AS a mum-to-be, Amelia Ryan read countless articles on the internet warning her of the horrors of early motherhood.
So it came as quite a shock to the Adelaide cabaret darling when she found herself adjusting to life with a newborn straight away.
Now well and truly back in action, Ryan is bringing two shows to Fringe World next month, along with 12-week-old son Archie (as well as mum and partner Zac for support).
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READ NOW“As a performer, I’m quite used to multitasking so this really just feels like life – with a baby,” Ryan said.
“Zac and I have been really pleasantly surprised and a few weeks in we both said: ‘I’m actually really enjoying this’.
“Archie is a pretty good baby – we’re very grateful.”
Ryan will perform the one-woman show The Breast is Yet to Come, as well as in the Olivia Newton-John and Peter Allen tribute Livvy & Pete, alongside Michael Griffiths.
She has reworked The Breast is Yet to Come – baring the unglamorous realities of life with a bump – to tell of the trimesters of pregnancy.
“By the time I get to Perth, Archie will be just over three months old and so the show will be the nine months of gestation and then the three months of having a newborn,” Ryan said.
“Otherwise it would be strange and feel a bit inauthentic – part of the charm of the show was that I was so heavily pregnant when performing it. I was doing it at 36 weeks and the comedy was: ‘Good Lord, is this woman going to pop at the next high note?’.”
Livvy & Pete evolved from Ryan’s early obsession with Newton-John.
“Watching Sandy in Grease was one of the defining moments that inspired my career,” she said.
“When I did it at Downstairs at the Maj last year, I was 33 weeks and bulging out of the Physical costume.”
THE ESSENTIALS
What: The Breast is Yet to Come
When: February 8-11
Where: De Parel Spiegeltent
Tickets: fringeworld.com.au
What: Livvy & Pete
When: February 5-12
Where: De Parel Spiegeltent
Tickets: fringeworld.com.au