Luke McGregor, Becky Lucas and Jen Carnovale on coming back to comedy after having kidsBy Hannah StoryABC EntertainmentTopic:Comedy5m ago5 minutes agoThu 1 May 2025 at 4:18amBecky Lucas — the first Australian woman comedian to feature on Conan — is on tour, performing her first new stand-up hour since becoming a mother. (Supplied: MICF/Jim Lee)abc.net.au/news/luke-mcgregor-becky-lucas-jen-carnovale-parenthood-comedy/105147812Link copiedShareShare articleLast year, comedian Becky Lucas didn't think she'd ever be able to live normally again. She certainly didn't know if she'd ever return to stand-up comedy.She was sleeping in a hospital chair in Sydney beside her five-month-old baby, who had just had open-heart surgery."It was horrific; the worst time of my life," she says. "I was a complete anxious wreck. I could barely breathe."She certainly didn't feel like a very funny person."That part of me went away for a while," she says. "When you go through that, it's hard to care as much about [anything]."Now, eight months later, Lucas is in the middle of a national tour with her new show, Things Have Changed, but the Essence Remains. It's her first since she had her son in March last year.But bringing a one-year-old to comedy festivals around the country has been far from easy.Juggling parenthood and stand-upLike many parents of young children, Lucas is not sleeping very well. At the same time, she's juggling the responsibilities of parenthood with a job that mostly happens at night."Last night, I was doing dinner with George, my son, which is a messy affair," she says. "I'm giving him food and he's throwing it everywhere, and I'm helping my partner clean it up and give him a bath."And then, I'm straight out the door to do the show, and then it's home and doing more bedtime stuff."Loading YouTube contentIt's a very different routine to festivals of the past, when she would go out for dinner and drinks with friends after a show."Now, [the comedy festival] is just not the priority," she says.Instead of celebrating post-show, Lucas is plunged straight back into domestic reality. But she says it makes her feel more even-keeled in the "fantasy land" of a comedy festival — she's no longer preoccupied by drama or reviews."Before having a kid, you let the whole festival really get to you," she says. "Now, this [stand-up comedy] is more like a job."You feel, like, so yourself. I don't have time to put on a persona: I just go straight from mothering to, 'OK, this is me [on stage].'"That stage persona was once a little more arch and ironic than Lucas in real life, but now she's not interested in artifice on stage."I just want to connect with people in the room," she says. "I just want to say things that are real and that I feel."Because I never know when I'll get to gig again."Seeing things as a mumJen Carnovale had planned to only take a few months off from comedy after she had her first daughter in 2020, but the pandemic scuppered those plans."I'm definitely a way better writer now than I was before I had kids," Carnovale says. (Supplied: Jubilee Street/Alan Fang)While she "dabbled" with comedy at Sydney open mics in the meantime, it took three years — with another baby in between — before she fully returned to the stage.She says the feeling of returning was "bizarre"."What I wanted to talk about and how I viewed [comedy work] was so different," she says."I valued my time a lot more … There's a lot more pieces involved [in gigging]: You're consulting with your partner to make sure they're home; you're making sure the children are OK; and you're making sure that when you go, you're going to make the most of it."This week, she brings her first new solo show since she had two daughters, Treat Me Like Your Mother, to Sydney Comedy Festival.Loading Instagram content"This show has meant more to me than any other show," she says. "This felt a lot more intimate because I was talking about personal things that had happened to me."One of those personal things is her experience of sexual assault — which she viewed differently once she had daughters.After the person who assaulted her tried to confront her in public, she was spurred to write a show that grapples directly with her experience."I was viewing things for the first time through the eyes of being a mum and being a woman," Carnovale says. "I felt more responsibility for other women."Parenthood as materialSome people — like Lucas — have known they want to be parents since they were young, but Luke McGregor never thought he'd have kids.He became a dad to two children, aged 10 and 14, when he married Gomeroi academic