Ever since I upstaged Snow White as a nine-year-old, I’ve shamelessly sought attention. Discover the background to my appearances on two national reality TV shows. Watch the revealing video tape that got me an audition for Big Brother. Find out how I narrowly averted the most embarrassing publishing scandal since 1631 (or not). There are…
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Click here for sessions, times, how to book and more! You’ve always done PowerPoint presentations at your comedy shows. Did you consider not having one this time? Yes. That was originally my plan. It would have been easier to stage, and given me more options about where to put on the show. But I needed…
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Thank you for your interest! WHAT HAPPENS IN THE SHOW? I go through my appearances on two national reality TV shows. I play the video tape that got me an audition for Big Brother. I explain how I narrowly averted the most embarrassing publishing scandal since 1631 (or not). There are glamour photos and contraceptive…
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Thank you for your interest! I do hope you can come and see my new show. WHAT HAPPENS IN THE SHOW? I go through my appearances on two national reality TV shows. I play the video tape that got me an audition for Big Brother. I explain how I narrowly averted the most embarrassing publishing…
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I’ve seen queer traffic lights on Avenida Santa Fe, or Santa Gay, in Buenos Aires. It’s also where they have a queer subway station. ‘In a society that educates us to be ashamed, pride is a political response.’
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Dec
In 2007 and 2017, I saw the Circuito Cultural Barracas perform street theatre in Buenos Aires. The barrio of Barracas felt like an old movie set.
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Aug
Yesterday, I went to two events at the Perth International Cabaret Festival. The first was a free workshop by Michael Griffiths and Amelia Ryan. I got to perform one of the songs that I sang in The Sound of a Social Climbing Nun (my revisionist take on ‘Edelweiss’). I was a tad nervous because Michael…
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Jun
… is a Lego exhibition in 2017 featuring St Basil’s Cathedral, but I have encountered the world’s largest nation on my travels. At the 1995 Mardi Gras festival in Sydney, I enjoyed Leaving Lenin: a comedy about Welsh teenagers on a trip to post-communist St Petersburg. I saw a Russian play in Brooklyn, New York…
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May
One: Because it’s happening (we hope!), having been cancelled in 2020. It’s due to start on 28 April. Two: Because Mario Casas (pictured above) is in one of the films. I’ve seen him play a determined but naïve rock star, a father reconnecting with his family, a ruthless killer giving a false narrative, the romantic…
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Apr
Though not terribly functional. It was too humid to dry my shirt. Ah well… My blog provider is telling me: “This is far below the recommended minimum of words.” Do you need that many words when you have Iguazu Falls?
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Dec
Years ago, I watched an episode of ‘Surfing the Menu’, in which they crossed the Tropic of Capricorn near Coral Bay and Exmouth, Western Australia. When I went that way on a bus tour in 2006, I asked that we stop when we got to the sign, so I could take a quick photo, but…
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Sep
The same day as I saw my first proper sunrise ever, in Exmouth, I had a last minute thought. Why not go to the other side of the cape and see the sunset? So off to a (nudist!) beach I went. I didn’t think the photos would look that good. I didn’t think I was…
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Sep
Just off Hay Street Mall in Perth.
