For as long as she can remember, comedian Lizzy Hoo has been asked where she comes from.
“[My mum was] this white lady walking around with three Chinese-looking kids,” she jokes. “And people would ask her, ‘Oh, where did you get them? Like, was it an easy process?’”
Hoo’s stand-up comedy has long mined her life and experiences as a mixed-race child growing up in Brisbane. In her special streaming on Amazon Prime, Hoo Cares!?, she shares stories about being Asian in a predominantly white city and visiting Malaysia as a four-year-old to see her paternal-grandmother before she passed away.
But, as Hoo tells Shaun Micallef, her mother, Barbara Hoo, née Connole, noticed a part of her identity was slightly neglected in her stand-up comedy.
“Mum said, ‘Oh, you don’t talk much about your Irish heritage, do you?’”
So, over the course of a week in April this year, Hoo and Micallef travelled to Dublin, Ireland, as part of SBS’s new travel documentary series, . The pair drove across the Emerald Isle, trading Christopher Walken impressions, enjoy some roadside cheese, and learning about a branch in Hoo’s family tree who played a significant role in Irish history.
Shaun Micallef and Lizzy Hoo in Ireland. Credit: Rob Meyer
“It’s an incredible story. It’s a juicy story – great for TV,” she laughs over the phone from rainy Melbourne.
Toowoomba-born Barbara met Hoo’s father, Chan, during a backpacking holiday in Penang, Malaysia. The couple married and moved to Brisbane in 1975. Together, the couple raised three children, the youngest being Lizzy.
While the Malaysian Chinese culture of Chan stood out like a red lantern in’ 90s Brisbane, Barbara’s Irish-Catholic heritage also played a strong role in her childhood. Between and meats cooked in traditional brass steamboats, there were also Irish stews and receiving the Catholic sacraments.
“I did it all! Baptism, Confirmation, Communion, twelve years of Catholic school, and went to Church every Sunday of my childhood. I had to go up until I was 18, and then Mum said, ‘You can do whatever you want. She’s all yours, Satan,’” she laughs. “But I think I value my Catholic upbringing. I don’t think I would have such a strong social justice point of view without my Catholic upbringing. I think that’s something my Mum has.”
Lizzy Hoo and Shaun Micallef explore her family's history in Ennistymon. Credit: Rob Meyer
Hoo’s connection to Ireland comes from her great, great grandfather, Dan Connole, an Irishman who settled in Toowoomba, Queensland in 1863. It’s this connection that leads to the southern town of Cork, where Hoo and Micallef visit , a fifth-generation cooper at Middleton Distillery, where Jameson Irish Whiskey is made. There, Hoo learnt about her family trade in coopering, also known as barrel making.
While Hoo proves an adept hand at coopering, it’s Ireland’s gift of the gab (as well as TV and comedy work, she’s also the host of SBS podcast series ) that runs stronger in her veins (She began performing comedy after receiving an email from Sydney Community College about a stand-up comedy course, having already partaken in courses on sewing and millinery. That storytelling trait is also something she shares with her mum.
“There’s a definite creative bone on that side of the family,” she says. “She is a great writer, I would say. She loves a chat, too, and loves reading stories, loves narratives, and can write poems and things like that. Mum definitely has that streak. She’s also got quite a dark sense of humour, which I feel is quite Irish as well.”
Hoo is a big fan of the comedy talent produced in Ireland. Some comedians she highlights include , , , and , the latter of whom she points out performs in the traditional Irish language of (pronounced ‘Gwale-gah’). In addition, she adds that she greatly enjoyed the 2024 film , the madcap biopic about the Irish-language rap-group of the same name.
It’s really interesting to me how they’re reclaiming who they are and their identity and their true language.
“I’m really interested in this Ireland,” she says. “It’s really interesting to me how they’re reclaiming who they are and their identity and their true language. [And] Irish comedians are some of the best. They have to be so funny because everyone in Ireland is funny, and then to be a comedian in Ireland you have to be extra funny.”
While there are laughs along the way, there is also emotions as they travel to Hoo’s ancestral home of Ennistymon in County Clare. There, she learns the story of Dan’s cousin, Tom Connole. The stories of his death Hoo heard are vague, but during this trip she found closure.
“Ireland has an oral history, so everything is passed down by word,” she says. “Everyone has heard different things. My uncle gave me a book on the Black And Tans [The Time Of The Tans by Tomás Mac Conmara] and it had a big chunk of history about Tom Connole and the story about him. And when we were in Ennistymon, the author of that book was the historian that we spoke to, so that was really exciting.”
Ultimately, Hoo’s trip to Ireland with Micallef helped her unveil a new story from her past, and also those with Irish heritage across the world.
“I just got a message from my aunty this morning and she’s included the picture of me and Shaun in Ennistymon by the river,” she says. “And she’s also included a picture of her by the same river. It’s pretty cute. She said, ‘Whoever thought that SBS would be following the Connole’s in Ennistymon?’
“I think that’s kind of interesting because it’s not just my family’s story; there’s so many Connole families and this is their story as well.”
The six-part series Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey airs on SBS at 7:30pm Tuesday nights, with new episodes available to stream on weekly, including Lizzy Hoo's episode. The series is subtitled on SBS On Demand in Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean. All episodes are be available with audio description.
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Shaun Micallef's Origin Odyssey
