#zoe coombs marr

[userdocumentary]

QUEERSTRALIA (2022) Episode 1 dir. Stamatia Maroupas

[yourdailyqueer]

Zoë Coombs Marr

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: N/A 

Ethnicity: White - Australian

Occupation: Comedian, actress

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

So, at the end of 2023, I was busy with trying to move house and deal with some other shit, and I did not do what I’d done at the end of the previous couple of years, which was make posts with year-end roundups. I thought I’d do that now.

I was going to do a list of my top ten favourite 2023 stand-up shows. Then I found that there were too many shows I wanted to include, so it turned into a top twenty. Then I told myself that that’s ridiculous, so did manage to narrow it down to a list of my ten favourites. But I kept the ten that I cut in a separate list of honourable mentions. While listing twenty whole shows seems like a cop-out, even narrowing it down that far was difficult, and a bunch of shows I liked got cut from both lists. That shows how very lucky I was last year, getting to hear so many stand-up shows that it was hard to choose just twenty favourites.

I’m defining a 2023 show as something that was performed in Edinburgh in 2023, whether or not the version I heard was from Edinburgh. I've put them in alphabetical order within their lists because it was hard enough to narrow down this much, I am not going to try to rank them by quality further.

Top ten:

Ahir Shah – Ends

Alice Fraser – Twist

Andrew O’Neill – Geburah

Laura Davis – Well Don’t Just Stand There Dancing

Paul Foot – Dissolve

Pierre Novellie – Why Are You Laughing?

Sam Campbell – he only performed one night in Edinburgh and it was called Bulletproof Ten, and I didn’t actually get to hear Bulletproof Ten, but I have heard some other 2023 stand-up nights where he did the same material so I’m pretty sure I’ve heard all the stuff that was in Bulletproof Ten, and therefore I can put that on this list

Stewart Lee – Basic Lee

Tom Ballard – It Is I

Zoe Coombs Marr – The Opener

Top ten shows that didn’t make the top ten but that I still wanted to include:

Adam Kay – Undoctored

Celya AB – Second Rodeo

Frankie Boyle – Lap of Shame

Ian Smith – Crushing

Ikechukwu Ufomadu – Amusements

Mark Watson – Search

Milo Edwards – Sentimental

Robin Ince – MELONS

Shelf – Teenage Men

Susie McCabe – Femme Fatality

Bonus list: shows that cannot be on the above list because they were 2022 shows that didn’t get done in Edinburgh in 2023, but did get toured in 2023, and/or got released as a recording in 2023 so I got to see them in 2023, and they were brilliant:

Grace Petrie – Butch Ado About Nothing

Greg Larsen – We All Have Bloody Thoughts

Huge Davies – The Carpark

Josie Long – Re-Enchantment (this hasn’t been recorded or anything, but I saw it live in Montreal in 2023)

Mae Martin – SAP

Nish Kumar – Your Power Your Control (I actually saw this live twice in 2022, once in Montreal and once in New York City, but the video recording came out in 2023)

[ryoki-ph]

genuinely mean it to all you guys to please go and check out this series sometime. barely anyone really acknowledges australia exists that much, yet alone the queer history of it

[qnewslgbtiqa]

2023: The Australian queer year in review

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/2023-the-australian-queer-year-in-revew/

2023: The Australian queer year in review

As the year comes to an end, we look back at some of the Australian LGBTQIA+ news, events and queer moments that made up 2023.

January

Midsumma: Melbourne held its annual multi-week Midsumma Festival where former premier Daniel Andrews marched with pride goers. 

Sam Stosur retires: Sam, who won the US Open singles titles plus seven Grand Slam doubles titles, retired at the Australian Open. Sam publicly came out later in her career in 2020. 

February

WorldPride: Sydney became the epicentre of the queer universe when hosting WorldPride. The two-week extravaganza featured an opening night concert, the traditional Mardi Gras parade, a Human Rights Conference, a Bondi Beach party, a pride march over the Bridge and a closing party. 

