Category Archives: Upcoming performances
Directors’ Note on “An Unexpected Variety Show.”
Gary Austin and I in LA 2011.
Meet Liz Skitch: Comedic Gem and All-round Rockstar Human Being
I wouldn’t be about to even embark on this mad adventure were it not for many, MANY different people helping me along the way, not the least of which is this wonderful wacky woman before you, Ms Liz Skitch.
Post-car crash, while I’d been easing my way back onto the stage, Liz really is the one who got me not just back on the comedy horse, but through her generosity, back on a horse that was even bigger, greater and friendlier than the one I’d started with. For Lizzie was the one who urged me to attend – and then hooked it up so that I was invited to perform a few guest spots at – last year’s one and only Adelaide Fringe Festival.
Without her, I wouldn’t have gone. I wouldn’t have been introduced to Sheridan Stewart, the dynamo of awesome who runs Titters (where I’m thrilled to be performing all Fringe this year as well). I also wouldn’t have discovered the fabulous Cabaret Fringe Festival, where Liz urged me to put my show on, in a run that wound up being the Aussie launch of the rough version of “An Unexpected Variety Show”, gave me some lovely reviews and a bit of press to get the ball a-rolling. Indeed, Liz was even the one who encouraged me to think about myself as being part of the cabaret world. I am indebted to her.
I just find this woman incredibly inspiring: I truly hope that I can be like her, to be wide open to sharing opportunities, offering encouragement and finding joy in helping to lift other people up, rather than the alternative (which I have certainly been privy to in my short career) of holding all your cards close to your chest in the fear that one person’s opportunity means one less for you.
Liz, you are a most rocking lady and whatever happens from here I am so grateful for your open, joyous heart and for being a true performing friend. I wouldn’t be here without you!
Huzzah for the generous rockstars in this life. The world would suck buttocks without you.
x
No Sleep Til Adelaide! (Well, okay, maybe three sleeps…but those sleeps shall be HARDCORE!)
Three more sleeps.
I feel like an astronaut about to launch into space, wondering whether he/she’s going to return to triumphant applause, a controversy about whether the ins and outs of the expedition actually occurred and/or possibly their own theme tune.
In reality, what I am undertaking is not nearly as dramatic as all this, but THAT WILL NOT STOP ME PRETENDING IT IS.
Part of the reason it feels so epic to be finally unleashing my show upon several cities in a few short months, is because it’s been so damn long coming. As those of you who’ve been reading along for a while will know, I was all set to present the show at Melbourne Comedy Festival 2010, when a lil thing known as a car accident got in the way.
Fast forward two years and it’s a-happening all over again but this time, nothing is stopping me. Except…well, you know, maybe another car accident…but no! No, not even that! For this is the new and improved post car-crash Jen, one who laughs in the face of obstacles, one who grabs a neck brace and quickly superglues to it feathers, sequins and a bugger-off image of Dolly Parton. I WILL NOT BE STOPPED.
Did I mention I’m on a very good multi-vitamin?
Anyway, at the latest count I am now doing FIFTY-THREE gigs during the Fringe. Every time I freak out I just pretend I’m The Rock.
He’s terrifying, yet motivating.
I think he’d be a great parent.
My Week in Photos (and all Aussie Tix are Now On Sale!)
Poster spotted in Adelaide. It's a-happening!
First things first, as of yesterday morning, tickets are all OFFICIALLY ON SALE for all my upcoming Aussie gigs! Woohoo!
Adelaide Fringe tix here!
Brisbane Powerhouse tix here!
Melbourne International Comedy Festival tix here!
I’m thinking of doing a bit of a competition in each city, offering free double passes to see the show to peeps photographing themselves (or their hands, or their gnome/teddy/figurine of choice) spotted with my posters. Whaddya reckon? A little self-indulgent, yes? Yes? YES. That’s why I kinda love it. I’ve always dreamed of becoming the hunted in a real-life “Where’s Wally?”
So, in between panic attacks, this week has been crammed with littlest’s birthday celebrations…
…a friend’s hens night…
…a much overdue hair overhaul…
Can you see the blue bits? It's a little wilder when it's all out...I thought it might go well with my tutu!
