Eliciting laughter along the way

A well-lived life will provide plenty of comedic fodder, and Heather Lindsay reckons that hers has provided ample material along the way.

The Motueka Valley woman has decided, at the age of 71, to undertake a one-woman show at the Nelson Fringe Festival, telling a series of vignettes about her life. She was assigned two shows, which have already sold out, and was given a third date on Friday, 7 March.

Her work is titled “My Life is Based on a True Story,” and it pulls snippets from her life, including her childhood in Adelaide.  Heather says she was the youngest of four children, with parents who were always pretty good at seeing the funny side of things.

“[Life] was a mix of all emotions, but at the end of the day, there was always some good humour,” she says.

Her show runs for just under an hour and is a compilation of funny things that have happened to her over time.  She says she’ll be embarrassing her children along the way and laughs that her husband “knows what’s coming”.  A sister is travelling from Adelaide to catch the last performance, although she’s more likely to jump onto the stage to add her two cents than to cower in her seat in mortification, Heather reckons.

She got the performing bug about a decade ago, after taking part in a local “True Stories Told Live” fundraiser, as well as the “Couch Stories” series in Nelson. Both of these involved telling a five-minute true story to an audience, and she discovered that not only was this something that she was good at, but it was fun for her too.

She also discovered “moth stories” in the United States, while visiting her Oregon-based son.  A “moth story” refers to a true, personal story told live on stage, with a focus on raw authenticity – that “around the campfire” feel. Heather was drawn three times from the ballot to tell her stories, and each time, she was voted the winner.

She was recently given funding under The Umbrella Project, which is supported by Nelson City Creative Communities to assist inexperienced artists in crafting a performing arts show. Under the tutelage of local creatives Ro Cambridge and Donna Chapman, Heather’s morsels of five-minute material were threaded together into an entire act.

She is feeling “nervously optimistic” about the show opening next week.
“I enjoy a good laugh, and I love laughing with people.  That’s the main thing,” she says. “To bring out laughter is a good feeling.”

Heather’s performance, “My Life is Based on a True Story,” has sold-out shows on Thursday, 6 and 13 March 2025, with tickets still available to her additional performance on Friday, 7 March, at 9pm through Eventfinda.