Career

“I didn’t intend to be a drag queen when I first put on drag, but as the saying goes, “life is what happens while you’re making other plans.”

My drag career started like most drag queens. A try-out on a friendly stage as a dare, followed by chasing stages to practice on. You also entered the various talent competitions around. My debut was at Jock’s Bar in Collingwood, and it was there that I actually won a talent competition. That was the final encouragement I needed, and after that I was hopping on to any drag stage I could find. My favourite was the Star Hotel which had a very multicultural feel and I learned a lot about being on stage. I managed to get on to a few other shows, like the try-out line-up at the Xchange, but it was a long time before I got paid.

Finally I managed to get a night hosting at the Greyhound Hotel. The Greyhound was an infamous St Kilda hotel that had a wonderful showroom which became a gay drag show bar on Saturday nights. It had a floating cast of comperes and an audience of 40-60 a night. I put every effort I could into pulling a crowd into my first night, (and I continued advertising  as an important part of Saturday Nights), For my first show including an advert in the local gay paper worked well, and about 160 people came along, the largest night the Saturday night had had for years I was told by all.

When the following weeks’ crowd was almost 100 patrons the promoter was very happy, until that week’s floating cast started their show. By the time Show 2 arrived, the co-hosts were drunk, talk spots made no sense – and the audience was lleaving quite quickly. The patrons from the week before were expecting the style of show which I had presented – which was raw but was respectful of the audience

Fortunately for me, even before the finale had faded, the promoter had turned to me and told me ‘That was rubbish. You’re in charge of the talent side of things on Saturdays from now on’. And so I  became the host and organiser for the Saturday night Drag Shows at the Greyhound, which I called the Early Show and the Late Show..

And then that Saturday night exploded in popularity when Showbags appeared on the scene. Showbags success inspired Jessica James and I to open our own Wednesday Night show. This is where we developed “Red Curtain” which was the  model our future Drags Aloud shows would take. It was also the home of Miss Melbourne Drag, our version of the traditional drag competition. 

All good things come to an end, and Showbags left the Greyhound . After a few short seasons at the Xchange, Jessica James and I opened our own venue, calling the night “PINK”. Our vision was clearly on sound, lighting and shows where we could could take our fate into our own hands, and continue to have total artistic control over our shows.

PINK struggled to find an audience and despite the hard work of everyone involved the day came when we were trying ‘one last show’ to see if we could keep the doors open. The one last show was an idea Jess had been thinking about for a long time. It combined all the elements that we had been working on; narrative, comedy core and, for want of a better word, authenticity.

While all this was happening, Showbags created a ten episode TV Series called – Drags Aloud (yes the TV name came first). I was also appearing in television and film, with a feature in Kath and Kim, and also in the Paul Hogan film Strange Bedfellows.(click for me on IMDB).

So Showbags became Drags Aloud when our cast expanded to 6 members for The Sound of Music Drag Show. The show took off and the door to Australian drag export Drags Aloud was opened. We took the show to Edinburgh Fringe Festival where 5 star reviews and sell outs took us back again foer our Grease Lightnin’, At The Movies, and Showgurl shows

My extraordinary luck and fortune was summed up in the documentary film ‘Amanda’  by Lin Etheredge. This covers our Drags Aloud show at Adelaide Fringe and our opening for Joan Rivers in Melbourne whilst showing our Drags Aloud ‘drag family’.

Since then I’ve been doing private shows, Hens parties and Birthdays mainly. I’ve also been bringing my ‘Interview With A Drag Queen’. presentation to health and community groups.

And if you’d like to book me, it would be a pleasure.”