Actors Aaron McIlroy and Lisa Bobbert are married – to each other. Based in Durban, they perform as a duo, writing character based comedy – sometimes influenced by their own experiences as a couple. In addition to their work as a duo, they work as solo artists. McIlroy is famous as the dad in the Spud films. Bobbert has worked extensively in musical theatre with Kickstart. They are presenting their Standard Bank Ovation Award winning Mr & Mrs Normal at the Masque in Muizenberg, February 26 to March 1, 2025, which is a deep dive into what may be construed as ‘normal’. [https://thecaperobyn.co.za/stage-aaron-mcilroy-and-lisa-bobbert-in-award-winning-mr-and-mrs-normal-masque-cape-town/] Bobbert quips: “…When I was younger I would take criticism really personally but now I just kick him.” Read about how these turbo charged creatives have transcended personal grief and challenges and powered up to hold family and career together – with love and humour:
TheCapeRobyn: Is this the first time that Mr & Mrs Normal will be presented in Cape Town?
Lisa Bobbert: We performed it at the Drama Factory, in Somerset West last year November [2024] but this is the first time we are coming to the Masque in Muizenberg.
TCR: When did Mr & Mrs Normal first premiere? Was it at NAF 2023, where you won an ovation award?
Aaron McIlroy: We actually premiered the year before [December 2022] at our local bowling club – no laughs. The bowling club turns into a very nice supper theatre with a very cheap bar. Perfect for the holiday season.
TCR: Was the show Mr & Mrs Normal inspired by the film Mr & Mrs Smith? Are there any autobiographical elements in the show?
LB: We were inspired by the poster. We liked the idea of being comedy assassins.
AM: Normal people trying very hard to be sexy.
LB: The theme is basically ‘what is normal?’
TCR: The first show I saw of yours in Cape Town and I remember the line ‘pass the salt’ and the self-deprecating marriage humour in that show. Was that your first show in Cape Town?
AM: Yes, that was one of our first comedy shows – Sex, Bugs and Rock n Roll, I think. It was a Freudian slip – what I meant to say was pass the salt but what I said was, ‘you ruined my life!’
TCR: Can you talk about the process of writing a new comedy? Do you write together?
LB: It’s always slightly different. Sometimes you have an overall idea or theme. It can even be a funny title. Then you let that idea stew for a while and it grows.
AM: But for the most part as the date gets closer for you to perform you go into hyper-panic-creative mode and there is nothing as productive as the last minute!
LB: That is too stressful so we do try and put time aside and sit around a table with our director and brain storm ideas.
AM: Our comedy is character driven so often when you think of a situation, the characters tend to write themselves.
TCR: How many shows do you currently have under your production company McBob Productions?
AM: We try and focus on one new show at a time but we are always ready to perform old favourites like Marriage For Dummies, Bulletproof and our latest one, Date Night.
TCR: Can you talk about living in Durban and the arts community in Durban and why you love living there?
LB: Durban is our home. I’m actually a Joburg girl and went to school there, studied there and started my acting career there. I still love Joburg but Durban is our home. I joined the NAPAC drama company, in Durban in the early 90s and that is where Aaron and I met. We just started performing and writing our own shows together and the next thing we were married and had kids and a home. Bringing up kids in Durban is great. The weather is ‘mostly’ lovely apart from the odd tsunami.
AM: Like anywhere, Durban has its problems but we try and focus on the good stuff. The people, the weather, the greenery etc!
TCR: Lisa – where did you study – theatre? Musical theatre? Was your family involved in theatre?
LB: I studied at the Performing Arts Workshop in Joburg. It was such an amazing place – a real musical theatre academy where we spent our days dancing, singing and acting. I’m so grateful to have had that experience and that my folks -who were not theatrical at all- supported my passion. We did go to the theatre though, I grew up watching musicals at the old His Majesty’s Theatre in downtown Johannesburg. I wanted to be just like Joan Brickhill. She was my inspiration.
TCR: Aaron – where did you study? You were born in Ireland and moved to South Africa with your parents (at the age of five). Was your family involved in theatre?
AM: Yip, we all moved to SA when I was five, my dad was a part of the Blarney Brothers, a popular Irish band that toured South Africa. We lived all over – Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. I was eventually put into boarding school at nine years old because my folks toured the country so much. After school I studied drama at UKZN, I wanted to be a serious actor but every time I tried anything vaguely straight, my lecturers would fall off their chairs laughing, so much for my serious acting career.
TCR: How did you meet? When and where?
LB: We met at NAPAC in the old days when the arts councils existed. We were members of the Loft Theatre Company, which was a young creative drama company created and run by Nicolas Ellenbogen. We performed a lot of physical theatre and school touring programmes. Sometimes we were added to the ensemble of bigger musicals that the late great Geoffrey Sutherland produced. Those were great days, The Playhouse in Durban was the place to be with four theatres ranging in size from the 1200 seater Opera House to the Cellar, an intimate cabaret supper theatre.
AM: Basically, she couldn’t resist my charm and good looks!
LB: It was definitely his sense of humour that won me over. We were in a school touring show together. We travelled all over KZN performing an environmental show on the conservation of the Leather Back Turtle. Aaron’s face had the cast in stitches. I don’t think we made it through one show without cracking up.
TCR: How long have you been together/married? Can you talk about navigating the personal and creative?
LB: I think we have been married for nearly 30 years, sorry I am not good at maths.
