The queer comedy show chewing the (Trans) fat about misogyny, toxic masculinity and more

Posted on 6 March, 2025

Local comedian Holly Hazelwood isn’t one to shy away from chewing the fat about coming out, misogyny, queer dating, toxic masculinity and more – so it’s no surprise her latest comedy show is about exactly that.

This March, she’s delivering the rare opportunity to explore comedy through the lens of the LGBTQI+ community, creating awareness and visibility through laughter and a light-hearted approach.

No one person is the same, something Holly knows firsthand. Coming out as transgender five years ago, Holly’s introspective life experiences have worked a charm in the comedy world, providing her with lots of material,including for her Canberra Comedy Show, TransFat, which features the combined humour of herself and Cronulla-based comedian Chris Knight.

Exploring the concept of comedy as a positive form of exposure – suggesting that it enables the LGBTQI+ community to express themselves publicly –  Holly hopes that this exposure will help drive societal and political change.

“I do my best to try and close the supposed divide between queer and non-queer people to show while we all express ourselves differently, at the end of the day we are all just humans trying to live happy and fulfilling lives, whatever that looks like to each of us,” she says.

“I am proud to be the point of difference in nearly every room I work in as a transgender comedian, because hopefully, through laughter, I can help increase understanding, awareness and visibility of all queer people in the rest of society.”

Participating in the 2023 SpringOut show, it was there Holly met Chris, who was the headliner on the night she performed. From there, their friendship led to Holly performing comedy gigs in Sydney before the duo decided to tackle the 2025 Canberra Comedy Festival together.

“We just seemed to click as people as much as comics from the first night we met. He’s been a great friend as well as somewhat of a mentor when it comes to learning some of the finer points of stand-up and the fact he is also part of the LGBTQIA+ community and a comedian, I can share things with him and he has a deeper understanding of where I am coming from than perhaps others,” says Holly.

“When I mentioned to him last year that I wanted to do the Canberra Comedy Festival, he said he would love to do a co-bill with me. We were lucky enough to be picked to present our material and I think we give a good broad perspective of queer experiences in our comedy from masculine to feminine and everything in between.”

As Holly explains, comedy is really subjective, as each individual person interprets, understands and finds different things funny based on their own experiences and personalities. That’s why TransFat covers a broad range of topics from coming out to aging backwards, misogyny,  chasers, dating and toxic masculinity.

Holly says that they wanted to  target a broad range of individuals within the population and talk to a lot of people who might feel alone or unheard, while trying to aid understanding in an upbeat humorous way.

“I find if people can relate to a situation or see themselves in the joke, they tend to find it funnier due to lived experience,” she says.

“ That is why my current material has always gone over better with queer people than the rest of society. But a good comedian listens to what the audience is giving them, they know their material well enough that they can play around with the audience and include them when needed.”

Holly also touches on the idea that to improve you must be continuously analysing your audience to understand what resonates and what doesn’t. But her biggest challenge has been writing material about the queer experience for people in the audience who have never questioned their gender, their sexuality or both.

“Even just talking about experiences I have had in the last five years being part of an often-persecuted minority group, that is a foreign to many people in this country as well,” she says.

“ So writing my material to make it accessible to not only queer people but also to the rest of society has easily been the biggest challenge but I do my best to try and close the supposed divide between queer and non-queer people to show while we all express ourselves differently, at the end of the day we are all just humans trying to live happy and fulfilling lives, whatever that looks like to each of us.”

As she prepares to take the stage with Chris, Holly feels lucky to be where she is today. But as she looks at the state of the world, she hopes the 60-minute show opens people’s eyes and their hearts to be more accepting of people with different life experiences than their own.

“It must be acknowledged, to be openly queer and a comedian was considered career suicide not that long ago. The wheels of change are moving, albeit slowly,” she says.

“However, we do find ourselves in draconian times given the rise of right wing and fascist thinking around the world, where it is still often illegal to be queer. So, while it can be hard, I am proud to be the point of difference in nearly every room I work in as a transgender comedian, because hopefully through laughter I can help increase understanding, awareness and visibility of all queer people in the rest of society.

“Only six years ago, I was scared to leave the house for fear of what people would say and think and now I am doing gigs all across the ACT, some up in Sydney and now I am one half of a show at the Canberra Comedy Festival. If only I could tell me of six years ago where she would be in 2025 and what I would be doing pretty much on a weekly basis, I don’t think she would believe me.”

Feature image supplied.