Getting older can fill many people with dread. It brings certain challenges and situations that we can’t predict and for quite a lot of us, it will throw up some embarrassing and frustrating moments. When Mary Maxwell took to the stage at a dinner to honour caregivers, she took the opportunity to muse on the nature of old age. The audience expected little more than a prayer before the meal but instead they got a bellyful of laughs.
At first, she delivered a standard thanks and short and simple prayer, wrapping up her time on stage within mere seconds before turning away. But then, she paused. Turning back to the audience, Mary said, “As long as I’ve got the microphone!”, sending ripples of laughter throughout the crowd. First of all, Mary told the crowd that over the years she noticed “the two things most people want to know about you are the two things they’re far too polite to ask…so let’s get that out of the way”.
She followed that up by revealing her age and her weight, drawing applause and glee from the adoring crowd. What followed that was a wonderfully light-hearted take on the realities of getting old. While we’re all aware of some of the changes to our bodies that will inevitably come, it’s pretty rare to hear an elderly woman crack jokes about it. With a wonderful self-deprecating sense of humour and deadpan delivery, Mary gave us the highlights of what to expect in our twilight years.
From random hair growth to non-life-threatening skin growths large enough to name after deceased pets and relatives, Mary shone the light on the future that awaits us all. However, her ability to know take things so seriously had the audience doubled-over with laughter. Tales of getting into the wrong car and ordering fast-food from a mailbox keep the chuckles rolling before Mary eventually reached her real prayer.
Keeping the light and comical tone going to the very end, Mary prayed to God that she would find her car in the parking lot at the end of the night before walking off stage to an elated round of applause.
Her combination of dry wit and poker-face breathes hilarity into old age and Mary has actually been making waves on the internet with her own blog for some time. This just serves to prove that comedy can come when you least expect it.
Check out this funny old lady right here to get a lesson on not taking life too seriously!
