Belinda Robins
She’s worked with some of the biggest names in New Zealand comedy, but you’d be forgiven for not recognising Emma Lange, who regularly retreats from the stage to live in the middle of nowhere. “I’ve got a little bush hut on a couple of swampy acres near Haast,” the former More FM host announces proudly.
Having worked closely with the Topp Twins, and shared the screen with late legends Cal Wilson and Kevin Smith, Emma, 50, is part of the original “brat pack” of pioneering female comedians in Aotearoa. If you look closely at the wall of The Classic Comedy Club in Auckland, you’ll find a photo of her with Michèle A’Court and Jaq Tweedie in a show from 1996.
“There weren’t many ladies in stand-up comedy and we thought, ‘What are we going to do?’ So we did this show, Ultra Super Vixen Women With Really Enormous Tits. It was at The Classic, which was an old porn theatre and had just been refurbished. Men were coming in to see our nudie show, but they left very quickly!”
Emma quit comedy soon afterwards “for various reasons”, she says. “I’ve always been incredibly inquisitive, but I get bored quickly. I was also trying to come to terms with the death of my mother, so I went to Fiordland for many years and went bush. I love that kind of isolation and being completely off grid.”
But this isolation proved difficult when Emma was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2016.
“It was a miracle it was even found,” she explains. “I was doing overnight talkback for Radio Live and throughout the year, I had moments where I felt like I was having an out- of-body experience while I was talking with a caller.
“Luckily, I’ve got a great doctor in Queenstown and I would annually take her a list of woes. When I casually explained I had this experience, she took it seriously and referred me on.” Emma was not at all worried – until she went for a scan in Invercargill.
“It was quite hilarious,” she recalls. “I got off the MRI whatnot, and I’m pulling on my bra and knickers, then the phone rings. My neurologist says, ‘Are you sitting down?’ That was the moment. He said, ‘We’ve found something. It’s big.’”
Suddenly turning serious, Emma says, “I am not my cancer, OK? This is not who I am. This is just a moment in my life.”
Emma tells how she went on to have surgery to remove the tumour.
“It turned my whole life upside down and I had absolutely nothing. I had a terrible prognosis, I was facing death and people left me. But then a miracle happened. There was no one available to do my operation, but an Indian brain surgeon just happened to be in New Zealand on sabbatical.
“The bit that was so powerful was this beautiful ayurvedic guy, whose words were, ‘It’s up to you now, Emma.’ And that was entirely it. It was up to me how it turned out and how I dealt with it. I was like, ‘Wow! You’re bloody right, dude.’ I thought, ‘If I’m going to die, what will I do? I’d love to hear my voice again.’”
Emma had written solo comedy shows many years ago and, inspired by the hope her surgeon had instilled, she thought, “I wouldn’t mind doing one more show and taking it on the road.” And thus An Almighty Yes was born, “a bittersweet show about bloody, cruddy cancer that roars light on dark days and tough times”.
Having already performed a season at Auckland’s Basement Theatre, Emma is now heading off on tour – first to Wellington, Dunedin, Glenorchy and Arrowtown. And despite the subject matter, she promises An Almighty Yes is not depressing.
“People want to be cheered up!” she enthuses. “There’s a great desire to have something that isn’t dreary. I’ve done the show because I don’t want to leave until I can hear my voice again. I’m finding it’s
a work in progress, though!”
Healthwise, Emma insists she’s now doing well, although she admits, “There’s always this undertow of, ‘Is it there? Am I dying?’ But as I said, I’m not my cancer. I’m Emma. I love getting older. I enjoy ageing. Living’s choice, man! There’s a lot to do.”
An Almighty Yes is on at Wellington’s Bats Theatre from 27 February to 2 March, at Dunedin’s New Athenaeum Theatre from 14 to 16 March, at Camp Glenorchy on 11 April and at Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall on 27 April.
