Mary Coustas reveals all about the return of Effie

Overhearing women chatting in a public toilet in Melbourne was the catalyst for one of Australia’s much loved comedic characters.

How embarrassment.

Mary Coustas recalls how she loved listening in to a their petty, self-obsessed conversation, and was further inspired by the girls talking because of their big 80s hair, held up by an overdose of hairspray.

 “I thought, I’ve got to play a girl like this,” Coustas says.

So she based a character on that memory and hello, good thanks, Effie Stephanidis was born.

Speaking to Starts at 60, Coustas days she had never expected the fame that would come after Effie first appeared in the ‘Wogs out of Work’ stage comedy, then on television in Acropolis Now, exposure that thrust her into the hearts of Australians.

“I just wanted to work as an actress,” Coustas admits. “Suddenly it was so big.”

That affection was on display last week when the star took part in a comedy debate during the Seniors Festival in Sydney, performing to an audience she gives credit to discovering her.

“They opened their hearts and their lives,” she says affectionately.

Having studied both acting and journalism, Coustas has always written most of her own work. She even published a self-help book for teens titled Effie’s Guide to Being Up Yourself, before turning her writing skills to her own personal struggles with fertility.

The comedienne was 40 and newly married to George Betsis, pictured with her below, in 2005 when she was told she would be unable to have children without medical assistance.

Finally, when Coustas was 49, their daughter Jamie was born in 2013, and Coustas’ book, titled All I Know, talks about the heartbreaking but ultimately rewarding journey.

“I wrote very transparently,” she says.

When that story gained national exposure, Coustas found a whole new group of fans who told her they loved Effie but they loved Mary just as much for her painful honesty.

But the Logie-winning star always had Effie on her mind.

Even while taking the break from acting, Coustas admits she fantasised about a revamped role for the larger-than-life character. That fantasy is now reality, with Coustas bringing her creation back for an encore season of the stage show ‘Effie the Virgin Bride’.

“Performing, I know its good for me, I love it so much,” she says. “I can never give up that drug.”

During the first season of the show, Coustas tried to keep it a surprise that she played all the characters but media and social media soon spoiled the fun. Now, she’s happy to promote it as a one-woman show.

“Every show is different, we get people coming back again and again and again,” she says. “They cannot believe how hilarious it is.”

Coustas, pictured in character at the MTV Awards back in 2005, says Effie has evolved a little over the years but it’s still in her character’s DNA to say things no-one else dares say, covering social issues ranging from mixed marriages to single mothers, the clash of cultures and money.

While performing a one-woman show might seem like a tough ask, Coustas says it was because she had been dreaming about it for so long, and she loved it so much, that she was able to put together a show that promises two hours of non-stop laughter.

“The response is so huge and so immediate,” she explains. “There is something about the collective experience that cannot be matched with anything.”

Effie the Virgin Bride is showing in Perth in April, Melbourne in May, and Sydney, Adelaide and Darwin in June.

Why do you think Effie became an Aussie comedy icon?