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Jun
On one side of Avenida San Juan in Buenos Aires are the Museo Moderno … … and MACBA (the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires). On the other side is a wall with modern street art … … though some of the recycled materials are no longer modern. The above piece seems to be…
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Mar
I am an example of the success of Star Wars. I’ve never been a fan, yet I saw the original 1977 film twice as an eight-year-old at the Hoyts Cinema in Wanamba Arcade off Hay Street Mall in Perth: once on a school excursion organised by our music teacher Mr Southwell. Three years later, I…
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Mar
… used to be death, taxes and Adriana Xenides turning around the letters on the Australian version of Wheel of Fortune. Adriana is sadly no longer with us, but this weekend, I spotted her longest running co-host – John Burgess or Burgo – in Hay Street Mall. There was a time when I’d try to…
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Dec
I don’t remember the cause for which this man was collecting money in a Buenos Aires square. But whatever it was, I didn’t need much persuading to contribute. It’s not the greatest photo, as there’s a shadow over my face. But for some of you, my face may not be the main focus. I’m looking…
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Jan
How do you attract people to your winery? Making good wine is one way. But if that’s not enough, construct a five-storey building in the shape of a Rubik’s cube … … put in clown faced urinals … … mirrors in the Gents … … lifts … … views … … and things that are…
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Dec
Germaine Greer was born before the start of World War Two. Which means that she’s about to turn eighty. Yesterday, she flew across the country to speak, for an hour, without notes, at the University of Western Australia. And spent the next two hours and twenty minutes signing books, posing for photos and talking to…
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Nov
Now that the season’s over … You’re one of the few people who’s appeared in court as a lawyer and done a stand-up comedy show in a pub on a Friday night. What are some of the differences? In court, judges don’t check their messages, chat to their friends, order another round of drinks or…
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Nov
After having cataract surgery last year, I often wore sunglasses, even indoors. I also went to Argentina. The CCK (Centro Cultural Kirchner) … … had an installation which combined the work of David Lynch (Twin Peaks), Patti Smith (singer and co-author of ‘Because the Night’) and Argentine artist Guillermo Kuitca. I liked the resulting pictures,…
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Sep
I bought two of these coffee mugs at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. After pouring in boiling water, the black rectangles went away to reveal pictures of gay celebrities such as Oscar Wilde. Not the best in dishwashers …
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Jul
I’ve written in some exotic places – like Antarctica! The ship that took me there was named after Lyubov Orlova. There was a photo of her in the bar, with a brief explanation that she was a popular Russian actress. Her IMDb biography, combined with a knowledge of history, is more illuminating. Born in 1902, her…
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Jul
I’m not normally very good at capturing sunsets, but Puerto Natales, Chile, 2005 was my favourite: Until now. I didn’t go much to the beach in the Perth summer just gone. So I popped down to Swanbourne this evening. At first, I thought I’d missed the sunset. Glad to be wrong.
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Mar
One unexpected bonus of going to Spanish class was that today about 25 of us got to make paella in the backyard of our teacher Estefanía (pictured with me below). We started with chicken in the centre of the pan (or capsicum in the case of my group, as we were doing vegetarian), put it…
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Mar
Twenty-three years before we were in the above photo, my friend Paula flew home from Perth to Buenos Aires, via: Sydney Auckland Tahiti Easter Island and Santiago. On my first trip to Buenos Aires in 2003, I was happy when I only had to stop at Sydney and Auckland. Ditto for 2005. Even happier on…
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Mar
It’s actually pronounced ‘Mor-ONN’, but even still… The suburb is the tenth stop on the Sarmiento railway line that tourists rarely take… …though the municipality takes in a larger area.
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Dec
Last Saturday, I took an eleven-year-old to the Brickman Wonders of the World exhibition in the Perth Convention Centre. I wasn’t expecting the Statue of David!
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Jul
Stanley’s Winery was on the road between Mildura, Victoria and Wentworth. New South Wales. Not too many people have heard of Wentworth. It’s where the Murray and Darling Rivers meet, so was very important when boats were the main form of transport. For a time, its main industry was poker machines. People from Mildura used…
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May
Purmamarca, in the northwest of Argentina, reminded me of Cuzco, Peru. Both in the South American Andes, both near 4,000 metre peaks (and then some), both around some specky scenery. But in Purmamarca, even as I walked around the market, no-one hassled me. In Cuzco, a walk down the main streets and I was always…
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Apr
In my recent show The Sound of a Social Climbing Nun, I said: ‘In the eighties, people didn’t always make the right choices,’ and put up the above picture on the screen. I almost cut that from the show, because it wasn’t about Julie Andrews or The Sound of Music and was more of an in-joke…
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Apr
If you saw my show The Sound of a Social Climbing Nun, you might suspect that I am a little obsessed with musicals. I’ve asked some unbelievably important questions about them. If you click on a question, you’ll get the unbelievably important answer. Why should Eliza Doolittle have married Mrs Higgins? (And why did Mrs…
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Mar
Were you happy with ticket sales? Overall yes. Despite two days of bizarre winter weather, on average we were 85% full. Small independent shows like mine don’t normally do as well as that at Fringe World in Perth. I’ve seen some very good shows from talented artists with mostly empty seats. Were you pleased with…
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Feb
What an audience! The laughs got more as the show went on. So many people I care about in the one place at the same time, plus some new fun acquaintances.
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Feb
You decide, but I think they beat the teddy bears from the US Supreme Court … … and those from the US Library of Congress … This one’s called Sid. I also like this … … though this one from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City is still my favourite: The gift shop…
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Dec
Watching the San Francisco Giants last Sunday, with my Californian friend Lisa next to me. I was also with two other Californian friends, who I’ll post about later.