Big names like Kylie Minogue, Dannii Minogue, Sugababes, Agnes, Nicole Scherzinger, Kim Petras, Ava Max, Jessica Mauboy, Courtney Act and Casey Donovan featured throughout WorldPride. However, there was only one true icon of the event: Progress Shark. 

Queerstralia: ABC broadcasts the series Queerstralia. Hosted by Zoe Coombs Marr, it took a deep dive into the queer history of Australia. 

March

Australian Idol: Queer First Nations singer Royston Sagigi-Baira won Australian Idol. Royston is a Thanakwith (Aboriginal) and Wagadagam (Torres Strait Islander) man from Mapoon in Far North Queensland. 

Posie Parker rejected: Anti-trans activist Posie Parker was drowned out by counter-protesters during her tour of Australia. During her visit to Brisbane, hundreds rallied against her hateful views. While in Melbourne she was joined by neo-Nazis which saw widespread condemnation. 

In Our Blood: The musical drama inspired by Australia’s radical response to HIV/AIDS in the 1980s was broadcast on ABC with many scenes shot at Brisbane’s Sportsman Hotel. 

The Wickham reopens: After many months closed for renovations, Brisbane’s iconic LGBTQIA+ venue The Wickham reopened. 

April 

Censorship rejected: The Australian Classification Board rejected a call to ban or restrict a gender and sexuality memoir after a conservative activist complained to Queensland Police.

May

Archibald Prize: Artist Julia Gutman wins the Archibald Prize with a portrait of queer performer Montaigne. While queer musician and artist Zaachariaha Fielding (from Electric Fields) won the Wynne Prize for best landscape. 

Kylie’s back: Long-time queer ally Kylie Minogue released Padam Padam. The song charted in the Top 10 in the UK and the Top 20 in Australia. The first time the singer had achieved this in more than a decade. 

June

Queens Ball: The 62nd edition of the Queens Ball in Brisbane was held at City Hall. More than a dozen Queensland queer community advocates, performers and organisations were honoured in a ceremony hosted by Paul Wheeler and Chocolate Boxx. 

Trans legal win: The Queensland government passed a new law allowing trans and gender-diverse people to change their gender on their birth certificates without having to undergo surgery.

July

Logies: Out actor Tim Draxl was nominated for the Silver Logie as most outstanding actor while RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under received two nominations for Best Entertainment Program and Best New Talent for Kween Kong. 

Patricia Karvelas: Proudly out presenter Patricia Karvelas was named as the new host of one of ABC’s flagship programs Q&A.

Gymnast: Out Australian gymnast Heath Thorpe was controversially not selected for the World Championships despite winning the Australian All-Around title. 

August

Women’s World Cup: Australia and New Zealand hosted the Women’s World Cup with a record 96 publicly out players competing. The Matildas, who had 10 out players including superstar Sam Kerr, reached the semi-finals after a thrilling penalty shoot-out win against France. The Matildas broke attendance and ratings records, becoming the most-watched event in Australia since Cathy Freeman at the Sydney Olympics. 

Honour Awards: NSW’s largest annual LGBTIQA+ community awards were held and presented by ACON. 

September

Brisbane Pride: Brisbane hosted its annual pride event including fair day, rally and march, and other community events across the month. 

Drag Race: The third season of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under crowned the first-ever Australian winner. Isis Avis Loren from Melbourne took the crown with Ballarat’s Gabriella Labucci runner-up. The show was co-hosted by Rhys Nicholson and included queer Aussie guest judges Keiynan Lonsdale and Josh Cavallo. 

October

Big Gay Day: The Wickham held its annual Big Gay Day with Peter Andre and Rogue Traders headlining. 

Troye Sivan: The Australian queer artist released his album Something to Give Each Other featuring hit singles Rush, Got Me Started and One of Your Girls. It went straight to the top of the charts giving Troye his first Australian No.1 album.

Pride Adelaide: The annual event took place with a march and a celebration featuring artists Ricki-Lee, Crystal Waters, Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Samantha Jade.

November 

Gay Games: The 11th edition of the event was co-hosted by Hong Kong and Guadalajara in Mexico. This was the first co-hosting of the games and the first time it took place in Asia. Australian LGBTQIA+ athletes competed in both cities. 

