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| (On the couch) - The Age 21 October 1994 |
| Your character Bob Downe is high camp and in the closet. Are you celebrating being gay or poking fun at it? It's not a gay thing. The British respond very strongly to the character because they have such a long tradition of high camp, pantomine. When John Inman is playing this poof on TV (in Are You Being Served?) it's not that much to do with sexuality as to do with a character type. At the heart of Bob is the fact that he is a closet queen and he'd like to do it with men but he lives in too small a town where he is too well known. He sleazes over the women in the audience ... I never really developed any of my performing in front of exclusively gay audiences. It doesn't go down well with them. They are so tired of seeing (in real life) obviously fag performers pretending to be straight.
When you are gay, is that your life? It is depressing to be defined by your sexual preference. The reality of gay life is over 95 per cent have overwhelmingly the life that everybody else has. They have gay friends and straight friends and they are not window dressers. Do you live a gay life? Yeah, of course, obviously. I think there is definitely a gay sensibility that's not a sexual thing. Straight people love that. Why are flocks and flocks going to see Adventures of Priscilla? And there was also a gay sensibility in Strictly Ballroom. There are many, many films and plays and books that have a gay sensibility. Tales of the City. It was really interesting all those dickhead letters to the editor writers in Queensland and Tasmania calling the ABC the GayBC. Armisted Maupin had to really fight to introduce one gay character into that serial when he was writing the serial for the San Francisco Chronicle. The rest are straight people. It's very interesting that they say, "this outrageous gay serial". This is where people are so distorted. As soon as they know you are gay that's all they want to talk about. It seems to sort of completely color the whole picture. I suppose that's part of gay liberation, gay political thinking. Are you politically gay? It's a political act coming out in the press and talking about it for the first time (several years ago) ... I think a lot of the activism is subsiding because most of us have so many friends who are sick and dying that your energy is so focused on them and the process of grieving. You would think that the anger and the grief would make you politicised but it has the opposite effect. So really, they have us over a barrel. A lot of people would be so happy to hear that. Is to be gay to be fearful? I think there is a huge amount of fear. Have you been reading the letters in the Hobart Mercury and the Launceston Examiner? There is good reason to be fearful. There are people in the world who would like to see me dead as an out gay man. The fear that it will affect your job prospects, insurance, medical benefits, life insurance prospects. It is pretty profound, the range of things that are lined up against gay people. Is it anybody's business? Nobody asks if you are straight? Nobody has to ask if you are straight. Straight people always offer that information. Once they pick up that you are gay it is very quickly introduced into the conversation. It is surprising, isn't it? Is the best place for gay people to be in the theatre? It's the safest place. The theatre or the hair salon. It's true. But I reject that sort of radical gay political ethos that says we should get out of the hair salon and into the panel-beating shop. It's crap. It's very comfortable in the theatre because you can be gay and it's a complete non issue. It's not that you are flouncing around in drag together and taking about Judy Garland all day. It's that it is a non issue. Who were you in a previous life? I was obsessed with Noel Coward when I was in my early 20s because of his all-round brilliance. But people I talked to who met him said that destroyed him. He became a monster as a result of his early success.
Bob Downe stars at the Continental Cafe, Greville Street, Prahran, on 28, 29 and 30 October. Bookings: 510 2788. |
| LOWDOWNE ON BOB - The Sun Herald 24 September 1994 |
| Q: Are you comfortable being so far away from your home town of Murwillumbah when on tour overseas?
A: I'm very comfortable when I'm away. As free as a bird. I take full advantage of being away from my mother, who lives at the Now or Never Caravan Park. Q: Did you buy any safari suits on your recent trip?
Q: Is it true you've recorded your first single?
Q: Would you say you were trapped in the 70s?
Q: How is your hair these days, and how do you maintain it when you travel?
Q: Have the North Americans taken to your famous teeth?
Q: What are your other main interests?
Q: What would be your idea of perfect happiness?
* Comedian Bob Downe (real name Mark Trevorrow) will perform at Harbourside Brasserie in Sydney on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. |
| Festival 94 - Pulse Magazine Issue 25 September 1994 |
| Viva Variety was definitely a mixed little bag of monkeys. The evening kicked off with an interesting (if slightly prolonged) display of Oriental drummers who eventually handed over to the supremely funny Lilly Savage. The problem with showcases, however, is that there are bound to be one or two acts that simply can't match the standard that a comediene such as Lilly Savage sets. One such act was Dave Schneider who crashed and burned very quickly and then put on a lengthy death throe.