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Aug
On Friday, my friend JJ and I saw A Chorus Line at the Hollywood Bowl, a musical which has seen an unusual, relative reversal in fortunes. In 1975, it opened the month after the original Broadway production of Chicago. A Chorus Line ran for 15 years, getting a record; Chicago for two. When I visited New York City…
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Aug
So you think sunset in Puerto Natales isn’t a good enough reason to travel overland from El Calafate to Ushuaia? How about Torres del Paine National Park, in Chilean Patagonia? I just did a day trip in November 2005, but you could easily spend a week there.
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Jul
Last month, I asked: Can you be too successful? Has anyone ever lost a major acting honour to someone whose part he’s written? The answer to the second question turned out to be yes. At the Tony Awards, Lin-Manuel Miranda lost the Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical award to his co-star, Leslie Odom, Jr. Mr Miranda…
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Jul
San Francisco inspires such unmitigated naughtiness that it can be hard to write a printable post about the place. But here goes… On my first ever time there last year , I visited the school where my honorary Californian little sister Lisa teaches First Grade, entirely in Spanish. She’d come a long way since our Spanish…
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Jun
This is from the gift shop at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, 2015. I planned this post some time ago. I wondered, in light of the heartless murder of 49 people in Florida, whether I should write something else, or put off saying anything at all. I’ve kept it because there’s something loving and simple about this art. It…
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Jun
The Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral is the building that looks more like a large public library up close. This is what I saw up closer, in 2007:
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May
Everyone on my Antarctic trip thought cute things about penguins. Except for me. One of Western Australia’s main attractions is Monkey Mia, where dolphins come almost to the shore and entertain the tourists. I went there as part of a trip from Perth to Broome. I asked Pete, our (suffering) driver and guide: ‘What does…
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May
Most famous buildings are best known for their exterior. I’ve never, for instance, seen a photo inside the Taj Mahal. This may be one reason some visitors to Buenos Aires never go to El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookshop. I hadn’t heard of it before my first trip to Argentina. My friend Paula took me there…
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Mar
Swimming in Antarctica? Doing the Polar Plunge? No problem! They said Deception Island had thermal springs. The deception was that the Polar Plunge meant a plunge in the water beyond the thermal springs. Which was not thermal. Witness my first courageous effort here. In my post on The King and I, I discussed how a reviewer saw the movie Once is Not…
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Mar
Have I become more camp over the years? Exhibit A: The Chris Evert fake rhinestone frilly knickers from Perth’s 1999 Pride Parade. Exhibit B: The blue wig I wore on Rose Hancock Porteous’ reality TV show. Sadly for some, copyright issues prevent me from sharing that with you. Exhibit C: Gertrude my pet fox. Sadly for some,…
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Feb
In 1952, Gene Kelly starred in Singin’ in the Rain, widely considered one of the greatest movies of all time. It got two Oscar® nominations, winning neither. It might be tempting to say that the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences doesn’t treat musicals kindly, but the previous year, another Gene Kelly movie – An…
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Feb
I made some changes for Friday the 12th’s performance of My Argentina: Learning Spanish and Loving Thatcher, and forgot every line in my final rehearsal! A half hour power nap solved that problem. I was also fighting off a sore throat, but that was good because it naturally made my voice a little deeper and…
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Feb
Before I went to my first Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in 2014, I scanned through over 3,000 events in the program, picked out those I wanted to see, compiled a list of when and where they were on … but when my friend Sam and I arrived, on that first afternoon, we got to the Royal Mile,…
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Jan
Germans discovered and named Booth Island. Argentine maps say it’s in Antartida Argentina. Chilean maps class it as Territorio Antártico Chileno. It’s also said to be part of the British Antarctic Territory. Belgians called it Wandel Island. All of these countries are signatories to the Antarctic Treaty, which freezes all claims to Antarctica and nearby islands,…
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Nov
Pride March, Buenos Aires, 2005, soon after a smoke bomb went off in Plaza de Mayo. The headlines I can make out are: ‘The safari style returns’ ‘Santa Cruz brings back the 507 million dollars deposited in Switzerland’ It rained a little that evening. I saw the Newspaper Woman again at the Pride March…
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Sep
This is the entrance to the Quebrada de las Conchas – Gorge of the Shells – in the north-west of Argentina. In Spanish, concha means ‘shell’. You might remember, from Lord of the Flies, the large shell called the ‘conch’, and how any boy holding it got to speak. In Spain, women with the name…
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Sep
