Stand-up comedian, actor and presenter Anna Clifford brings her brand new show Soapstar to Dublin Fringe Festival this September, along with a special edition of her regular club night Comedy for Witches. Below, she revisits the journey from teenage soap sensation to thirtysomething comedy diva...
'Did you hear the one about the girl who landed the C-plot in Fair City at 17? Taken out of real school and put into the fictional Carrigstown Community School. Every teenager’s dream: not to be themselves. My skin-crawling insecurities disappeared if I was a character. I could change my name, and acting was faster than finding a husband. I was Gemma McFadden.
But then… the recession ended Anna’s contract and Gemma’s storyline. Well… somebody’s got to tell it. Anna Clifford (me). Working just about enough to write this in the third person, not successful enough that you know who I am without an explanation. Dublin comic. Trained actor. Host of Ireland’s Perfect Pubs. Six sold-out nights at Dublin Fringe 2022 with debut hour I See Deadly People. Fair City. That Avonmore milk ad.
My Dad says being born 7/7 means I’m lucky. To me, that just means he and my mum had sex around Halloween. Scary.
I thought my big break was Fair City-proof and I could make it as a paid actor. I mean, Neighbours gave us Kylie Minogue and Margot Robbie. Meanwhile, Ireland gave us Barry Keoghan, Cillian Murphy, Saoirse Ronan… none of whom ever set foot in Carrigstown.
My Mum says broke, single, 35 and back home is "exactly where I’m meant to be." Cheers, Mam. The two of them are always throwing unhelpful positivity my way. As a comedian, the only way I’d be lucky is if they were divorced. (Think of the material)
People love asking if I only do things to get jokes out of them (future lovers: no). I didn’t go on an ayahuasca retreat just for my debut show I See Deadly People (It's on YouTube, if you’re bored). I went because I wanted answers. Spoiler: nobody has them. But stand-up gives me a way to ask the questions out loud and laughter back is enough.
Soapstar explores luck, superstition, and what happens when your teenage soap dreams meet adult reality.
Soapstar explores luck, superstition, and what happens when your teenage soap dreams meet adult reality. Betrayals, pregnancies, people coming back from the dead or as I like to call it: a Sunday in the girls' WhatsApp.
I mix memoir, myth-busting, and soap-opera melodrama into a story about reclaiming my narrative - and Gemma’s.
I loved soaps growing up: Home and Away (the sexy Neighbours), EastEnders (the sexy Coronation Street), Fair City (the sexy Ros na Rún).
Soaps made me feel good as a teenager. No matter how bad my day was, at least I wasn’t giving birth to my uncle’s baby during a fire in the hairdressers. Teenagers now don’t have soaps; they've got 16-year-olds doing €500 make-up hauls online. No wonder they feel terrible. At least my low self-esteem came with a theme tune.
Let’s be realistic: if I wanted to move to a Dublin town with 15 murders, 4 arson attacks, and more love triangles than houses… I couldn’t afford it. Daft.ie would list it as 'up-and-coming, with great transport links, and people would literally kill to live there.
I’m also doing a Comedy For Witches: Full Moon Special at The Dublin Fringe. Already sold out (sorry). It’s a spin-off of the club night I run around Ireland, London and Barcelona. It started with my best friend: on a full moon we’d have a moan, a stretch, a hug, a cry, a massive cackle and fits of giggles while writing down what we wanted to release. I thought: how do I bring this magic into my work?
And because I’m making up for the career gap between Fair City and now, I’ve also said yes to a cameo in Emily Bradley’s Cult of Aerobics, also at Dublin Fringe. Three shows, greedy, I know. But Emily’s a brilliant performer, she’s been on Comedy for Witches, and I can’t wait to see the full show.
There’s nothing like the Dublin Fringe Festival deadline to kick you up the a**e. Dublin Fringe is the best platform to debut new writing, and to be among so many other talented creatives is inspiring. With Soapstar I’ve made a show that, like Comedy For Witches, pulls people in and lifts us out of ourselves for just a second.
On paper, I’m "lucky." If that paper was Lotto numbers, maybe. My passion is live performance. With people in real life. Young Anna thought she was born for TV and now has to make TikToks but what I really love is a room, a stage, and an audience up for the craic.
Everyone wants to be main-character energy. I say: do it for the C-Plot.
Hope to see ye bleedin’ drama ’ticks there.
Soapstar runs at Smock Alley Theatre from 18–19 September, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2025 - find out more here