The two saving graces of the entire show were Lilly Savage and Bob Downe (The Crimplene Queen) who, as a finale, performed an excellent take off of Torville and Dean. Despite the big name stars, Viva Variety was a sadly mediocre affair let down by an off balance bill. |
| Festival 94 - Pulse Magazine Issue 24 August 1994 |
| The Edinburgh Festival is upon us once again. An annual fixture in the Athens of the North since 1947, the Festival and its Fringe make up the biggest arts festival in the world drawing multitudes from all over the globe for its inumerable performances.
John Hein has been looking through the programmes for his 18th Festival and brings you his peronal selection of the very best. The Official Festival this year has the usual selection of the dross and the essential. Essential for the discerning faggot has to be the Mark Morris Dance Group who return with L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato - a cast of 24 dancers with orchestra, five solo singers and a chorus all in the new Festival Theatre. Music by Handel, words by Milton, bodies by God. The Festival Theatre opens with Scottish Opera's production of Fidelio. The Australian Opera is doing Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Nights Dream and Opera North have a couple of Chabrier productions - L'Etoile and Le Roi Malgre Lui. The Lucinda Childs Dance Company is on at the Playhouse and Dance with music by Philip Glass is on my 'must see' list. As is Carlo Maria Giulini conducting the European Community Youth Orchestra in the Brahms Symphonies 2 & 4. It's been 16 years since he last conducted at the Festival! The Firework Concert is another must - but tickets are long since sold out so you'll have to watch from Princes Street rather than the Gardens. Or even from Calton Hill. There's also rather a lot of Beethoven - you can't move for it - in addition to Fidelio there are performances of all the nine symphonies, the five piano concertos and many of his string quartets and piano sonatas. The Fringe is, as usual, massive. It's impossible to see more than a small fraction of the shows - even if you have the money or the time. The Biggie (although it's only on for two nights) is Viva Variety at the Playhouse. Some of the hottest acts from Channel 4's successful Viva Cabaret conspire to excite and delight even the most jaded of Festival audiences. Lily Savage hosts a star studded cast including: Bob Downe and the Hollywood Horns, Paul Morocco, Allesandro and Antonio Forcione, Dave Schneider and Leo Bassi. I'm especially looking forward to seeing Bassi - a certifiable lunatic of the first order! The Acropolis on Calton Hill has the Jim Rose Circus Side Show - something for all the SMers amongst you but decidedly not for those of a vanilla disposition. The loudmouthed and offensive Lea de Laria will also be creasing them up at the top of the hill - this far out funny dyke is well worth a visit - five shows only. Aids Positive Underground is on at Theatre Workshop. They're doing In One Take which is part 2 of John Roman Baker's Prostitution Trilogy. Good stuff! Theatre Workshop is also the venue for Clyde Unity with Backgreen Belter - John Binnie's latest piece. It's a new comedy charting the rise and fall of a galus disco diva. The Big Window (not a musical in the ordinary sense) at Theatre Workshop is an exploration of sex, love and heartbreak in the 1990s. Plot: On the eve of a wedding, the bride and groom struggle to reach the altar while their best friends contemplate divorce. The wife's husband is having affairs with men. The wife's ex-girlfriend/lover performs acrobatic love songs. 2 Federal Expressmen ride scooters delivering messages. 4 party guests gossip and croon lush melodies with passionate words. Hilarity abounds. The Assembly Rooms are the venue for 7:84 Theatre Company Scotland's production of Twilight Shift by award winning Scots poet and playwright Jackie Kay which explores in dramatic verse form our changing attitudes to sexuality, community and politics. In a small Scottish mining town two men are in love. One cuts coal, the other cuts hair. Two men in love with each other. The Assembly Rooms are also the venue for Arches Theatre Company who are doing Joe Orton's The Erpingham Camp. A very funny play and well worth seeing. Which is, no doubt, why the same company is also performing it at the Gilded Balloon. Bob Downe and the Hollywood Horns have their own show at the Playhouse and at the Pleasance. Australia's king of camp kitsch has binned his backing tapes (thank goodness) and returns to