About
Anne Elizabeth Gabrielle Edmonds is an Australian comedian and actor best known for her stand-up work and for creating and starring in the ABC comedy series, The Edge of the Bush.
Early life
Brought up in Essendon/Strathmore, two suburbs of Melbourne, by her parents Joe and Catherine Edmonds, along with an older sister and younger brother, Edmonds' attended local catholic schools and studied at The University of Melbourne. After completing a Bachelor of Arts Degree and Honours in Social Work, Edmonds' is known to have later lived in areas such as Mount Gambier & Darwin in Australia, Berlin in Germany and Italy. Working for Beyond Blue and living in rural Australia, Edmonds discovered a love of country music and taught herself to play the banjo. Edmonds lives in Melbourne.
Career
Beginning her career in comedy at 29 (2010) while previously working in mental health within rural Australia, Edmonds utilises her suburban background, talents in singing/songwriting and storytelling to create her unique, self-deprecating and often macabre stand up voice. Humiliation and despair are central themes to Edmonds' comedy, as her stories of teenage mischief, sex, failure, relationships and loneliness often have an embarrassing punchline.
Edmonds' solo stand-up show is titled, No Offence None Taken. It was nominated for the Barry Award, an annual prize presented for the most outstanding comedy act, at the 2017 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. After adopting the nickname "Eddo" as she started her comedy career, Edmonds has had a series of stand up shows featured in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival which she has also toured with worldwide, taking her talents to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on multiple occasions. Such set titles include "The Quarter Cabbage" (2013), "You Know What I'm Like" (2015), "That's Eddotainment" (2016), "No Offence None Taken" (2017) and "Helen Bidou: Enter the Spinnaker Lounge" (2018). Edmonds' 2016, 2017 and 2018 performances were all nominated for a Barry Award in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
The comedian is very well known for her character work, most notably 'Helen Bidou', an emotionally unstable fashion expert who was featured on the ABC hit comedy show Get Krack!n. Helen's iconic look can be a sarong, blotchy tan and harsh bronzer, to which Edmonds has crafted after a live performance, "Helen Bidou: Enter the Spinnaker Lounge". With multiple 4-5 star reviews, a Barry Nomination and Sydney Comedy Festival Best Show Award, 'Helen Bidou' remains to be an outstanding aspect of Edmonds career. Quintessentially Edmonds, the performance maintains a series of references to Melbourne suburbia, original songs, crude humour and a dark familial relationship with her son 'Connor' (Sam Campbell).
Other characters created by the comedian include John Watts, Dusty Banjosen and Rebecca, all of which feature on her original ABC show.
Edmonds' ABC show, The Edge of the Bush, billed as "Australia's first Scandi-noir comedy", was called "bizarre but satisfying" by Daily Review. The television show, featuring fellow comedians such as Greg Larson and Damien Power, tells of a calisthenics dynasty which has been torn apart by incest, as a family is forced back into reunion by confronting the truth of what really occurred at the edge of the bush.
As well as appearing solo, Edmonds is also a part of a satirical trio called True Australian Patriots, with two fellow comedians, Greg Larsen and Damien Power. A mock-Australian patriots group on Facebook and YouTube, the characters Les, Steve and Gary are portrayed as inarticulate whilst spewing nonsense hate speech. Edmonds comments on the reception to the trio, "The real groups are ripe for parody," she says. "We get a lot of people who think it's real which is disturbing. Ours is a complete parody but we get people who go 'You guys suck. Stop it', from both sides... Those groups are appalling and we're hoping to show the mis-information that they are spreading. I find that far-right voice in Australia really distressing."
Additionally, Edmonds stars and has contributed to Fancy Boy, an Australian six-part sketch comedy television series. Edmonds starred and co-wrote Fancy Boy alongside John Campbell, Stuart Daulman, Henry Stone, Jonathan Schuster and Greg Larsen.
Edmonds is one of the voices in the new Australian version of cult US Adult Swim show Fish Centre.
Edmonds has made guest appearances on All Star Family Feud, Dirty Laundry Live, The Project, Show Me the Movie!, Have You Been Paying Attention? and Hughesy, We Have a Problem.
Edmonds supported Marc Maron on his Australian tour.
Music
Anne Edmonds is a singer songwriter and incorporates this into her comedy work. Most notably is her song "Flying Home" which was featured in ABC's 'The Edge of the Bush' and is available on iTunes.