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p18
 Were I a lesser person, Ingrid Ricciardello (more of the
antecedents anon) would be the sort of woman to set my teeth grinding to their stumps.
She's very very attractive (ex-model and Raquel Welch body double!), strong, funny, warm,
bursting with exuberance, confidence and not so much joie de vivre as grab the vivre by
its throat and shake it like a Doberman with a ragdoll. This is a 34-year-old Antipodean
who's not going to go to her grave with any 'Ooo I wish I'd done...'regrets. She's also,
as she readily admits, pretty bonkers.
Ingrid runs The Minx Club comedy nights at the Barracuda on Church Street after a starrily
successful career managing top stand ups in Sydney and virtually running the TV side of
the Melbourne Festival single handed. She now lives permanently in Stokey (yes, I know
it's a rum choice) after failing madly in love with a man in Summerhouse Road.
'Yeh it was a great career over there', she drawls, rattling out sentences like a Gatling
gun. 'I worked non-stop, had no personal life, loads of mates, mind. I was absolutely and
totally dedicated to my comics.' Ingrid's 'comics' included discovering chaps like Steady
Eddy who rose to become an Ozzie superstar until he got married and they had a serious
failing out. 'His new wife wanted to manage him ... she knew bugger all about comedy
management', says Ingrid, smiling. Nothing fazes her for long.
Born of a mother with English roots and a Sicilian father, to whom she is especially
close, Ingrid grew up with her older brother in working-class Brisbane, was bright but
under stimulated at school and decamped alone to Sydney at the age of I6. 'My Dad was
great about it, considering he's Sicilian.' He just said 'Go. I know you'll do well.
'Decide what you want and go for it. You're great she says. His support and instilling of
self esteem have been unwavering throughout her life.
She found a job waitressing at the Comedy Store, 'just like London's, really', and rose
through the ranks until she was managing the whole shebang at 21. The youngest ever in the
business. 'I hadn't thought about it much. It just happened. But then I thought what do I
like doing? Answer - managing. comics. So I set up my own management company and worked
24/7', she says. This, too, soon became a roaring success. But it would be wrong to judge
the Full On Me Ricciardello solely by her pizzazzy exterior. So you can stop grinding your
teeth out there. She's far from just a series of exploding fireworks. Such copper-bottom
determination and push through life needs some explanation and there is a depth of
vulnerability there which is one reason La Ricciardello's not overbearing. What is it
about comics?
'They are the most fucked up people you'll ever meet', she says .'Totally disorganised,
like kids. Drink, drugs the lot. When I was in Sydney I spent so much time waking them up,
brushing them down, getting them to gigs on time. I've always had an overwhelming urge to
sort out fucked-up people.' We are back home in Brisbane where both her grandmother and
mother died tragically young and Ingrid saw her mother in and out of mental hospitals
throughout her childhood. 'I won't go on about it. I don't want people to see me and think
'Oh God Ingrid what a tragic story' but it was the kind of childhood which makes your hair
stand on end', she says without a noticeable trace of rancour. 'I knew from an early age
that I was never, and I mean never, going to be like my poor mother... years of therapy
later - here I am' she suddenly laughs.
So here she is in NI6. How come? Ingrid, who was far too busy with her career to bother
with emotional relationships, met producer Andy, the one who sits alongside Jonathan Ross
on his Beeb TV show, one night over dinner in Melbourne. They spent  I0 days together - Bang, Boom - he had to return to Britain and a few weeks
after that Ingrid was on a plane herself to Blighty for the first time. Job, house,
possessions surrendered. Lock, stock and whirlwind smoking barrel. That was I0 months ago
and they're marrying next spring.' I just knew I had to do it, thought I'd never forgive
myself if I'd been so cautious as to have played it safe and thrown something this
valuable away', she says. 'I told myself "Ingrid, if it doesn't work out you can
always start again".
Andy is as shy and self-possessed as Ingrid is mad and Out There. But he was tenaciously
sure he wanted this woman. 'I'm the minx in Minx Club, it's what my friends and Andy call
me. I can be a handful', she says. 'Andy and I have the most spectacular rows, it's the
Sicilian in me. But we went for it and we're happy.' What does she think of life chez
Stokey? 'It's great. I love the people, everyone's been so kind and welcoming. But My God
I hate the rubbish. It's absolutely filthy', she says wrinkling her nose. And so say the
rest of us, Girl.
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