AM: 28! Anyway we have basically worked together from when we met (35 years ago) so it is all we know really. I think anyone who runs their own business knows how stressful it can be at times but we are a good team. We definitely have different strengths and I know when I’m stepping on Lisa’s toes because she gives me a kick in the shin.
LB: You also learn as you go. When I was younger I would take criticism really personally but now I just kick him.
TCR: You have a big family – three daughters and a son. You lost your five week old daughter, Holly in 2000 in a devastating accident at home. How did you manage to get through that- hold it together?
AM: The older you get you realise that life happens and that pain is a big part of it. No-one is exempt from disaster and there is very little that you actually have control of in life.
LB: Holly’s death was a defining moment in my life. When bad things happen you have a choice – blame God or run into His arms. I chose to have faith. Some things you can never understand so I stopped asking those questions that don’t have answers and I decided to put my trust in God. I believe that I will see her again. She is heaven and when my time is up on this earth I will be reunited with her and all my friends and loved ones who are there.
AM: We are very blessed with our four children, Kaylee 26, Fiona 23 and Declan 23 and Grace 19.
TCR: Are your offspring involved in the theatre industry?
LB: Declan runs technical for our shows and Kaylee is a professional actress. Grace is studying musical theatre and Fiona just qualified as a interior designer from Vega but also performs in her spare time. In 2022, the girls did a show with us, Family Business at The Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre in Durban. It was a lot of fun and directed by Darren King. We were working on the show and then Darren suggested we bring in the girls and we did. Declan was the stage manager. There was also a run at the Barnyard. Hopefully we will do the show again.
TCR: Circling back to loss, in 2019, when you were attending the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, your house burned down. Your kids were in the house. And then the next year it was Covid, so that meant the lockdown of theatres. How did you get through the fire and then Covid?
AM: Wow all the tough questions! Yes, that was quite a shock. We were at the NAF when the fire happened. Fiona was in matric at the time and decided not to come with us as she wanted to stay home and study. It was the early hours of Saturday morning when we got a call from Jason, our friend who was housesitting to say that the house was on fire.
LB: We felt completely helpless being so far away. I started calling everyone I could think of from the security company to the police, fire department, family, neighbours.
AM: It took 15 minutes for the entire house to be engulfed by flames.
LB: It turned out to be an electrical fault so spread quickly through the roof.
AM: Our home had old wooden floors that was built on stilts so with the airflow and the wood – the house turned into a Webber Braai.
LB: Nobody was harmed and all got out in time. Traumatised but alive.
AM: We actually thought of driving home then and there but realised we didn’t have a home to go to so we decided to stay and finish the festival. My brother fetched Fiona and our dogs so we knew they were safe. Even on the Sunday night we stayed at friends in East London on the way home.
LB: People were unbelievably kind to us. From donations of clothes, gift vouchers and money to friends giving us their holiday home on the beach to live in for over six months.
AM: Even an architect drew up new plans at no cost. Our insurance company paid out higher than we expected. We were completely overwhelmed by everyone’s kindness.
LB: Did I scream and cry? – Yes! Did I have a nervous breakdown? – Yes! Did I behave like a brat? – Yes! But I can honestly say that more good has come out of it than bad. We have a beautiful new home and we managed to survive Covid because of the extra insurance money. It’s a real beauty from ashes story.
TCR Can you talk about the academy you opened in Feb 2024, The International School of Performing, with accredited courses? How this academy did came about?
LB: The word that came to my mind when asking the big question – ‘Should I start a musical theatre Academy in Durban?’ was the old Plato saying ‘Necessity is the mother of invention.’ For too long talented school leavers who couldn’t afford to study at prestigious institutions in Johannesburg or Cape Town would have no choice but to give up on their dreams. I actually felt it was my duty start an academy in Durban to keep the arts alive in KZN.
We follow the Trinity of London syllabus and do their musical theatre exams.
TCR: In addition to performing in your comedy shows together, you both work solo on stage and film. Anything on the cards that you can talk about?
AM: It’s always such a privilege when a director or producer asks you to be a part of their project, so when those opportunities come I like to do my best to take them, whether it is on stage or on film. As much as I am a comedian I am also an actor so love to get the chance to perform someone else work like working on A Vegan Killed My Marriage with Craig Freimond. It was actually his story but when the audience saw me order a hamburger after the show they would get so upset that I actually had to do a disclaimer before the show started to say this show is not autobiographical.
LB: I have worked a lot with Kickstart over the years and have performed many bucket list roles from Eliza Doolittle (My Fair Lady), Sally Bowles (Cabaret) and The Witch (Into The Woods). I feel really blessed to have been able to be a part of some incredible productions as well as create and perform our own work. It’s like the best of both worlds.
❇ Mr & Mrs Normal is on February 26 to March 1, 2025 at The Masque in Muizenberg. Bookings Quicket or call the theatre during office hours on 087 729 1657or e-mail manager@themasque.co.za See https://thecaperobyn.co.za/stage-aaron-mcilroy-and-lisa-bobbert-in-award-winning-mr-and-mrs-normal-masque-cape-town/
❇ Featured image: Aaron McIlroy and Lisa Bobbert in their Standard Bank Ovation Award winning Mr & Mrs Normal. The show will be on in Cape Town, at the Masque in Muizenberg, February 26 to March 1, 2025. This interview has been marginally edited for length and clarity. Pics supplied.