ARIAs: Troye Sivan and G Flip dominated the ARIA Music Awards with four and two award wins respectively. Troye took out Song of the Year for Rush. 

Natalie Bassingthwaighte: The Rogue Traders lead singer and actress known for her work on Neighbours revealed she was in a relationship with a woman.

PrideFest: Perth held its annual pride events with events across the month celebrating the city’s LGBTQIA+ community.

BayPride: Despite protests the inaugural pride event in Wynnum, Queensland took place with a large family-friendly march.

December

Hate Crime Inquiry: The long-awaited Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes in NSW saw 19 recommendations made. Advocates welcomed the findings and called on the NSW Police Force to action the report’s recommendations.

JOY Media: The Melbourne-based LGBTQIA+ community radio station JOY 94.9 celebrated their 30th anniversary.

NT politics: The openly gay MP Chansey Paech made history as the first Aboriginal man to be appointed Deputy Chief Minister in the Northern Territory.

Olympics: Australian climber Campbell Harrison qualified for the Paris Olympics and shared a kiss with his boyfriend to celebrate.

For the latest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) news in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[fazcinatingblog]

Zoe coombs marr making so many jokes about the hot purple wiggle WHEN HER HUSBAND IS SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO HER

[mengjue]

HIGHLY recommend Queerstralia on ABC for those interested in Australian queer history and experiences! It’s well-made and very aware of intersections with race, gender, colonisation, etc. with a range of interviews from members of the queer community here. I feel like most popular posts around pride and queer history are very US-centric so a lot of this was new info for me to learn.

[mercy-misrule]

if you have access to prime tv, you should watch tom walker's comedy special 'very very' and zoe coombs marr's special 'bossy bottom'

I've watched tom's 4 times, i think. its just one of those things i delight in showing people.

i just watched zoe's last night, and its brilliant, so good.

[userdocumentary]

QUEERSTRALIA (2022) Episode 1

[thecourtneychronicles]

“Courtney Act says she’s enjoying an endless “hot girl summer”. Which, for those not initiated into American rap memes, basically means she’s having a damn good time.

“I’m kind of lubed up and ready for Mardi Gras, so to speak,” she says. As Australia’s most famous drag queen, active since the turn of the century, Courtney helped lead the mainstreaming of queer culture in this country along with figures such as Carlotta and Bob Downe.

But being a leader or pioneer doesn’t guarantee being comfortable in your own skin. Courtney says that until recently her understanding of sexuality and gender was actually quite limited. When she was performing, she was a woman, but when she stripped off her make-up, she went back to being Shane Jenek, a man.

“Although I did drag, my masculinity and femininity were compartmentalised in the binary,” Courtney says.

But over the past few years, as public discussion of gender, sexuality and identity has grown, she has discovered things are more complex than your genitals, clothes and hair.

“I think sometimes people think identity has something to do with the wrapping, but really it’s the gift underneath,” she says. “It’s about how you feel. For me, I definitely feel like I occupy masculine and feminine qualities.”

Courtney explores this journey in her pop-cabaret show, Fluid, showing this week at the Eternity Playhouse in Darlinghurst as part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival. It’s a change of pace for her after focusing on television in recent years; first by winning Britain’s Celebrity Big Brother in 2018, then as the runner-up (with Joshua Keefe) on last year’s Australian Dancing with the Stars.

It’s also a far cry from her humble beginnings in the DIY world of drag, which has never been regarded as high art but remains a staple of gay bars and culture worldwide.

“There’s a lot less hot glue and sticky tape in this show, which makes it feel a lot more professional,” Courtney says of Fluid. “I don’t know if that will hold until opening night.”

Set to original music, Fluid was written by Shane and American comedian Brad Loekle. For the most part it’s a one-woman show, with some help from a ballroom dancer in the second half. (“It’d be weird doing a ballroom dance by yourself,” she says.)

The show acknowledges that, more than ever, people are being flooded with “ever-changing and flowing ideas of who we are, what we are and what we might become”.

