Three things with Lizzy Hoo: ‘If it was a bigger food processor, I wouldn’t take it on holiday’

As a teenager, Lizzy Hoo aspired only to climb the corporate ladder. She studied accounting and then marketing, had a stint as a writer, and eventually ended up working as an account manager. But the reality of office life didn’t live up to the teenage dream. Hoo was, by her own description, “really bored at work” when she started doing standup comedy courses at night. She enjoyed it, stuck with it – and eventually quit her day job to be a full-time comedian in 2021.

The career change has been a success. The Melbourne-based comic released an Amazon Prime standup special, Hoo Cares!?, in 2022 and is now a regular on shows including Have You Been Paying Attention? and The Project. For her latest gig, she travelled to the small Irish town her mother hails from for an episode of Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey, a show Hoo describes as similar to SBS stablemate Who Do You Think You Are?, “but funny”.

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Whenever she travels, Hoo takes one trusty kitchen appliance with her. Here the comedian tells us about her indispensable mini food processor and shares the story of two other items.

What I’d save from my house in a fire

My collection of glasses. I need glasses to see – but it’s not just that.

I’ve been wearing specks since I was 13 years old and I’ve kept every pair I’ve ever had. I really am emotionally tied to them, because they become part of your face for a certain period of your life. I’ve got about 15 pairs, all stored underneath my bed in a box of knick-knacks.

They’re such different looks over time, as well. Like, I can’t remember being into this weird pointy cat-eye style but apparently I was. You know how when you hear an old song and it reminds you of a certain moment in time? It’s like that with the glasses for me.

My most useful object

My mini food processor. We grew up eating a lot of Dad’s curries, so curries are what I make now when I’m homesick or feel like I need a little comforting. And I need this little food processor to make the paste for them.

It’s great because it’s small enough to pack in a suitcase. If it was a bigger food processor, I just wouldn’t take it. But whenever I go on a cooking holiday – like a trip down the coast – I can bring this with me. I could make the curry without it but it would be a lot harder.

The item I most regret losing

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This is hard for me, because I lose everything, so I’m used to it. I’ve lost jewellery, I’ve lost clothes, I’ve lost books.

But one thing I really do regret losing is a scarf that my mum gave me – or, rather, I borrowed it off her. I think she forgot that I borrowed it, so I got away with it, but I do regret losing it. It was a really beautiful pashmina that had been a gift from my aunt, brought back from overseas. I lost it on a night out.

But really there’s so many things. I once lost both sets of my house keys and we had to climb in through the window for a week.

• Lizzy Hoo appears in Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey , available now on SBS and SBS On Demand.