Interview
Stuck In A Lift
Olga Thompson and Riona O’Connor think Elon Musk is probably hairless
The comedy double act talk celebrity lookalikes, eating eggs with jam, and living life with an irrational fear of owls
This Is All Too Much, according to the title of Olga Thompson and Riona O’Connor’s new stand-up show. What’s ‘this’? “Life in general,” according to O’Connor.
“The show is two halves – I have one act and Olga has the other act – and my show is basically about how I’ve found a lot of life in the last few years too much,” she says. “Having kids is insane for me, I talk about that. I talk a lot about aging. I talk a lot about my body, the changes in my body. I also talk about having an alcoholic brother who passed away, and how insane that is, and how that sort of affects your entire family dynamic, and your life’s dynamic – in hilarious ways, surprisingly. I think it all becomes very overwhelming sometimes, and it’s all too much. The show is about finding your way through with humour to get to the other side of all the chaos in life.”
Thompson adds: “For a lot of women like myself who are maybe going through different changes in life and perimenopause, it’s like you’ve got demands of kids and aging parents and shopping lists and dentists – which I forgot, by the way, I forgot to take my three boys to the dentist last week. I woke up in the morning, and I was like, “I’ve forgotten that.” The only thing you can do is laugh so you don’t drown.”
The duo will tour their new show to Manchester, Brighton, Bristol and London, kicking things off at the end of the month. Ahead of their first performance, we caught up with them about horse riding, overplucking their eyebrows, and what Gerard Butler smells like.
Who would you most like to be stuck in a lift with?
Olga: Gerald Butler.
Riona: Gordon Ramsay. I want him to cook me stuff. I’m gonna be really hungry if I’m stuck in there for ages. I want some decent food and I want him to berate the people that are taking so long to fix the lift.
Olga: I’m more shallow. I’m like, just Gerald Butler. I don’t care about the conversation.
Riona: What do you think’s going to happen with Gerald Butler? Do you think he’s going to undress you?
Olga: No, no, we might just do a crossword together.
Riona: Like a naked crossword?
Olga: No, but I’d do anything with Gerard Bulter. A crossword, finger painting… You’re obviously more cerebral than I, because you’re thinking it through, but I’m just thinking about Gerard Butler. Just his presence. The smell of him. I can smell him right now…
Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?
Riona: Probably Donald Trump. Or Elon Musk. There’s only so much I could listen to people talk about themselves. I think they both smell. Donald Trump would stink of fake tan, and Elon Musk looks like he has weird nails. I don’t know why. Yeah, I feel like he’s got dirty nails.
Olga: Or just overgrown. Very pale hands. But hairless as well. I think he’s completely hairless.
Riona: I think so too. That makes sense.
What’s the weirdest interaction you’ve ever had with a famous person?
Riona: I was doing the West End show The Commitments, and when you do a West End show, usually the opening night, you have tickets for your agents, and then you would hope for some casting directors to come and look at you and say, “Oh my God, you’re amazing! Let’s get you some more jobs!” or whatever. I gave some tickets to my agent, and she didn’t bring any casting directors. She brought Lee from Steps with her. I was sort of like, “But Lee from Steps isn’t going to get me any work, as lovely as he is. I’m not really up for being a backup dancer in Steps.”
Olga: I saw Sylvester Stallone outside Planet Hollywood when I was 18, and that was a moment. I will not forget that. I just missed Emma Thompson last year. We were staying in the same hotel, and I just missed her by nanosecond because I was in the toilet. That was devastating.
What’s the last live show you saw?
Olga: Probably Tina the musical.
Riona: Panto before Christmas. We go to the same panto every year, the Stevenage panto. Panto over here in England is mad. You need to book a year in advance or you can’t get a seat at this point.
What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given?
Riona: Forgive and forget. I can forgive, but I will never forget
Olga: It was to pluck my eyebrows. It was 2003 and it was the over plucking. I was told by someone, “You need to pluck your eyebrows.” It’s taken me decades to grow them back.
