Freudian Nip: The Story of Two Fringe Festival Loving, Sketch Comedy Performing Creatives

Jenna Owen and Vic Zerbst first met through a mutual friend who said “you guys are either going to be best friends or worst enemies.” 

Within 10 days of meeting, they had formed a sketch comedy group and were writing a show for the Sydney Fringe Festival. Jenna remembers that Vic “was already in the space, creating a lot” and Jenna didn’t quite know how to harness her own creativity. Meeting Vic was exciting for Jenna; she’d found someone who knew how to motivate her. 

“I was like, ‘Oh okay, this makes sense now, and I can now do my life's purpose, which is to create,’” Jenna said. 

“We've both always related to collaboration, as opposed to a solo venture. I'm not interested in doing things alone. It was really nice for me to meet someone who was in more of the space I wanted to be, and then together we elevated each other.”

The comedic duo started their career in an “absurd space,” hence the name Freudian Nip. While this style is still very much their bread and butter, over the past nine years, they have grown their comedic style and offerings. 

Jenna and Vic’s first impressions of the commercial space came from working with Aboriginal Australian rapper, Adam Briggs, director Nash Edgerton, and the team at Collider on ‘Far Enough,’ a campaign for The Voice Referendum. 

They described this experience as something of which they are very proud. “We had a chat at the Old Fitz [and asked] what kind of comedy video can help bring people together and act like a unifying force, as opposed to something that creates further division,” Vic said.

Although the pair have yet to film a commercial, they are ready to bring their comedy and “woke agenda” to the TVC world. Through Collider, they said they have experienced a warmth from the industry and feel lucky to enter it. 

“There seems to be a lot of excitement,” Jenna said. “From the little bits that we’ve seen, it always seems to be ‘oh the client is difficult’ but from our perspective, because their jobs aren’t necessarily inherently creative, this is their outlet. They don’t take creativity for granted.”

Taking creativity for granted is something that Vic and Jenna fight against when “working within a machine,” and noted that they often find themselves complaining about “the craziest things.” 

They have never subscribed to the idea of “half ass-ing something”; their first fringe show was slick and heavily rehearsed. It was from there that they were able to build their name and get offered roles on SBS’ The Feed.

Vic described her “militant” behaviour when it comes to the linguistics of comedy. She believes that the comedy that resonates with people is the comedy that uses language purposefully. 

“Comedy has the ability to capture such a specific zeitgeist in a way that makes people feel really seen,” she said. “People gravitate to a character because of the specific words that they're using, because they recognise in the linguistics of that character, someone that they know.” 

Jenna and Vic share a huge appreciation for comedy groups and shows like Aunty Donna and Kath and Kim, citing them as inspirations.They want to provide a similarly “unapologetically Australian” view on comedy, that presents a slice of life recognisable to everyone. 

“It’s a deep privilege to be able to make anything,” Vic said. “The time, the energy, everything that is lined up for you to be able to do that, we don't take it for granted.”