Angella Dravid's real life pain behind award-winning comedy

Running away from home, marrying an older man, being arrested and spending two months in jail is no laughing matter.

Especially when it happens to someone still in her teens.

But one Kiwi stand-up has turned her real-life drama into an award-winning comedy show.

Angella Dravid, 30, has revealed the true story that inspired her recent International Comedy Festival hit Down the Rabbit Hole.

The show had a sellout run, won rave reviews and was in such demand she had to perform two shows on her final night.

She also took home the prestigious Billy T James award, including a $4000 prize.

Angella Dravid with her fellow Billy T Award winners, Melanie Bracewell, Rose Matefeo and Ruby Esther.

But her story is so unbelievable that Dravid is regularly asked by fans if it's real.

"Yes, it's all true," Dravid told the Herald on Sunday. "A lot of people think it's fake (but) I've been laughing about this for a long time."

It wasn't funny at the time. Dravid's story starts in the small South Australian town of Naracoorte in 2004 where she lived with her father after her parents split.

At the age of 17, bored with small town life, she found love online with a much older man.

She lied to her parents and ran away, flying to the UK and moving into the man's Brighton home. A year later, they married. He was 47. She was 18.

It didn't last long. Dravid found herself even more isolated than in Naracoorte, scared to meet new people and struggling to identify with her husband's older friends.

Bored, she started trouble. Things quickly escalated. One night, two years after their wedding, she found a photo of her husband's ex-wife and attacked him with it.

Police were called. She was arrested. And she went to jail.

It was, she said, a relief.

"It took me going to jail to realise I was in a bad relationship," she said.

But she wasn't depressed about it.

"I went into jail in a paddy wagon excited to see what would happen next. Like, 'This could be great'."

Comedian Angella Dravid performed just her first solo show at the International Comedy Festival this year - and took home the Billy T Award.

After two months in prison, Dravid left her husband, was deported and sent back to New Zealand.

She spent several years working office jobs, wondering how to best tell her story.

"I just didn't have the right experience," she said.

She thought about a book, or a movie, but, despite suffering crippling social anxiety, she settled on comedy.

"Stand-up seemed to be the most immediate way to test out if it was enjoyable and likeable," she said.

With her deadpan style and awkward storytelling technique, Dravid had audiences in stitches.

But they still keep asking her if her story's true.

"I can see they're bewildered," she said. "Your mind is saying, 'I hope they get this,' and when they do, it's like you shared the same story'."