Australia’s most popular comedienne talks candidly about body image, self esteem and where her hit characters such as netball-mad Sharon, Pixie-Anne and Chenille are drawn from. Magda Szubanski is giving way to her inner demon. At least that’s what it sounds like. Perched in a comfy, mustard-coloured chair, Magda, the much-loved, much-applauded queen of Australian comedy, is shrieking a preposterous satanic chant and fighting to keep her composure. “Oh, Prince of Darkness,” she howls. “Oh, Lord of Evil, Oh, Mighty Pointed Phallus …” Her attempt at self-control is futile, though. As the words leave her mouth, she loses it, slaps her thighs and dissolves in peals of warm, infectious laughter. This is Magda’s guilty little secret. The funniest and most popular woman on Australian television is, it seems, utterly addicted to her own shameless sense of silliness and is a serial giggler. “I still crack up,” she says breathlessly. “I’m a terrible giggler. I’m probably the worst. I have got a real hair-trigger. I just find some of the stuff we do hilarious and that is where a lot of our comedy comes from, a genuine joy. Certainly, for me, it feels like that. It’s just funny and silly. I love it. I love it.” Magda might love laughing at her own jokes, but she’s hardly alone. During the past 20 years – yes, two decades – she has been at the forefront of Australian comedy, turning what was essentially a hobby into a perfectly timed and hugely successful career. There’s barely an Australian alive who hasn’t giggled with Magda as she’s transformed herself into some of comedy’s most memorable characters – Pixie-Anne, Chenille, Mrs Hoggett and sports-mad Sharon Strzelecki from Kath & Kim – some of whom are indelibly etched into Australian popular culture. Yet, despite her years of success and popularity – she has seven Logies, two People’s Choice Awards, three Australian Writers’ Guild Awards and an AFI award for best actress in a supporting TV drama role – this a woman who, at 43, is only now coming to terms with herself, her talent and the remarkable niche she has carved for herself as an entertainer. For years, Magda was beset by insecurity, convinced that, one day, she would be revealed as a fraud. Read our intimate and far-reaching interview in the October 2004 issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
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