Amy Huberman: ‘I couldn’t even imagine sitting down to write after my dad died’

Strangely enough, this little pre-Christmas vignette has a little in common with Huberman’s latest upcoming project — her role as one of ten people trying not to laugh, despite everyone’s best efforts, in LOL: Laugh Out Loud Ireland. The format has proven massively successful around the world and the Irish iteration, presented by Graham Norton, is Prime Video’s first original comedy series. 

In it, Huberman finds herself desperately trying not to smile as comedians and performers including Deirdre O’Kane, Aisling Bea, Jason Byrne, Emma Doran and David McSavage all do their best/worst to break the laugh resistance of their competitors.

The winner bags €50,000 for the charity of their choice and Huberman admits that she vacillated over the opportunity at first, before deciding to take the plunge.

“Firstly, I didn’t know the show,” she says. “I am not a stand-up comedian. I know I’ve done comedic acting, [but] I was like, ‘I’m not doing this, I’m not putting myself up for that’. Like, absolute hell. I went on such a journey from the initial chat about it to deciding to do it.”

As she says, the pitch at first “sounds like a Leaving Cert nightmare that you’d have on repeat”. And there is an element of putting your head in the laughing lion’s mouth in the format, given the laugh-generating prowess of other competitors, with the entrants also armed with props and engaging in various set pieces. 

Anything so much as an upturned mouth, captured on one of the dozens of cameras, can mean expulsion. But Huberman says viewing the other series, beginning with the Australian version, showed her that its often improvised, occasionally daft nature meant she could navigate a way through.

“That is what drew me in: This is so silly, it’s about actual play, improvised play, and I thought, ‘when do you get a chance to do that?’

“It is different to stand up because you can’t really prepare for this. So I thought what if I approach it from acting terms, I can try and pretend not to laugh.”

Not laughing was one element, with Amy claiming she was “never as tired in my life” in concentrating on that part alone. “I just went around with this really plaintive expression on my face,” she says. “It was just these doleful eyes and sad expression at all times.”

Indeed, at one point Norton exclaims how unusual it is to see Huberman not smiling. She admits: “I found it nearly easier to compartmentalise my sad face, pretend this is an awful scene where someone has been stabbed.”

The challenges were manifold (“like trying not to laugh at Mass”) yet the unlikely scenario — the competitors hothoused in an enormous studio, with many knowing each other in advance — also opened up an appreciation of the psychology of laughing.

“The first 10 minutes is so intense, I think I had a migraine by minute 12,” she says. Sometimes, she says, they moved into “this weird zone where no one is laughing”, and an accompanying sense of tension. 

If at first, it sounds like a fusion of the classic quiz show Who’s Line Is It Anyway? mixed with Big Brother, the more Huberman talks about it, the more it sounds like a sort of comedic Squid Game. Yet the real challenge was often in being funny while not looking like you’re having fun — a tricky proposition in a country where we often revel in our own jokes.

“When you look at the different series across the world you learn how similar and how different the culture of that comedy [in Ireland] is,” she says.

“Taking the piss out of yourself, you incite people to laugh back at you. Strip that back and you feel really vulnerable.”

For all that, she says the show was a “safe space” in that no one was out to annihilate any attempts at comedy.

“We kind of had each other’s backs,” she explains. Then there was the exploration of the social cues of laughing, whether out of being polite or “being a gobshite”, with the effect that in the no-laugh laughter zone of the show, people would reassure whoever was making a wisecrack that “I will laugh at that later”.

While the 44-year-old admits to having stress dreams in advance of recording the show — including one in which her hairline has suddenly been shaved back by three inches — she probably needn’t have worried. She’s been on our TV screens for two decades, from her longstanding role in The Clinic, through to her self-created show Finding Joy.

In between, she has become a mother to three children, written two adult fiction books and one children’s book, and appeared in sketch show Your Bad Self way back in 2008, which surely served as a comedy primer.

“I think even 10 years ago I feel like whatever lane you were in, that was the lane you were in, and I was always really grateful that I did comedy and drama because it was difficult for people to step out of the things they were doing,” she says.

“I think that has changed now.”

And while she has no intention of turning her hand to stand-up, she is open to the LOL Ireland experience influencing her next career moves. “The message is: ‘Stop getting in your own way’,” she continues. “What’s the worst that can happen? Make a fool of yourself?”

As we discuss the joys and stresses of the festive season, Huberman notes this Christmas past marked her second Christmas since the passing of her father in 2022, something she refers to more than once. “[2022] was tough, it was my first Christmas without my dad, I felt like I was wading through logistics last year.”

The loss of her father also put a momentary halt to her creative output, something she is now going to address. “[There are] things that tick away at the back of my head, then I have a compulsive nature to be creative,” she says. “I didn’t feel it last year because it was a tricky year with losing my dad, and it was actually the first time I did not want to write, I really didn’t want to write.

“And I was kind of nervous about going, ‘Oh, what if that’s gone?’ I had never been through a grieving process before... I didn’t realise at the time what it was. I finished a book last year and I said I couldn’t even imagine sitting down to write again.

“But that slowly but surely has crept back and I want to write and I have projects on the go.

“I will just one day go, ‘Right, I’m doing this’. Being creative is a huge part of what I love doing. I can’t see a time for myself where I won’t want it.”

Huberman says she wants to get her teeth into a new acting role and is always on the lookout for upcoming projects. At least 2024 already has one in the bag – an experience that may have taught her more than she first realised, moving from “abject terror” and “a real personal challenge” to “one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had”.

As she puts it: “If you are the only one saying no, then you kind of have to ask yourself why.”

• LOL: Last One Laughing Ireland, launches Friday, January 19 on Prime Video

QUICK FIRE

The person that always makes me laugh is... my family. I do think they are gas.

The comedian that always makes me laugh is... Deirdre O’Kane. I remember the first time I ever saw her stand-up. I brought a friend who needed cheering up at the time, and it was the best night out. Also, Dylan Moran.

The show that always makes me laugh is... Too many to mention! Been lolling at Schitt’s Creek recently, but I also saw Stath Lets Flats on a flight and I was weeping laughing. Reruns of The Royale Family too.

The most inappropriate place I ever laughed was... Mass as a kid. Probably a funeral as an adult...

Tell us your best Dad joke... I was thinking of throwing a ball for my dog. I dunno, it might be a little excessive, but he would look amazing in a tux.