Riona: I used to shave mine. In Ireland in the 90s there was nobody talking about any of this stuff. The cool girls spoke about it. But I was not one of the cool girls. We hadn’t a notion of what to do with our eyebrows or our hair or nothing.
If you had to have a song playing every time you walked into a room, what would it be?
Olga: I quite like ‘She’s A Lady’, just because it’s a mad song, and you never know when I walk in the door what you’re gonna get.
Riona: I want to say Beyoncé or some Irish rebel song. That’d be good. But it would probably be some sort of sad violin.
Who do you often get told you look like?
Riona: When I was younger, it was always Christina Ricci, and now I get Christina Ricci and sometimes Emma Stone. It’s very flattering.
Olga: I get Linda Cardellini.
What’s your most controversial food opinion?
Riona: I always have eggs with jam. I never knew it was a thing, if I’m honest. Then I went to university and everyone was like, “What are you doing? What is that?” Yeah, boiled eggs with jam.
Olga: That’s made me go cold. Mine is that I’m Greek, so therefore that means everyone that’s within a five-mile radius of me must be hungry. Riona hasn’t eaten anything yet. She’s in my house and she hasn’t eaten anything. It’s very strange.
Riona: She has offered, but I’m going for lunch in a bit.
Olga: I might have to lodge something in you anyway.
What’s your most re watched film?
Riona: For me, it’s always Home Alone, without a shadow of doubt. We even watched it last week, because my five-year-old was like, “Can we watch Home Alone?” and I was like, “Yeah we can!” Either that one or something like Top Gun.
Olga: I love Midnight Cowboy, and a bit of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Do you have any superstitions?
Riona: I take on other people’s superstitions for some weird reason. My dad hates cats, and I’ve not taken on that, but I can sense it. I think that seed has been planted, and I’m little bit iffy towards getting a cat now. My friend’s mom had a really bad experience with an owl in like 1981 and so now, and I don’t know why, but I have now taken that on board, and I can’t have anything to do with owls in my house. In fact, I had an owl cup for years, and I’ve just thrown it in the bin. My husband asked me for this T-shirt randomly with this owl on it. He sent me the link for Christmas, and I was like, “I’ll get you a T-shirt, but I have to get another one.” It’s not even my superstition. I’ve never had a bad experience with owls, but owls are not welcome in my house.
Olga: I don’t have any superstitions. My brain doesn’t quite go there. It’s not my thing. But I think I do have a better day if I don’t let my armpit hair grow too long.
What did your 12-year-old self think that you’d be doing now?
Riona: I would be a horse riding instructor. I was obsessed with horses, but I was never very brave. Some people would be, like, you know, getting up on any wild horse and flying around. That was not me. A plod pony, like a Clydesdale, like a cold-blooded, steadfast, will-never-throw-me-off-ever horse. I always ended up with these hot-blooded ones. A blade of grass appeared on the path, and I was thrown into bushes, ponds, big piles of nettles, everything. I don’t know how I still liked horses for years. 12-year-olds, they love boys, they’ll have pictures of boy bands all over the walls and everything, whereas I was always so insecure. I was like, “I can’t tell anyone I like boys, because if I admit that I like boys, that sets me up for rejection.” So I had floor to ceiling horses. You couldn’t see any wall. It was just horse. I don’t have any involvement with horses today.
Olga: I wanted to be a fashion designer.
Riona: I do believe that for you, because you’re so good with clothes.
Olga: I loved designing clothes. Whatever we had in the house, whether it was a blanket or a roll of toilet paper, I would make amazing ball gowns out of the toilet paper. I was always sketching designs of women with massive shoulder pads and ball gowns. I wish I kept those drawings. I really, really loved it. Now I just buy too many clothes.
Riona: She styled me for my friend’s 40th last week. I have never got so many compliments.
Olga: I feel like we’ve both rediscovered our passions now.
Riona: You could dress me on a horse.
Olga: … I’m just taking a minute to process that.
Riona: I’m cantering around an arena and you’re throwing clothes at me. Oh no, we’ve given the show away.
