties. There are so many worlds in this.
“In the show, there are some moments of objects kind of coming to life in that way.”
Alanah bought a vinyl record at the garage sale that inspired them, the Disneyland Boys Choir singing folk songs from all different countries around the world in the sixties. To this day, they still could not believe they had that treasure for 50 cents, including a free freak cassette.
“My partner and I are both very interested in the history of kid’s entertainment, and Disney is a particular interest just because it has such a long history,” they said.
“We found it, and we have to get this. We took it straight home and put it on while we were making breakfast.
“They’re just singing all these different songs in different languages. Then they were singing Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gumtree because they had Australian ones as well.”
When asked why the show had been set in Narre Warren South instead of Cranbourne North, Alanah joked that Narre Warren South sounded funny to them.
“I spend a lot of time around here as well, so I’m familiar enough with the area that I felt like I could write a show set in Narre Warren South,” they said.
It has been a decade in theatre and film for Alanah. The actor has been doing improvisational theatre for the last three to four years.
“That’s when I really started kind of going down the comedy route more specifically,” they said.
There’s a lot of doing things for yourself, kind of doing everything for yourself, which is fun in a lot of ways.
“It makes you very adaptable and versatile.”
Alanah Parkin is an actor (Still Me, Residence), singer (Video Games Made My Son Like Country Music, Isaac Haigh Sings the Classics), improviser (The Big Hoo-Haa, The Improv Conspiracy) and voice actor (The Specter’s Desire, Tales from Tookaville). Garage Sale is their debut solo show.
Alanah Parkin’s Garage Sale
26 March – 6 April 2025, 8.45pm
DoubleTree by Hilton (270 Flinders St)
Bookings: comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/alanah-parkin-s-garage-sale/
