Claire Hooper: The Comedian Who Prefers Silence & Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Comedian Claire Hooper is embracing the quiet. Her novel stand-up indicate, “Fun Show xx,” launching at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival this month, is built around a central premise: she simply isn’t a fun person. And she’s perfectly content with that.

“The minute my husband leaves the house, I turn the music off. I love silence,” Hooper explained in a recent interview with The Guardian. “For my 40th birthday my husband, my two babies and I flew to Adelaide and hired a car to drive to the Barossa. My husband said, ‘It’s your birthday, you get to choose the playlist!’ and I said, ‘Just complete silence please.’ So we drove in silence for 90 minutes and that’s all I wanted.”

Hooper’s aversion to forced enjoyment extends to her creative process. She described a “rage room” experience where she was asked what music she wanted to listen to while smashing objects. Her response? “Complete silence, please.” When pressed to choose something, she selected the first three tracks of Queens of the Stone Age’s album, Songs for the Deaf, repeatedly looping the third track while experiencing a cathartic release. “I very rarely listen to the end of the album. Isn’t that mad? I’m really afraid of this being in the public domain,” she said.

The comedian, who also appeared on The Great Australian Bake Off, recounted a particularly challenging corporate gig where she performed for a construction company in an L-shaped room next to a noisy kitchen, with audience members seated at tables facing away from the stage and partially obscured by pillars. Adding to the difficulty, she was introduced with a less-than-enthusiastic preamble: “Oh, I hope you do better than the guy we had last time.” Despite the unfavorable conditions, the evening took an unexpected turn when a company employee physically pulled her onto the dance floor mid-song after the band began to play.

Hooper’s personal life also defies conventional expectations. She and her husband, podcaster Wade Duffin, became engaged just five weeks after meeting, a decision they initially kept quiet due to concerns about how it would be perceived. Hooper admitted she hadn’t envisioned marriage after a previous engagement ended just weeks before the wedding date. “We got married in 2008 and we’ve been together ever since,” she said, describing the relationship as both “unromantic” and “incredibly romantic.”

While Hooper doesn’t claim to have a traditional “nemesis,” she acknowledged harboring negative feelings towards someone whose presence elicits a desire for immediate escape. She also highlighted fellow comedian Bronwyn Kuss as a particularly underrated talent, and praised Pete Helliar’s consistently strong comedic instincts.

One particularly awkward encounter involved a run-in with Shane Warne during a press launch for a Matchbox toy car he had designed. Hooper’s question, questioning whether car designs were subconsciously influenced by male anatomy, was met with visible displeasure from the cricketer.

Hooper’s preferred snack, a peanut butter and flour tortilla roll, reflects her pragmatic approach to life. “It’s extremely calorie dense. But if you are too busy for a meal, it will offer you energy that will get you to the end of your night and you can eat vegetables tomorrow,” she explained.

Recently, Hooper experienced an unusual moment of recognition while preparing for a colonoscopy. As she changed into a hospital gown, a nurse, identified as Narelle, recognized her from The Great Australian Bake Off and remarked on the impending procedure, prompting Hooper to respond, “Get ready for a very different viewing experience, Narelle.”

“Fun Show xx” will tour Melbourne (March 26 – April 19), Sydney (May 9-10) and Brisbane (May 14-17).