Stand-up comedian Lizzy Hoo is looking for new ways to make jokes about her identity

Lizzy Hoo and Shaun Micallef had never met before they boarded a 17-hour flight to Ireland together back in April.Hoo is an established comedian, presenter, writer and actor, who has appeared on ABC TV’s Question Everything and The Weekly, and released a Prime Video comedy special called Hoo Cares. She hosts a podcast for SBS Audio, Grand Gestures, where she asks famous Australians about their grandparents. Next month, she takes her stand-up on the road again.But she’d never had the chance to work with Micallef, a veteran of the Australian comedy world, until they were thrown together for a week to explore Hoo (and Micallef’s) Irish heritage for the new SBS documentary series, Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey.We caught up with Hoo to find out what it was like learning more about her family’s cultural background, and how that impacted her feelings about identity as a mixed-race person. We also found out what Micallef watched on the long flight, and what her favourite meme is. (It’s…