…Valentine’s Day tradition-eschewing in favour of a family picnic at the park…
One of my fave ever kidly pics.
…and the requisite to-do item of “ignoring housework.”
Seriously, I completely freaked out the other night about the state of our house, when my hubby kindly pointed out that if I intend to set the bar so ridiculously high for things-that-must-be-squeezed-into-the-one-lifetime then that’s all well and good, but that perhaps I need to accept that having a house that’s always up to scratch on the tidy front is going to be a casualty. At least until we can afford to bribe my kids adequately hire professional help. Ahhhhh. My innards sigh just thinking about it.
Ah well. At least in my imagination my house is beautiful and blog-worthy all the time. And imagination is more important than knowledge. Einstein said so.
Adelaide Cabaret Tour Diary Part 2
No real reason to post these here, other than that they're ridiculously adorable. And they've greeted me each morning in the bathroom of my friend Jade's, where I've been staying!
Today we drove out to the Marion Cultural Centre – where, upon spotting the next-door aquatic centre complete with gigantic waterslides, I’ve already determined I’m going to be spending ample time with the kidlets during our upcoming month-long stay for the Fringe Festival – to perform more cabaret for a near-packed theatre of lovelies!
Warming up backstage.
Dolled up and ready for cabar-action!
The audience was delicious – in fact, I believe I might have even told them that; I suspect that the combination of being away from my kidlets and having a nice crowd can turn me into a bit of an overly affectionate mother hen!
Then it was off to Radio 5AA for a lovely chat with Amanda Blair, mother of four and all-round tour-de-force.
Last time we met (when I was in town for last year’s Cabaret Fringe Festival, Amanda tried to convince me to go for baby number four, to which I can only now respond that I have…with said offspring being An Unexpected Variety Show! If you care to, you can listen to the full interview – including me singing “The World’s Greatest Love Song” (an original song from my show) – here.
Tomorrow I am faced with a dilemma: seeing as I am proceeding directly from my final cabaret gig to the airplane back home…
DO I GET CHANGED OR DO I DARE WEAR A TUTU IN ECONOMY?
47 Gigs in One Month: The Adelaide Fringe Adventure Approaches
Working, performing and eating cheese. Pretty much sums up today.
AND…having a mild freak out upon going through my schedule for Adelaide Fringe Festival, which at the moment of me typing this, stands at 47 gigs in three and a bit weeks. FORTY-FREAKING-SEVEN. I think I’m gonna need some sort of protein supplement to get through this. Or at least somebody to hurl Gatorade down my throat at regular intervals.
You’re with me, right? I’ll blog the entire adventure if you’ll occasionally throw me a cyber-cheer when needed. Cos I’ve no doubt I’m gonna collapse in a heap on more than one occasion. But with a bit of requisite cheerleading, I can tell you I’ll bloody well cross that finish line one way or another…and I’ll strive to wear something utterly faboosh while I do.
That’s a promise.
x
Adelaide Cabaret Tour Diary Part 1
My friend Jade, all dressed up for last night's cabaret-ing, does bling like nobody I've ever met. I drool.
Adelaide is rapidly becoming my second home, indeed, to the point where Sidonie Henbest, host of last night’s Cabaret Live! introduced me to the stage by saying “I have a feeling she’s just moved here and neglected to tell her kids!”
I jumped off the plane – luckily I was wearing a chute – and was promptly whisked away to lunch at a pub which I proceeded to photograph the living daylights out of. Please indulge me? (Hmm, note to self: last sentence is a most rocking show title).
Lamps. Lamps. Luminous Lamps.
Not to go all American Beauty on you, but: Look Closer. This is a ceiling hanging/art installation thingamajig consisting of hundreds of bits of crystal individually hung. WHAAA? Yes.
I think I could easily collect these. If I could a) find them and b) be bothered.
I might just be a little bit obsessed with lights. Could this be why I've pursued a career in one? Hmmm. Dare I say it: lightbulb moment?! Boom boom! Ah, I kill me.
I am here for the week to do some guest spots in a tour of the “taking cabaret to the Adelaide suburbs” variety, thanks to Out of the Square. Being a non-native of these here parts, I have absolutely no idea where these suburbs are and what stereotypes I should be thrusting against them.
