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Mum's OK with being the joke

She is the source of much of his comedic work but Joel Creasey's mum Jenny insists she is still his biggest fan.

The WA-raised jokester is currently riding a career high after performing to rave reviews at the New York International Fringe Festival.

The New York Post named his stand-up show Rock God as one of the top five events of the festival, while Time Out New York gave him a glittering five-star rating.

But like many great comedians, Creasey often talks about his mother in his scathing anecdotes - something Jenny tells AAA she is fine with.

"I suppose his experiences are home and family, and mothers are typical targets for that type of thing," she says with a grin.

"I do like to think of it as a mother's ultimate sacrifice, allowing your child to ruin your good name in trying to get one for themselves.

"It's a bit hard sometimes when I am in the audience because I am not sure how people expect me to be reacting. I don't know if they think I will be sitting at the back with a glass of wine slumped in my seat, maybe asleep."

But when a teenaged Creasey told Jenny and husband, former Perth Ronald McDonald House charity chair *Terry *, that he would be dropping out of a politics degree to chase a career in stand-up, they were understandably hesitant.

"We were surprised but at the same time that was always what he was going to do - he was a comedian when he was six years old," Jenny says.

"He used to do a magic show called the Magical Mafisto and it really was the dialogue in this French accent that was just hysterically funny."

So supportive now are Jenny and Terry that they recently travelled to New York to watch their son when he took the stage to open for comedy legend Joan Rivers, 81, last month.

It was just after the sharp-tongued comic had made some controversial comments on Gaza and security was very tight on the night following a death threat, but Jenny saw a different side of Rivers, who had a heart attack and passed away just two weeks later.

"She was so lovely and so totally encouraging," Jenny says.

Joel Creasey with Joan Rivers in New York last month. Picture: Joel Creasey/ Instagram


The family, including Creasey's two sisters aged 20 and 27, will soon watch him play yet another international date when he takes over the Soho Comedy Club in London for a week-long residency around Christmas.

While his parents have to accept that Melbourne-based Creasey's visits to their Applecross home will be few and far between, they now understand all the hype around him.

"His agent often says to us that there is no one quite like him," Jenny says.

"At first I thought 'He is just another type of comedian', but I think as time goes on I am beginning to see what they mean. I have seen his commitment to his work - he is different."