This is something we should embrace, says Courtney. “We change our clothes every day – we change  our hairstyles, we change our jobs. Everything is constantly in motion and constantly fluid. But we have this idea that our identities are fixed. When we look at our lives they’re actually a lot more fluid than we think.”

Courtney, or Shane, doesn’t identify as trans but has said that seeing more transgender people represented in the media was liberating and allowed her to explore her own doubts about gender. She’s previously been described as “gender fluid, pansexual and polyamorous”, although she no longer embraces those labels as she once did.

“They all work,” says Courtney, who prefers to identify as “just generally queer” these days. “It’s funny … so many of our groups identify so strongly with labels and they’re so important to us. I kind of feel less attached to those labels.”

She also understands why some people might feel confused, or even confronted, by the politics of queer identification. The acronym LGBTQIA+, which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and others, has expanded over the years to the point that some critics deride it as “alphabet soup”. Even those who are part of the community can be intolerant.

“I get that LGBTIQA+ is a little cumbersome from a marketing standpoint,” says Courtney. “But if you find yourself with the time to complain and be confused by a few extra letters, then you’re one of the lucky ones. If there are people that get to understand themselves more because of a letter in an acronym, I’m all for it.”

“I definitely feel like I occupy masculine and feminine qualities.”

Courtney casts a sceptical eye over everything, including the rise of cancel culture, a predominantly left-wing phenomenon which argues that anyone who says or does something deemed to be racist, sexist, homophobic or in any way offensive should be called out, shamed and, preferably, silenced.

Lamenting the state of political discourse while appearing on the ABC’s Matter of Fact program last year, she said: “The volume’s too loud now and everybody’s yelling.” While history showed that people sometimes need to raise their voices, “when you actually sit down opposite someone and have a conversation with them, you get so much further”.

How, then, does Courtney view the debate over religious freedom that has raged ever since Australians voted to legalise same-sex marriage in 2017? She says it’s clear that sometimes people, especially older white males, perceive other people gaining rights as a threat to their own. She says religion can be a lost cause because it is, by definition, about faith rather than rational argument. Still, queer people have to make the effort to engage.

“The way to do that is to get people to picture themselves in other people’s experiences. That’s the only way you can foster that empathy.

“Rather than yelling aggressively back at the people trying to oppress us, I think the most important thing to do is to share our stories.”

Another thing you can do, of course, is march. This weekend, Mardi Gras culminates in the annual parade up Oxford Street, which will feature more than 200 floats and 10,000 marchers. For the first time, Courtney will co-host the coverage on SBS with comedians Joel Creasey and Zoe Coombs Marr, and Studio 10 presenter Narelda Jacobs.

She had something of a practice run hosting the coverage on Foxtel some years ago. “I saw a clip of it the other day,” she says. “And I’m definitely hoping to redeem myself.”

As a character, Courtney has been on the gay scene for about 20 years. The person behind the facade, Shane, turned 38 last week. He grew up in Brisbane and remembers watching the parade on television as a teenager in the 1990s, huddled up close to the TV so he could quickly switch it off if his parents came downstairs.

Shane came to Sydney when he was 18 and attended his first Mardi Gras. “I just remember it was such a melting pot of people,” he says. “It was the first time I really understood what a community was: that there were all these different parts, and we all faced different challenges and struggles.”

But even then, Shane says he failed to really comprehend about what Mardi Gras was all about. Just like many heterosexual critics over the years, as a young man he gawked at the giant dancing penises, fetish-wear and nudity and wondered: why?

“I remember thinking: why can’t they just be normal?” Shane says. “Have your parade, but why does it have to be about sex and penises? Because I had shame about all of those things. I realise now that the parade’s brash display of sexuality liberates the shame … it’s a really radical way to shake people and say there’s nothing wrong with sexuality – not just homosexuality but sexuality in general.”

The queer community has given Shane a lot: acceptance, identity, a career and fame. It has taken him to Los Angeles, where he was based for some years until 2018, and now to his new home in London.