But going in blind can be a nice thing sometimes. I hope. We’ll see. Either way, I’m very excited to have an excuse four days in a row to dress up like the party ham I am. If Miss Piggy wore tutus and cowboy boots, she’d be me.
Onstage last night at Cabaret Live
The Kindness of Strangers (or “The WHY Of Performing/Writing/Show Pony-ing”)
Somebody sent me a snippet of their journal page after seeing the show at Melbourne Fringe. This made my freaking week!
I want to share with you a couple of encounters with strangers that have really rocked my world of late.
The first of these was at Woodford Folk Festival. There I was, popping my head in backstage at The Mystery Bus to double check what time my gig was that day. The greenroom was empty except for one woman. I smiled at her and said something like “Hey! I’m just looking for the schedule!”
She smiled back and pointed me towards it, then said “Hey, I just wanted to tell you I saw your show at the Powerhouse.”
“Oh!” I said.
“I hadn’t been out in ages, I just saw something about your show and decided ‘RIGHT! I’m going to see that!’ without knowing anything about it.”
She went on to tell me that the show had been really timely for her as her family had just experienced a major tragedy…she continued and as she spoke, we both got tears in our eyes.
I walked away from that moment feeling so emotional but within that spectrum of emotion was real happiness and indeed, joy: to have the show connecting with somebody I’ve never met, in a way that makes us feel like we’ve shared something real. Such a rocking moment.
The second two encounters happened via email; I won’t mention names or details here, they are certainly not my stories to share, but both were from people who have not seen my show at all, but one had connected with me via my blog and the other through cabaret.
Both people shared with me such deeply personal stories of loss in their family lives; I cried both times. I cannot even begin to express how moved I feel that complete strangers have honoured me by sharing their deep pain in that way. What a gift.
One finished their email to me with this: “Your openness to share stories prompts people to share back…I think this is your calling – to share to have people share back and heal.”
Wow.
Blown away. So timely too as I have been giving a lot of thought over the past six months to the “why” of what I do: blogging, performing, especially the stuff where I share pretty damn excruciatingly personal stuff…neither are for purely altruistic reasons – I’m as self-indulgent and narcissistic as they come – but I have really clarified that I do want to create work that’s more than just a nice way to pass the time.
I want it to connect. To make an impact. And, if I’m honest – and I won’t pretend this isn’t hugely affected by having been made painfully aware of the reality of death from a very early age in life – because I want to leave behind some sort of legacy. Even if it’s small. Even if that’s just in terms of having connected with somebody else in a way that stays with them longer than I do.
But hey, no pressure, right?! 
10 Publicity Tips for Artists
Moi, Carla Conlin & Shelley Dunstone going a little Vanity Fair-ish on location for a recent Cabaret Summer School promo shoot. Image by Naomi Jellicoe, The Advertiser
With Fringe season well upon us – which for me, equates to crazy self-promo season – I thought I’d pry my fingers away from my own shameless promo-ing duties and put them to work sharing some of the best publicity tips I’ve garnered over the years.
When it comes to pursuing your passion in life, as we were told in no vague terms at the recent Cabaret Summer School by Sidonie Henbest, “there’s no point in being brilliant in a bubble.”
I heartily concur. No matter how great your work, it ain’t gonna happen if people don’t know about it!
So, without further waffle, here are my 10 publicity tips for artists. Okay, hang on. Bit more waffle. Bear in mind these are:
a) assuming you already have some idea of how to draft up a media release. If you don’t, go get thee to google!
b) as the intro suggests, the best publicity tips I’VE garnered. Me. Moi. Yours truly. I’m not saying they’re the Bible, yo! Unless you wish to endow them as such. In which case, who does that make me? Oh yeah. Awesome. Totally do that.
1. Use Free Web Listings.
This is quite literally my first point of call when I do ANY show EVER. List your event on anything (relevant) you can. It’s free. It’s easy to find. A little time consuming, perhaps, to hunt down all the websites that might be appropriate. But once you’ve got the list for that city you’ve got it. Google things like “things to do in X” city: you’ll come up with a ton of starting points. Don’t hold back: they need events to fill their calendars so that they can provide that service to their customers!
