The facade of the Haigh’s Chocolates Visitor Centre, just south of Adelaide’s city parklands, is unassuming. The chocolates inside are not. They cry out to be slowly, specially, succulently savoured. Only Spellcheck, which has put a red line underneath ‘succulently’, is immune to their aroma. Yes, they are expensive, but here’s a hint. If you’re…
Read More23
Dec
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…
Read More16
Dec
This is a song from my show HOW TO WRITE A TASTEFUL NOVEL, sung (or, more accurately, spoken) to the tune of ‘She’s Always a Woman to Me’. I’ve included most of the photos from the slideshow that played during the song. Please click on them, for links to the posts that discuss them in…
Read More12
Dec
My experience last year of seeing Mercedes College stage The Little Mermaid made me think back to 1985. Methodist Ladies’ College was putting on The Enquiry – an unladylike play set in a women’s prison – and needed two boys to play the male roles. So I played the Reverend John, the chaplain, described in…
Read More5
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…
Read More29
Nov
One or two people were probably worried when I said I was putting on a show called My Argentina at Fringe World 2016. Who was going to pay money to see a middle-aged man, who’d never done fringe before, talk about his travels, the Spanish language and an Evita doll? But I marketed it diligently,…
Read More24
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…
Read More19
Nov
I was particularly nervous about this one, because it was being videoed. As usual, I walked to the Pirate Bar, but a block or two away, I took five minutes to chill. I stayed chilled on stage, and slowed down some of the moments, adding pauses to get the best effect from the lines. I…
Read More18
Nov