Love, on the other hand, remains elusive. He is “on the rebound” at the moment, though eternally optimistic. “It’s Mardi Gras time, it’s summer in Sydney, I think this is the perfect time to be single. Maybe I’ll find love under a disco ball at the after-party.”

Incredibly, at 38, Shane is about to attend his first ever wedding, straight or gay – his friend Tim is marrying his partner Ben. It is set to be a baptism of fire. “They have asked my ex-boyfriend and me to give the best man’s speech together, which could be slightly sadistic,” he says.

Shane is still adjusting to the relatively new world of same-sex marriage. It’s not for everyone – many queers still think of it as a conservative and unnecessary institution – but it’s growing on him. “Weirdly, seeing all these people get married, I feel like my cold heart has melted a bit,” he says. “I think there’s something really beautiful about marriage.”

It’s a reminder of why events like the Mardi Gras are still so important – a celebration of diversity at the same time as the old divisions between straight and gay are knocked down. As well as marriage, this can manifest in small shifts, like the politics of Bondi Beach.

“I was at North Bondi on Saturday [and] it was surprisingly unlike North Bondi,” Shane says. “It was all families and those banana umbrella things. I was like, ‘Oh, I remember when this used to be [gay nightclub] ARQ, but with more light.’"

“I guess that’s the progress we fought for – the families are happy occupying the gay beaches now.”

Fashion director Penny McCarthy. Photographer Steven Chee. Hair Benjamin Moir at Wigs By Vanity.

SBS’s Mardi Gras broadcast airs live from 7.30pm on February 29. Fluid will return for a tour of Australia and NZ in spring.

This article appears in Sunday Life magazine within the Sun-Herald and the Sunday Age on sale February 23.”

Courtney’s interview for The Sydney Morning Herald - February 21, 2020

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

So, I’m a big fan of the regular stand-up format: funny stories for varying lengths of time that average out to an hour, callbacks, building up a theme, tying threads together, serious and/or sad bit at the end, try getting overly personal or overly political if you think you have the chops to handle it (because it’s fantastic if done well and really hard to watch if done badly), preferably some meta commentary, up to four traditional punchline-driven jokes if there’s enough time. It’s an excellent formula.

I don’t completely object to experimentation. Nick Helm and Rhys James made me realize that spoken word poetry is probably the artsiest thing I really like in a stand-up show. And I often like people who add music in there. Sometimes I even don’t mind a prop or a costume.

What I find it less easy to get into is sketch comedy, and/or character comedy, something with a narrative that’s entirely fictional. Physical comedy. Anything that can be described with the word “clowning”. I think this is why I don’t mind that a lot of the comedy recordings I have are audio only. The visual side isn’t a big part of what I enjoy in most comedy.

Basically, I'm a big fan of stuff that was called alternative comedy twenty or more years ago, when the thing to which it was an alternative was just a misogynist going setup-punchline for 30 minutes straight. Whereas stuff that's called alternative now can be literally anything, and some of it I like, and some of it makes my chest feel weirdly tight in an uncanny valley sort of way. I don't like puppets. I'm glad everyone else is having a good time but I don't like the puppets.

I’ve posted about this before, and usually add that every once in a while I’ll watch something like that to try to expand my horizons. Here’s how that’s gone.

Shows that have made me think – yep, I was right to believe this isn’t for me, I mean I’m really glad everyone’s having a good time and I wish them the best and I can appreciate that this might be technically very well made, but not for me:

- The Delightful Sausage – Nowt But Sea

- Mr. Swallow – Houdini

- Phil Ellis - Excellent Comedy Show

- Anything with that little purple Feltface puppet

- I watched this show called Siblings that was streamed from the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe because it was a variety show and I wanted to know what that was like, there was someone who spun hula hoops and removed her clothes and someone else who juggled fire and various sketches and a drag queen and one guy who just slipped on banana skins as his whole act, I was very impressed with some of the technical skills on display but it also felt weird and uncomfortable and the only part where I had any idea what was going on was when Tom Ballard came on to tell jokes about his sex life and made me say “Oh thank God for something I recognize”