2. Prepare Yourself For Operation Copy and Paste
Before you start uploading listings, sending out media releases and the rest, write your show details down in one document (I include in this document the basic show details, a small blurb, a longer blurb, the full media release) so that when you are ready to put the info out there, you’re not wasting precious time typing the same kinda details over and over: you can just copy and paste the relevant info.
3. Personalise Invitations
If you’re inviting somebody, be it a reviewer, a VIP, an industry person, a friend…where possible, I think you should actually invite THEM. I know for myself that when I’m on the receiving end of an invite, my interest radar fades rapidly when something reads like a bulk-send. Address people by name and if there’s a specific reason you want them to see your show, tell them.
4. Consider Using an Online Electronic Press Kit
A few months ago, I decided to give powerpresskits.com a go. At first I wasn’t sure why I would bother with this service, given that I already have a website with pictures galore, deets on my show, etc. however having already had some great feedback from a couple of journos I’m pretty well sold. I can send people the link directly to my kit, which has all the info on my show, looks super professional AND they can download the hi-res (i.e. printable) quality version of my photos, without me having to clog up their inbox.
5. FOLLOW UP.
Why is this in caps, you ask? Because if I had to give one promo tip to rule them all, this would be it. Send your stuff (and by stuff, I mean media releases) via email, sure. But once you have, give it a few days and then either email with a friendly note to see whether they’ve received it and/or call them. Let me tell you a secret: almost EVERY media success story I’ve had is the result of me chasing up an initial contact. Of course, don’t harass people; if I follow up once and then don’t hear back, I will usually let it go (unless they’ve explicitly said they’re interested and to get back to them with more info). But don’t just give up because you sent an email to a magazine and heard nothing back. They get a gazillion media pitches a day. It’s not personal.
6. Get a Virtual Assistant.
Once you’ve drafted your emails, media releases and/or other titillating blather, AND you have the lists of media people to send them to, consider hiring somebody to send them out for you. You can find people on sites like Elance for incredibly inexpensive rates to do the copy/paste/send combo so you are freed up to spend your time better elsewhere, doing the jobs that really only you can do.
7. Get Professional Photos.
Have them ready to go. Not snapshots, not iPhone shot, professional shots. Do not send these through to the media, however, unless the journalist requests it. (Note: this is another benefit of having an online EPK to refer them to, it’s all there without clogging up their inbox). But do write in your media release: ‘Hi-Res Images Available On Request’ or similar.
8. Join forces!
Are there other similar events/performers who, when you join together, can create a good story? Band together! If the Spice Girls taught us nothing else, it’s that there’s power in numbers.
Banding together in The Advertiser for The Cabaret Summer School. Picture by Naomi Jellicoe
9. Pay It Forward.
You’re trying to attract attention to your own shows, so why not extend somebody else the same love you’d like to get? Plug other people’s shows on your blog/site/facebook/twitter (note: make sure these are shows that you really do love; if you just promote everything you will more than likely damage any credibility you have!), become champions for others and take joy in other people’s successes. (Note: Rachel Hills wrote about this very idea this week here.) It’s a good feeling: don’t do it with an “I scratch your back now you scratch mine” attitude, but be generous with promoting others work who you genuinely admire, without any thought of pay-back. The arts world can be competitive, but only if you let it be that way for you. I think that celebrating others feels like a much better way to live!
10. Include Your Show Info!
This seems obvious, but I myself have been guilty of being so caught up in crafting a beautifully composed email that I have overlooked including this very key piece of information! It’s ESSENTIAL: include your show details in EVERY media release, correspondence, etc. that you send out! Format it simply, but don’t forget to add your show title, venue, dates, ticket prices and how to book, usually at the bottom of your page. I’ll do it here at the bottom of this post, both to illustrate the point and to flaunt my inner promo-slorry.
Happy publicising!
AN UNEXPECTED VARIETY SHOW
Adelaide Fringe Festival
THE LIGHT HOTEL – HIGH ROLLERS ROOM
141 Currie St, Adelaide
25-26 Feb 7pm FREE
28 Feb, 6, 13 Mar 7pm Cheap Tues $10
1-4, 8, 10-11, 15, 17 Mar 7pm $20 full, $15 conc
Tickets available here. Or phone 1300 FRINGE (374 643)
