Lynda Gibson; Comedian
Hyfler/Rosner
January 20, 2004 Tuesday NSW Country Edition
BYLINE: Jim Buckell
Lynda Gibson
Comedian. Born Sydney, March 21, 1956. Died Melbourne,
January 2, aged 47.
ONE of Lynda Gibson's earliest stage characters, Norman
Norman, leader of a troupe of four boozy, lecherous blokes
with swaggering gaits and hideous leers, was so convincing
that it wasn't always clear to her audiences she was a woman
playing a man. There were nights when women lined up at her
dressing room door, and they weren't lesbians.
The troupe, Gibson and long-time collaborator Denise Scott
with Sally Anne Upton, Fran Jenkins or Lynne McGranger,
would take a curtain call in civvies to avoid confusion.
Stand-up was her forte, and she was a fixture of Melbourne's
comedy scene for two decades. Her work was often political
and sometimes contentious. During the Kennett years, state
Liberal MP Lorraine Elliott threatened in parliament to
withdraw funding from the Melbourne International Comedy
Festival because in one of her shows Gibson had lampooned
the Liberals. Gibson employed sharp lines and a finely tuned
bullshit detector and enhanced her performances with energy
and dexterity onstage.
There was a gentler side to her physicality. After years of
ballet as a young girl and drama training she was a skilful
dancer (with gorgeous legs) and a wonderful clown. One of
her finest gifts was that of empathy: she was a great
listener and engaged easily with people, especially
children. Perhaps her best-known character was the stage
creation Matron Dorothy Conniving-Bitch, star of Let the
Blood Run Free, a worldwide hit after being made into a
television series.
Lynda Jane Gibson was born in Sydney in 1956 and grew up in
Bexley North. After high school she studied drama with
Richard Wherrett and John Bell at the Nimrod and the
University of NSW. In 1981 she went to Albury to work for
the fledgling Murray River Performing Group, a leading
regional theatre. She clowned, did straight theatre and
began exploring the characters she would later develop for
her stand-up work. At the Galah Bar in Albury, set up by her
friend Peter Browne, the Natural Normans pulled full houses.
It was inevitable that she would be drawn to Melbourne,
where the comedy scene was burgeoning by the mid-1980s.
There followed a succession of stand-up and collaborative
shows at inner-city venues.
Gibson worked with Jean Kittson, Denise Scott, Brian
Nankervis, Sue-Ann Post, Rod Quantock and Rachel Berger. She
was a regular on a string of TV comedy turnouts, Fast Lane,
The Big Gig, Good News Week. There was straight theatre too,
including Barry Dickins's Roy Boys and The Death of Minnie.
She did unpaid work for many causes including the Victorian
AIDS Council, Emily's List, the ACTU, the wharfies during
the stevedoring dispute and refugees.
Four years ago and after several false diagnoses, Gibson was
told she had ovarian cancer. With typical stoicism, she
continued to fly around the country for shows and TV work.
She incorporated her experiences as a patient in her
stand-up. Her show Comedy Is Still Not Pretty, with Scott
and Judith Lucy, won The Age critics award at last year's
Melbourne Comedy Festival. She became an advocate for OvCa,
the ovarian cancer support and lobby group. Three months
ago, when it became clear that she may not have long to
live, the cream of Australia's comedy talent turned out to
pay tribute to Gibson at a roast.
John Clarke said of Gibson: "Lynda's not an actor. I think
Lynda is Lynda Gibson pretending to be an actor. And she
knows what she knows -- and she knows what she believes --
and she knows what she's passionate about. She taught me
this: if you can take all of what you know with you, and
that's what Lynda's always done, the drama works. Your
character has a kind of realism that is transmissible to an
audience and they read it as realism and they trust you. And
because they trust you, they wonder what they think, which
is the point of the whole exercise."
Gibson died peacefully at her home surrounded by 20 friends
and relatives after a four-year illness.
She is survived by her partner of 28 years, Al Mullins, her
mother Betty, brothers Ian and James and sister Anne and
their children.