![\"Elouise](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/892a189a7dd66e410dc0558fd16c56960fcbd8f6.jpg\")
Camera IconElouise Eftos. Credit: Andrew Fraser<\/p>\nIt was in the middle of COVID lockdowns when Elouise Eftos realised she needed a job title.<\/p>\n
Like everyone, the actor and comedian was \u201dpivoting\u201d to online. Instead of telling jokes onstage to rooms full of people, she was plying her trade one social media post at a time \u2014 and getting attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cI noticed people were writing articles about me but they didn\u2019t know what to call me,\u201d Eftos explains. She is chatting to PLAY via video call from a hotel room in Melbourne, where she is performing in the local comedy festival. \u201cIn lockdown, Instagram became like our CVs. All of a sudden it was like, \u2018oh you better put something in your bio\u2019 because I didn\u2019t have actor or comedian in there because I was still quite fresh to comedy, so I just put \u2018Australia\u2019s First Attractive Comedian\u2019 in there because I thought it was funny. And that really upset people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tagline has become Eftos\u2019 calling card, part of an overconfident, high-status comedy persona she has created which many people find very funny, although she admits many others simply don\u2019t get the joke. While a lot of stand-up comedy, especially in Australia, is dominated by self-deprecating blokes, Eftos saunters onto comedy stages as the world\u2019s best-looking funniest woman wearing tight dresses and defiantly bra-less: \u201cI can see you going, \u2018what the hell is she doing here?\u2019\u201d she tells the audience during a performance at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival. \u201d\u2019She\u2019s way too hot to do comedy,\u2019\u201d Eftos squeals and dances in delight at her own cleverness. \u201cThank you very much!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really funny to me how other comedians would get really uppity,\u201d Eftos says of the response to her Australia\u2019s First Attractive Comedian persona. \u201cIn my first show, I have the emails and messages and phone calls I got from other comedians \u2014 it really rocked the boat because tall poppy syndrome is just so cooked here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Camera IconElouise Eftos. Credit: Andrew Fraser<\/p>\n
That show won Eftos, who is a WA Academy of Performing Arts trained actor and dancer, a best newcomer nomination at the 2025 Edinburgh Comedy Awards. It was named the fourth-best comedy show of 2025 by The Guardian UK and she was invited to perform it at London\u2019s Soho Theatre and New York\u2019s Soho Playhouse, giving Eftos an insight into just how different parts of the world view stridently confident women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s one part in the show where I say: \u2018When I first started stand-up, I was the best at it. I was so good at it.\u2019 It\u2019s such a silly line,\u201d Eftos says. \u201cI think it\u2019s so funny to say: \u2018when I first started, all the comedians told me it was really hard. I\u2019m like,\u2019\u201d she adopts a look of shock and surprise, \u201c\u2018is it?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Australia (the audience) laughs uncomfortably. In the UK, they laugh at the cheekiness of it a bit more. And in the US, they don\u2019t really laugh, because their culture is, like: \u2018Good for you! Oh, you\u2019re, you\u2019re the best at it? OK, cool.\u2019\u201d She cackles with laughter. \u201cThere\u2019s something about it that\u2019s so endearing to me,\u201d she says of American confidence. \u201cI wish that we were a bit more like them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eftos says behind the laughs Australia\u2019s First Attractive Comedian is making a point: why are people \u2014 especially Australians \u2014 so uncomfortable around confident women?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tall poppy syndrome thing is so funny to me, and I made a whole show about it because I found it fascinating,\u201d Eftos says. \u201cThe show is about me in comedy and my experiences in comedy, but it\u2019s also about women in general, in society, having to put ourselves down to please other people, because when you know that you\u2019re attractive, or you know that you\u2019re smart or you know that you\u2019re funny, there\u2019s almost like this lack of control. You can\u2019t be manipulated. You can\u2019t be controlled. You can\u2019t be told you\u2019re this or that and feel \u2018less than\u2019 and not take up too much space.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you take up space as a woman, it\u2019s so punk rock, it\u2019s like a protest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eftos is touring to her home town of Perth next month with her new show, which is something of a sequel to Australia\u2019s First Attractive Comedian. Called Aphrodite, she says it\u2019s the second in what she sees as a trilogy.<\/p>\n
![\"Elouise](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4b2afb1145b4b5e46c0f32a9b5777558d57cdba3.jpg\")
Camera IconElouise Eftos. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first show is about why I called myself Australia\u2019s First Attractive Comedian. It\u2019s about how I believe self-deprecation is dead, and why do we have to put ourselves down as women?\u201d Eftos says. \u201cWhereas Aphrodite is a bit more about the consequences of playing my persona. It\u2019s about how I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve ever been in love, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s real. And this fear I have that the more successful and powerful I\u2019ve become, the less likely I\u2019ll be able to find true love, if it exists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eftos says the show explores some big themes \u2014 being the child of immigrants (Eftos is from an Australian Greek-Macedonian family), sexual liberation, human connection, ego, modern dating, love and feminism \u2014 all to a pumping disco backdrop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI set it in this Aphrodite discotheque, it\u2019s like a Studio 54, Mt Olympus fever dream,\u201d she says. \u201cAphrodite represents sexual liberation and freedom, and this idea of power. She guides me through the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if this show is a Greek comedy or a Greek tragedy, that\u2019s what I say at the start. I like the idea of saying to the audience, if this is a tragedy I, as a hero, am supposed to fall because of my hubris, because of my pride. And it\u2019s this thing of: is that what they want? Do you guys want me to fall because I\u2019m proud? I think that\u2019s unfair. Because as women, we grow up with humility our whole lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eftos says she hopes Aphrodite is an anecdote to what can at times feel like a negative, adversary culture in modern dating.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping I can bring people together on the dance floor. I\u2019m hoping I can question all of these attitudes and this change in modern dating,\u201d Eftos says. \u201cIt\u2019s quite an emotional show. It\u2019s a very personal show, but I think it\u2019s right for this moment to let my armour down a little bit and let my guard down \u2014 to show that I am human.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aphrodite is on April 23 at the Astor Theatre, Mt Lawley, as part of the Perth Comedy Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was in the middle of COVID lockdowns when Elouise Eftos realised she needed a job title. Like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,9771,134,44],"class_list":["post-598505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-comedy","tag-entertainment","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}