Studying a Master of Business Administration is no laughing matter.
But that doesn’t stop student Jade Fitzgerald from telling jokes.
Her performance at this year’s Adelaide Fringe Festival – the world’s second largest fringe event, after Edinburgh – had critics from newspaper the Adelaide Advertiser rolling in the aisles.
After her set at the festival’s Girls Night comedy event, Jade was named by the newspaper as Best New Comedy Talent.
She humbly puts her success down to luck.
“They only had me on for three nights of this show so there were so many things that were incredibly lucky about this reviewer even being in the audience, let alone seeing me perform to give me that little gong in the Advertiser,” she says.
“There were close to three thousand performers in the festival and for at least two thousand of them it was their first showing at Adelaide.
“A few people told me how fantastic it was that I got that little nod.”
Jade mightn’t have training in theatre or the arts, but says she’s always been the person with a witty one-liner ready to go.
“I fell into comedy essentially and it came about when I was pregnant with my second child and I was grumpy and moody and ranting about 40K limits around school zones,” she says.
It was that material that first got her noticed.
Now she runs her own production company – Kiss My Artz Productions, a perfect place to combine her love of comedy with the business acumen she’s acquired during her studies at La Trobe.
Her goal is to create a sustainable model of work in the arts, particularly around productions for comedy and improv.
“A lot of people in the arts say they’re always hungry, they never get paid,” she says, adding that’s something she’s determined to change.
Jade’s full of praise for the student experience at La Trobe’s Albury-Wodonga campus. She’s also enjoying the opportunity to rediscover the campus where she previously completed a Bachelor of Psychological Science degree, back in 2012.
“The student experience is different the second time around but I like it and everything has become so accessible,” she says.
“Across the board, my favourite thing is being able to grab a coffee with my lecturers.
“The community on campus is a good community it’s very country and a really good community.”