Rose Matafeo's life changing move for love

Rose Matafeo recently moved to the UK to be with UK comedian boyfriend James Acaster, but it hasn't all been easy. Photo / Getty

Rose Matafeo's mum gave her the push she needed to jet off overseas to be with UK-based boyfriend James Acaster.

The comedian confirmed she was leaving our shores in August to move to London, but it was her mum Diane Vuletich who gave her the courage she tells Women's Day.

The formidable matriarch was packing up her life to move to Uganda as a teacher for two years at the time.

"I was scared. Then I looked at mum and I thought, 'if she's so excited about moving to Uganda, why the hell am I so scared about moving to England?'," she told the magazine.

After the shift she and fellow comic Guy Montgomery dove straight into a 25-show stint at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. But it wasn't an easy ride.

As one of the festival's free acts they performed in a dingy night club to largely unresponsive audiences.

"I pretty much had a breakdown in the toilets each night. It was just audiences of angry, old Scottish men, like Trainspotting on steroids ... We got a lot of people walking out halfway through. There was a woman who totally ignored us and just read her programme."

The 23-year-old met her English comic beau on the New Zealand comedy circuit last year.

They kept the relationship alive long-distance for several months before she made the decision to move.

Matafeo told Spy in July she preferred not to think of it as a permanent move but rather a bid to take her comedy on a revolving tour of the world.

"I am leaving my home and becoming a permanent international couch surfer," she said.

Acaster is a big deal in the UK. Since launching himself on the comedy scene in 2009 he has won numerous awards and become a regular on TV and radio.

Already Matafeo, a former Billy T James comedy award winner, is putting in the hard slog to make her own mark on the international comedy scene.

- nzherald.co.nz