Edinburgh with his own big band for an all-singing, all-dancing, all-polyester hysterical homage to the worst showbusiness excesses. The Brian Collective present Dudes with Dicks at Overseas House. Billed as 'Physical Theatre', it's described as 'a multi-perspective study of masculinity in the 90's. By men, about men, for everyone.' It's likely to be worth the long tramp out to Morningside for the comedy Diary of a New York Queen at the Church Hill Theatre. The play leads the audience tantalisingly through the intrigues of Fashion, Friendship, Love, Divorce, Murder, A Moose and Self Discovery - all seen through the eyes of one outrageously acerbic and camp 27 year old, played by the critically acclaimed Harold Finney. Julian Clary has a one nighter with guests at the Playhouse. A stone's throw from where he had his first success as The Joan Collins Fan Club with Fanny the Wonder Dog (Can you remember where? - answer later). Fanny may have retired, but young Clary keeps on hoofing! The gay composer Sir Arthur Sullivan is sent up something rotten at The Festival Club. Sin with Sullivan is a cabaret of topical parodies of G&S's best loved songs whilst Trial by Jury at Christmas is a delightful re-telling of their outrageous courtroom operetta as a magical Victorian charade. Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart is performed by Festival Theatre USC-USA at Old St Paul's Church and Hall. According to the New York Daily News, this is 'an angry unremitting and gripping piece of political theatre'. Appearing at the Traverse is The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me. In his off-Broadway lightning-rod drama, David Drake undresses the sex-driven late-night scene, exposes the hilarious side of locker room narcissism and explodes with a kiss of hope for the future. Also at the Traverse are the Topp Twins who will be Camping Out. Both of these productions appeared at the Tron in Glasgow earlier this year and were reviewed in our last issue. The Annual Crusaid Benefit is at the Traverse on August 29th - a gala comedy fundraising bash. The Green Carnation Theatre Company present Wilde about Oscar at the Acoustic Music Centre. It's a new play drawing shaply into focus the private lives of both Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas. A moving piece of biographical theatre! Insinuendos Cabaret Club is hoaching with talent which even includes their resident hostess Maggie Raye. Highlights of the season include: The Totally Naff Tarts - the award winning female comedy duo, There are worse things I could do - a unique revue illustrating lighter and darker sides of gay life without hiding behind make-up and drag - Paul Hull sings with Jonathon Still at the piano, Life's a Drag - a one nighter with Kevin Peters, Betty 'Legs' Diamond and friends and Whoops Cinderella - a show saucier than a coach load of ketchup. Maggie Raye fans will enjoy Mime's a Ladysham wherein Ms Raye, back in her late-night gin-joint, opens her trunk entrancing you with dames and names, past and present. All in all, a venue worth checking out - after all, it is where Julian Clary started out! No Festival would be the same without Kit and the Widow who will be exhibiting A Splendidly Hung Retrospective at the Cafe Royal. This is their tenth year at the Fringe and one of them is still as cute as ever. 'Suck on the curate's egg of their oeufre - a veritable omelette of their favourite songs. Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierstein is performed by Lost Theatre at the Acoustic Music Centre. 'Shows the lives and loves of Arnold Bekoff, drag queen extraordinaire, as he falls in and out of love, adopts a son and confronts his mother. These witty, moving plays strike a chord with everyone, straight, in the closet, or out and proud.' Jack by David Greonspan was winner of the National Student Drama Festival this year and is performed at Abbotsford Lodge. This powerful and poetic look at AIDS combines video technology and performance. Noel Coward's Blythe Spirit is also on at the same venue. If you're a child, a student, unemployed, disabled or a Young Scot card holder take note that the National Association of Youth Orchestra's season at the Central Hall is absolutely free. There are some really top quality performances on offer - some of them just as good as the professional bands on at the Usher Hall in the Official Festival! NoFit State Circus have their own Big Top at The Meadows. This Cardiff based circus-theatre company are performing their new production Totally Wicked. No animals, no clowns and definitely no cliches, NoFit State Circus still use the tools of the trade - trapeze, aerial displays, juggling, magic tricks and tumbling - but combine them with theatre. Totally Wicked is a modern comic version of the morality play 'Doctor Faustus' by Christopher Marlowe. This thought provoking theme, coupled with a healthy does of slapstick comedy and brilliant circus skills makes wonderful entertainment. The Playful Theatre Company present Men: The Musical at the Randolph Centre. 