and author Amy Thunig in 2023. And the couple had a baby together in November last year.Now, he's part-way through his first stand-up tour in six years — Okay, Wow — after taking a break to focus on ABC TV's Rosehaven, and stints on Taskmaster and The Amazing Race.Having children has reminded him the job of a comedian is to play — and that he missed doing it. "It's kind of saccharine, but they helped me see fun around me," he says."I don't have the nerves I used to have," McGregor says. (Supplied: Token/Dru Maher-Brooks)"I started writing jokes just to make them laugh, and that fuelled my creativity to start writing a show."As adults, we take away the fun, and it becomes more about productivity and the grind and we forget about play. This is my way of sort of putting it back in my life more consistently."When it comes to writing stand-up, McGregor is focused on laughing at himself, sharing stories about the parts of fatherhood — especially stepfather-hood — that he finds funniest."Like the fact that I have to try and encourage my kids to do things they don't want, like clean their room or brush their teeth, while also desperately seeking their validation because they're my stepchildren, and I want them to think of me as their dad," he says.But McGregor has rules about what kinds of stories make it onto the stage."My rule has been: If it won't embarrass the kids in the playground, then I'm allowed to do it," he says. "I don't want to do anything that's going to put them at risk of getting teased by bullies."Loading YouTube contentCarnovale has a similar rule: She doesn't want her kids to be the butt of the joke. Still, when she came back to comedy, she wanted to make jokes about the "concerns that I had that I felt were too inappropriate to bring up in a mother's meeting".A combination of motherhood and turning 40 have made her feel comfortable speaking about basically anything — both on and off stage."I would just rather talk about stuff," she says."I would rather be the annoying mother that talks about sex at dinner and drives my kids nuts that way than [one who] doesn't tell them anything and then they find out from porn."Making allowances for mothersComedy is not a particularly family-friendly industry. It's marked by precarious working conditions: most of the work happens at night in environments where alcohol is present and is undertaken by people who are effectively freelancers and often unpaid.Becoming a mother has given Lucas a new perspective: "I can't think of everyone as someone's baby, but I do a little bit at the moment," she admits, with a laugh. (Supplied: Jubilee Street/Alan Fang)"[Comedy] doesn't accommodate mums," Lucas says. "Which does just mean that it attracts men and young women."When you have a baby, you just have to cross your fingers and hope you can come back and that jobs will still be there, or people still care about you."For Lucas, it's the lack of understanding of the challenges of parenthood that can feel isolating."It is a really big thing to go through in your life," she says. "I think a little bit of acknowledgement sometimes is nice."People making small allowances for people with kids really helps so much."Those allowances might include allowing parents to perform earlier in the evening — whether for their full hour or as part of a showcase — so they can get home.Still, Carnovale is pleased the industry is more welcoming to mothers than it was when she stopped performing five years ago."It's way better than it was," she says. "There's definitely more mums who are still doing comedy after they have kids. You don't have to pick [between motherhood and comedy] anymore."Jen Carnovale: Treat Me Like Your Mother is at Sydney Comedy Festival from May 1-2.Becky Lucas: Things Have Changed, but the Essence Remains is at Perth Comedy Festival on May 2, before touring to Sydney Comedy Festival, Brisbane Comedy Festival and Newcastle Comedy Festival.Luke McGregor: Okay, Wow is at Sydney Comedy Festival from May 2-4, before touring to Hobart, Brisbane Comedy Festival, Wagga Comedy Fest, Newcastle, Wyong and Orange.Posted 5m ago5 minutes agoThu 1 May 2025 at 4:18amShare optionsCopy linkFacebookX (formerly Twitter)Top StoriesDutton hints at Coalition campaign failure as polls show Albanese majority in sightTopic:Government and PoliticsPhoto shows Peter Dutton election shadowsJacinta Nampijinpa Price contradicts Peter Dutton, asserting Coalition will end school 'indoctrination'Topic:Public SchoolsPhoto shows Jacinta Price speaks while Dutton stands behind her listening. 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