In this episode of This Past Weekend with Theo Von, comedian Celeste Barber opens up about her path from acting to comedy, building a massive online following through her hilarious Instagram parodies and successful stand-up tours. She candidly shares the challenges of touring, including the toll of constant travel on her family life.
Barber also touches on her personal struggles with ADHD, the stark contrast between America's and Australia's attitudes towards gun violence, and the unrealistic beauty standards perpetuated by social media. Her unique perspective provides insight into the extreme pressures women face today regarding their physical appearances, both online and off.
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Celeste Barber discusses transitioning from acting to comedy due to lack of acting roles. She built a large online following through Instagram parodies and later successful standup tours, selling out worldwide. However, Barber describes touring as "masochistic" due to constant travel and being away from family in Australia.
Barber had a Netflix show called "Wellmania" that unfortunately wasn't renewed despite good numbers. She hopes for roles showing diverse women like her on-screen.
Barber was diagnosed with ADHD at 16. She says it makes life much harder, with medications helping but having side effects. She rejects describing ADHD as a "superpower."
The prevalence of mass shootings and gun culture in America is shocking and scary to Australians like Barber, who contrasts it with Australia's successful gun buyback program that helped eliminate mass shootings.
Barber criticizes social media for portraying unrealistic beauty standards as normal life. She says its constant presence makes these pressures inescapable. Her content satirizes such unrealistic standards.
Barber notes the very emotional nature of Kelce's retirement press conference contrasts with reserved Australian athlete retirements. She wonders if the emotion is genuine or amplified for media attention.
1-Page Summary
Celeste Barber discusses her journey from struggling actor to social media phenomenon, successful comedian, and her navigation between career success and personal life.
Celeste Barber started her career in acting but transitioned to comedy due to the difficulty of finding acting roles. She built a large online following by creating and posting parodies on Instagram. Recognizing the potential of her comedic talent, Celeste eventually made a successful transition to standup comedy and live touring, selling out tours worldwide and reaping significant financial rewards from her hard work.
Celeste didn’t come up through traditional standup comedy but found her niche in comedy through other channels, such as acting and online content creation, where her parodies garnered significant attention.
Barber describes the touring process as "masochistic" due to the constant travel and the exhaustion that comes with it. She was initially uncertain about touring, questioning whether people truly liked her work, but this was put to rest by her sold-out shows and the validation that followed. During her tours, she grapples with whether to give the audience more of what they like or to try new material she believes is better.
She has become accustomed to being apart from her family due to the nature of her work and the long-distance relationship she has always had with her partner. Celeste has had to balance her family life in Australia with her professional life, which largely takes her to America where most of her audience resides. During her last world tour, she crammed many shows into a short period to reduce her time away from home, but it still resulted in a substantial six-week absence from her children.
For her upcoming tour, she plans a more family-friendly schedule, working for a couple of weeks and then taking a week off for her family to join her. Despite these efforts, there are times when commitments clash with family events, such as her child's football game, which she will only be able to attend in part due to her fligh ...
Celeste Barber's Career and Experiences
Celeste Barber candidly discusses her personal challenges with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a mental health condition that significantly affects her life.
Celeste Barber was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 16 and has been medicated on and off throughout her life. She emphasizes that the disorder makes her life much more difficult and is something with which she really struggles. As she gets older, she finds the challenges of living with ADHD increase, and she expresses frustration with those who describe ADHD as a superpower as she cannot relate to that description. Celeste notes that ADHD isn’t just about hyperactivity; it's also associated with a lack of dopamine. This can make completing tasks difficult and often leaves her feeling exhausted.
While discussing the impact of ADHD on her life, Barber mention ...
Mental Health Issues
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The contrast between gun violence in the United States and Australia’s response to it is stark, with Australians like Barber expressing disbelief and concern over American gun culture.
Celeste Barber details how mass shootings in America are shocking and scary to Australians. She shares an experience of being in close proximity to a shooting incident in the United States, which left her in fear and uncertain whether to alert the authorities. This is in profound contrast to Australia, where mass shootings are exceptionally rare. In Australia, alarm bells ring countrywide even if an incident occurs in a different state, highlighting the disparity in the frequency of such events compared to the U.S.
Barber reflects on the necessity to possibly address a nearby shooting during her performance, which showcases the gravity of these violent events for her as an Australian unused to America’s prevalence of gun violence.
Barber finds American incentives to own guns, like getting a firearm for opening a bank account, baffling and suggests that change could come from reconsidering such practices. Meanwhile, Theo Von speaks to the deep entrenchment of gun culture in the United States, noting that it ...
Gun Violence in America vs. Australia
Celeste Barber takes a stance on the beauty standards and social media pressures facing women today, using her comedic content as a tool to challenge and ridicule these unrealistic expectations.
Barber criticizes the portrayal of women on social media, arguing that it promotes unrealistic ideals of what women should look like in their daily routines, like glamorous school drop-offs or effortless morning routines. She points out the contrast between how women's lives are depicted versus the reality, especially during challenging tasks such as breastfeeding at 3 a.m.
Barber discusses the constant pressure women feel from social media to meet certain unattainable standards. Unlike a magazine or TV, which can be put aside, social media is always in one's hands, she says. Barber references the “neediness” of social media platforms and the compulsion to constantly engage.
Celeste advises that one way to escape the pressure is to turn off notifications, specifically Google alerts about oneself, to avoid the bombardment every few minutes. Her critique extends to the ridiculousness of people being absorbed in editing photos of themselves while simultaneously being engaged in other activities, like writing in a diary.
She admires Taylor Swift's approachable performance style, which she relates to her own content, praising Swift for dancing non-professionally at her concerts in a way that resonates with many people's real and unpolished experiences. Likewise, Barber's content is praised for satirizing beauty trends and addressing these issues, contrasting with the often sexualized and unrealistic portrayals in media and socia ...
Beauty Standards and Social Media Pressures
Travis Kelce's retirement press conference marks a significant moment in sports, characterized by a display of strong emotions. This contrasts with athletic retirements in Australia, where athletes often appear more reserved in their final press conferences.
Celeste Barber, looking on at the proceedings, raises a point about the nature of these emotions. She expresses skepticism about the authenticity of the emotions shown, suggesting that media ...
Travis Kelce's Retirement Press Conference
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