Rose Callaghan - 12 Rules For Life

There’s a new era of self-help upon us. Whether you call it the pursuit of “mindfulness” or “un-fucking” yourself, whether you’re devouring books (in digital, analogue or audio format) or streaming the latest wholesome self-improvement shows, there’s no escaping it. 

People want to do better – but who should we be listening to? Comedian Rose Callaghan just hopes you’re not listening to someone who has built their platform on a complete disregard for empathy. In fact, her obsessive hatred of a controversial internet psychologist is so strong that she made it into a show.

In 12 Rules For Life, Callaghan skewers the issues with modern masculinity and the trivial peculiarities that go along with it. She approaches her topics from the empathetic lens of a self-confessed Melbourne hipster living in a bubble of pink hair, septum piercings and blanket progressive beliefs, but one who can still manage to form a friendship with a sportswear-clad DJ who struggles with the concept of identity politics. 

Equal parts playful and dry, Callaghan’s stand-up forays into antiquated advice columns on securing a husband, the peculiarities of modern dating, the identity crisis that can come along with entering a functioning monogamous relationship and passing on the torch of self-professed “slut”, and most of all, how much she detests people that prey on the vulnerabilities of confused men.

She tears apart Jordan Peterson’s popular self-help book 12 Rules For Life – a book containing advice ranging from things your mum has already told you, like 'clean your room', to more problematic ideas like 'order is masculine and chaos is feminine'. Callaghan offers her own (albeit shorter) list of principles for living a more virtuous life, starting with basic empathy. 

Callaghan has a talent for roasting perspectives she doesn’t agree with – namely, those held by men’s rights activists who got uppity about Gillette’s anti-toxic-masculinity campaign – yet she also has the self-awareness to take the piss out of herself too, and the perspective to take pause and consider the culture that props up influencers like Peterson. 

Her overall vision is simple yet genius: fewer right-wing YouTube extremists, more Queer Eye guys promoting self-care, trading one Rick And Morty T-shirt for a pair of chinos at a time.

Performed as part of Sydney Comedy Festival