AS the fairer half of the JOHNNY PACE & HARRIET comedy duo in the 1970s, HARRIET LITTLESMITH knew how to hold an audience in the palm of her hand.
A ravishing beauty, television personality and comic talent with an array of hilarious characters, Harriet was a television star with her own show on CHANNEL 10 called KEEP PACE WITH HARRIET. If you look at the featured TV TIMES cover from 1976, you can see that in her younger days, Harriet had the star-power of any modern-day TV star.
Many soap stars would be chuffed to see themselves on a magazine cover and Harriet continues to display the talent, wit and humour that made her such a star.
More than 30 years on since she appeared on that front cover, Harriet is out to prove that age is no barrier to a career in comedy.
The 65-year-old, from Dora Creek in Lake Macquarie, has started her own open mike night at the Morisset RSL & Country Club.
Harriet is the driving force and compere of the new evening of entertainment which will be held every Wednesday night in October.
'We're trying to get everybody who likes to tell a yarn,' Harriet said.
'Old ladies, young girls, anyone who wants to get up and tell a story to come and have a go,' she said.
But unlike traditional open mike comedy nights, populated mostly 'by 20-year-old males who insist on using the F word a lot', this one will be different.
'I always say 90% of comedians in Australia are young guys, who were born here,' Harriet said.
She said that many young comedians these days have never been out of the country and have all of these safety nets like the dole to fall back on.
'They've all got to make up terrible stories about how bad their lives were or about their parents,' Harriet laughed.
'On the other hand, I come from one of the maligned groups in the country,' she said.
'I'm old, I'm a female, I'm white, I've got a Pommy accent and a crappy attitude!'
The feisty comic worked her way to Australia in 1970.
She paid for her ticket aboard the Oriana by performing with comic partner JOHNNY PACE throughout the journey.
Once on on terra firma, offers of work began pouring in for the comedy duo.
These included a stint for Pace and Harriet as the host of CELEBRITY SQUARES on Channel 10.
Harriet described herself as 'a comic, from a million years ago, when it was all tits, arse, feathers and glamour.
'Now I'm old, but with attitude,' she said. TE
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