- Anna Man – A Sketch Show For Depressives

- Elf Lyons – Swan (to be fair, this is probably a lot funnier if you’re familiar with how ballet works)

- Christopher Bliss – Writing Wrongs (this barely belongs on the list because it’s very accessible, but technically it counts because the whole thing was in character, and the character seemed to pretty much have one joke, and that one joke was quite funny but not for a whole hour)

A lot of it made me laugh but it still gave me this strong sense of "this isn't really my thing":

- Lorna Rose Treen – Skin Pigeon

- Joseph Morpurgo – Hammerhead

Shows that have made me think – actually, I could be cultured and understand outside-the-box comedy, I am enjoying this a lot:

- The Delightful Sausage – Ginster’s Paradise (I don’t think this was actually more accessible than Nowt But Sea, I think it just watched it second and enjoyed it more once I’d figured out what to expect from them)

- John-Luke Roberts in general

- Zoe Coombs Marr in general

- Lazy Susan – Forgive Me, Mother!

- Crizards – Cowboys

- Does Jordan Brookes count? I went into his stuff thinking it might be too experimental for me, but then it ended up being much more accessible than I’d expected, I did really like it though.

Shows that I can definitely tell are very good, and they made me laugh and think at the right places, but also made me really uncomfortable while watching them and I don’t know if I could call the experience enjoyable, but it was still good in some other way I think, I mean I recently mentioned in a post that I find John Robins “pussy line” routine mildly uncomfortable just because I’m a bit squeamish about hearing someone say the word “pussy” that many times in a few minutes and this sure did have a challenge for that side of me, also I find puppets difficult to look at, but seriously, they were really good, they made me feel a lot of things in the way I believe art is supposed to, I mean they made me feel a bit anxious in a squeamish way but also I think made me feel some proper art things alongside that, and they were funny, overall I’d probably pay good money to see her live but only if I’m allowed to close my eyes at some parts, it’s at times like this that I remember I am a jock/athlete that migrated to this level of art appreciation in my thirties, I do not have the type of theatre kid background that may be necessary to be unbothered by all the weird shit going on in this, but still, really really good and I highly recommend them though with the caveat of trigger warning for like everything:

Natalie Palamides – Laid

Natalie Palamides – Nate

[bigtavaro]

50 LESBIAN AND BI WOMEN/NON BINARY PEOPLE OF COMEDY

Okay so this list isn’t in any particular order. And although it’s mostly stand up comedy there are a couple of actors/ YouTube comedians. I tried to make sure I included people that don’t say shitty stuff, but let me know if I’ve missed anything out. I made smaller posts with photos of each comedian and I’ll probably make more going into the details of each show etc. I know this isn’t everyone so let me know if you recommend anyone! 💚

1. Tig Notaro

2. Wanda Sykes

3. Cameron Esposito

4. Zoe Lyons

5. Deanne Smith

6. Rhea Butcher

7. Hannah Gadsby

8. Sue Perkins

9. Mae Martin

10. Fortune Femeister

11. Suzi Ruffle

12. Amanda Cosner

13. Kate McKinnon

14. Lily Tomlin

15. Jane Lynch

16. Margaret Cho

17. Rose and Rosie

18. Ellen Degeneres

19. Moms Mabley

20. Lea Delaria

21. Suzanne Westenhoefer

22. Judy Good

23. Lena Waithe

24. Sandra bernhard

25. Karen Williams

26. Sabrina Jalees

27. Elvira kurt

28. Chaunté Wayans

29. Jen Brister

30. Susan Calman

31. Sandy Toksvig

32. Chloe Petts

33. Shelf comedy

34. Sophie Duker

35. Gina Yashere

36. Brittany Ashley

37. Lianna Carrerra

38. Emma Willmann

39. Sam Jay

40. Catherine McCormick

41. Irene Tu

42. Marga Gomez

43. Elsa Waithe

44. Jess Salomon and Eman El - Husseini

45. Jes Tom

46. Sophie Santos

47. Kate Clinton

48. Kristen Key

49. Bethany Black

50. Zoe Coombs Marr

[jimrmoore]

Vaudevisuals interview with Adrienne Truscott - Upcoming Shows!

