Who is Nikki Britton?
An optimist. A procrastinator. An eccentric cat lady in training.
What would you do differently to what you do now?
I would write a really good answer to this very broad question.
Who inspires you and why?
My friends. Anyone who does their tax on time. Oprah.
What would you do to make a difference in the world?
I want to buy a big piece of land and rescue all the stray dogs and cats (And goats. Don’t forget the goats!) from shelters and let them live out their days together, in freedom. Please don’t pick holes in this dream, obviously I haven’t thought this through logistically, I’ve just cried at too many facebook videos to not at least try to make a pet utopia.
Also invent glasses that make you see people’s truth, so they might be acting like a jerk but then you can see, “Oh, he’s just socially awkward because he wasn’t hugged enough as a kid.” Then you hug that person into goodness. Or you see that they are actually just a jerk and then you’re allowed to kick them in the armpit until they wise up.
Favourite holiday destination and why?
Ooh, there are so many places I want to see and things I want to do. Top of the bucket list at the moment is to see the Northern Lights from a Scandinavian town I can’t pronounce the name of. I want to trek the mountains of Rwanda and sit with Gorillas. I want to dive off a yacht, naked, into the perfect turquoise of the Mediterranean Sea. I have not yet been to any of these places though, so if we’re talking return visits… it’s hard to go past sipping a lychee martini on a secluded beach in Thailand. And Portland Oregon has a special place in my heart.
When friends come to town, what attraction would you take them to, and why?
SYDNEY: I would make them get the ferry to Manly from the city so they can take a quick pic of the Opera House and the Bridge (cheating – more than two already) then, when they arrive in Manly we walk through the Corso and around to Shelley Beach and the marine reserve. Then we don our snorkels and flip our way around the little reef until we find that famous big blue groper affectionately known as “Kylie Minogue”. He is Sydney’s best attraction. MELBOURNE: I’m not from here. Someone, please take me out to an attraction.
What are you currently reading?
I have a few on the go (commitment issues); Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body by Sara Pascoe, The Course of Love by Alain de Botton and Jim Henson: The Biography. And I flirt with Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed. I realise they are all non-fiction, but I bloody love a good old story too.
What are you currently listening to?
Podcasts – I am super late to the game with these! I am literally only just discovering the delicious joy of Radio Lab and This American Life. I’ll get back to you in about a year when I have devoured the majority of their very fine archives of programming, when the trends will have surpassed me once again. Music wise – a friend once told me, if you put the Harry Potter Spotify playlist on and just walk around in the world, shit gets pretty intense pretty quick. She was not wrong. Big fan of All our Exes live in Texas and Beyonce and Lenka and George Michael and anything that was on my power ballad cassette in 1996 – did Wilson Phillips hold on for one more day? They did.
Happiness is?
All the little moments. The first crack of thunder on a hot afternoon. Thinking you’ve lost your phone but then finding your phone! Smooching the ones you love (like your phone when you find it).
What does the future hold for you?
Who bloody knows?! I see psychics in the hope they will tell me but I can’t seem to get a solid answer. I’m generally optimistic though. Frolicking naked in the Mediterranean Sea around June this year is very much on the cards. Then, cats…
Nikki will be presenting her one-woman-show, Nikki Britton is Romanticide in the Ladies Lounge – Forum Theatre: 30 March – 23 April, as part of the 2017 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. For more information, visit: www.comedyfestival.com.au or www.nikkibritton.com for details.
Image: Nikki Britton