Why Susie Youssef's Mum Told Her To Behave Herself

Mining her family's quirks for comic value has gotten Sydney-based comedian Susie Youssef into a bit of strife, particularly with her mum. So these days she tries to clear as much as possible with them first, a practice she equates to PR-managing character assassination.

"My mum said I'm not allowed to speak badly of her again, so I've had to twist it to make her sound more reasonable than maybe she is," Youssef laughs. "I absolutely adore my mother, but mostly for her comedy value."

Youssef's new show Behave Youssef continues the trend of taking familial pot shots and using the family name in an amusing title, as evidenced by last year's Check Youssef Before You Wreck Youssef.

"I was so excited to see this organic, crazy thing happening in front of me that seemed to make no sense and everyone was laughing at it."

A thirst for comic writing first presented itself to Youssef while she was attending high school, where she would pen her own plays. "They were all very angsty and everything you'd expect from a teenager, but I always slanted more towards comedy than anything else."

A degree in teaching was derailed when a friend took her to a theatre sports show at Newtown's Enmore Theatre. "I could not believe what I was seeing," Youssef says. "I didn't understand how they were doing it and I was mostly confused, but also delighted.

That got Youssef hooked on watching the US incarnation of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and regular cast member Colin Mochrie, her hero - who also appeared in the UK version. Of course, Youssef went on to appear in last year's debut season of the Australian Whose Line Is It Anyway?, she's also cropped up as Gez in the ABC's Rosehaven alongside Celia Pacquola and Luke McGregor, had a small cameo in the Nine Network's Here Come the Habibs! and appeared as Anousha in Stan original series No Activity.

"No Activity was such an incredible experience for me, working with someone like Genevieve Morris who is an actual genius," Youssef says. "I had to keep reminding myself on the day to stop watching her and actually participate in the filming because she was so brilliant."

Youssef admits that while on set, she tends to act like she's in her stand-up zone. "The bragging live performer in me tries to make the crew laugh as much as possible, which is horrific for any film crew to have someone who's so needy on set. But then there's that final product, seeing something you worked on and the reward of investing so much time in it, as opposed to the fleeting nature of live performance."

Not that Youssef's giving up gigs like MICF any time soon, with the thrill of live gigs being a hard one to beat. "All the different facets of comedy torture me in some way, but the payoff of being in front of an audience is the adrenaline. There's no doubt, there's nothing like it."