Vaudevisuals interview with Adrienne Truscott – Upcoming Shows!

Coming to Joe’s Pub starting Sept 20th, 2019 “Adrienne Truscott’s (Still) Asking For It (A Stand-Up Rape About Comedy Starring Her Pussy and Little Else)“

~ ~ ~

“It’s so exhilarating to see the ugliness of rape discourse taken on, and bested, not with humourlessness or censoriousness, but with firecracker wit, sophication and luminous humanity.” – The Guardian

~ ~ ~

AND Coming to NYU Skirball…

[sophisti-cunted]

Narrative is over-rated, she insists. “People go on about story – everyone loves story. ‘Storytelling – it’s how we understand ourselves.’ I think it’s a way of how people can understand some parts of ourselves, but I don’t think that it’s the be-all and end-all.

“Story gets too much airtime,” she says, then with a Judith Lucy-style inflection, adds: “Fuck story!”

Narrative, she says, is used to justify violence in entertainment and culture, such as the killing of women in theatre and opera, which the trio satirised to visceral effect in Oedipus Schmoedipus, along with audience opprobrium about decontextualised and therefore “gratuitous” violence.

“I think that’s far more offensive, to have violence and [murder] justified by a narrative that precedes it, rather than us just showing the thing that is unjustifiable.”

See Ich Nibber Dibber at the Malthouse if you’re in Melbourne. It’s on ‘til the 23rd. Link

I was in a shitty mood before I went. Nearly stayed home for a cry and a sulk and had to get an uber across town. I came out feeling so enlivened and happy. I’m not saying that experience will be universal. It was brilliant to see three chicks who really know how to put on a show just talk shit for an hour and make it enthralling theatre. But not the kind of enthralling you need 100% brain power for. 

This is the kind of... avoidance of narrative and story-telling that you don’t see much, from women. Chat between women, written by women, outside the need of a plot to frame it. It was sharp and funny and original and a salve to my embittered heart. 

Having a venue like the Malthouse and proper dramaturgy and sound and lighting gave reverence to the script. Post don’t let deconstructing theatrical convention get in the way of staging the show well. But the ambient music and simple visuals also do a lot to help it not be too much. The niggle you get when you hear something is on at the theatre and like... it’s gonna be a whole thing where you have to prep yourself mentally for engagement with high culture. You’re gonna have to know how to analyse stuff and have your thoughts and emotions spring-loaded. 

You don’t have to prepare like that. Understanding theatre or theory has no bearing on enjoying this. It’s just fun. Go! And take a friend, because you will want to talk afterwards. 

[eatmovesmile]

Women’s Health Week (7-11 September)

What is Women's Health Week about? 

It is all about women putting their health first. It's a week where women learn about their health and how to make positive changes that can last a lifetime. There are lots of great activities happening Australia wide for Women’s Health Week, and you can join in with most of the activities free of charge. However if you don't want to join a mailing list or attend an online event you can still get involved by simply giving your girlfriend a call to see how she is coping during these uncertain times. It’s really important that we are constantly checking in on the people we care about, and Women’s Health Week is a good reminder to do just that. 

How do I get involved in the online events? 

To get involved in the nation-wide campaign of events and online activities, sign up here. You will receive health articles based on the latest research, interesting videos and podcasts, delicious recipes and helpful tools directly into your inbox (all at no cost). 

What else is happening? 

Take Steps for Women’s Health- Join other women to collectively travel 16,500kms, the equivalent of 22 million steps, around Australia.

Comedy Gala- This year’s Comedy Gala will be streamed right around Australia on Saturday 26th of September at 7.30pm. The Gala will be hosted by Claire Hooper, and features the hilarious Celia Pacquola, Cal Wilson, Steph Tisdell, Zoe Coombs Marr, Jude Perl and Aditi Mittal. (Tickets from $22.19) 

Other events- There are currently 1267 events happening around Australia and 122 events in Victoria. Find an event that suits you. Most of these events are free of charge.

[123gomovieshub-blog]

putlocker