'Puberty, masturbation, fatherhood, cross dressing, and hair loss in 22 musical slices'. The campest man on the Fringe is undoubtedly Earl Okin even if he is of an heterosexual disposition! He's doing two shows this year: The Kiss of the Horny Man at The Music Box and Mango and other Delights at the Acoustic Music Centre. A vastly under-rated performer. The Lesbigay Centre is holding its own Festival Welcome Party on Friday 19th of August 9pm-1am. Entry is ukp1, but the ticket can be exchanged in The Edge for a free glass of wine or soft drink. The event will give people an opportunity to meet festival performers and to view an exhibition of work by lesbian and gay artists. Nice and convenient for the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Centre in Broughton Street is the Rifle Lodge. Teddi Tosses it Off is stand-up comedienne Teddi Munro's first visit to the Fringe and her show 'addresses womens issues in a world full of Tossers'. Teddi is best know for her former double act with Polly Perkins around the gay clubs in London. Like the last bus, not to be missed! Venue 82, Southside 94, in Nicolson St, sees Ex-Gladiator Clare, Raqual-Sex on legs and their glamourous assistant Diamond Danny unleashed on the festival for the first time. With the aid of Horny Harmonies, Kitsch Comedy, Dangerous Dance Routines and Cheap props, the Iced Jems reveal the true story behind their fame, fortune, friendship and tax-evasion. Finally, the SOLAS Centre has a photo documentary exhibition Positive Lives - responses to HIV. Alongside will be a display of artwork from SOLAS and Milestone House, Edinburgh's support centre and hospice for people with HIV/AIDS. |
| At Home With Lily And Bob - Attitude Issue 4 August 1994 | |
| What domestic bliss was it to be alive this very tea time. | |
 Man About The House - the grapevine has been sizzling lately, but at last Lily Savage and Bob Downe can confirm some of the rumours to be true... |
 At Home With Lily And Bob. |
 "Well you won't find my fondant fancies in there, just a couple of tins of Whiskas and a pack of frozen peas." |
 "No Murphy, I don't know where Bob is. Have you tried Cilla? What's that noise you say? Er... it's just Tiddles in her litter tray." |
 "Oh Bob, I think I can hear a nightingale coughing above the noise of the traffic." |
| FESTIVAL '94 - Pulse Magazine Issue 24 August 1994 |
| The Edinburgh Festival is upon us once again. An annual fixture in the Athens of the North since 1947, the Festival and its Fringe make up the biggest arts festival in the world drawing multitudes from all over the globe for its inumerable performances.
The Biggie (although it's only on for two nights) is Viva Variety at the Playhouse. Some of the hottest acts from Channel 4's successful Viva Cabaret conspire to excite and delight even the most jaded of Festival audiences. Lily Savage hosts a sar studded cast including: Bob Downe and the Hollywood Horns, Paul Morocco, Allesandro and Antonio Forcione, Dave Schneider and Leo Bassi. I'm especially looking forward to seeing Bassi - a certifiable lunatic of the first order! Bob Downe and the Hollywood Horns have their own show at the Playhouse and at the Pleasance. Australia's king of camp kitsch has binned his backing tapes (thank goodness) and returns to Edinburgh with his own big band for an all-singing, all-dancing, all-polyester hysterical homage to the worst showbusiness excesses. Julian Clary has a one nighter with guests at the Playhouse. A stone's throw from where he had his first success as The Joan Collins Fan Club with Fanny the Wonder Dog (Can you remember where? - answer later). Fanny may have retired, but young Clary keeps on hoofing! Insinuendos Cabaret Club is hoaching with talent which even includes their resident hostess Maggie Raye. Highlights of the season include: The Totally Naff Tarts - the award winning female comedy duo, There are worse things I could do - a unique revue illustrating lighter and darker sides of gay life without hiding behind make-up and drag - Paul Hull sings with Jonathon Still at the piano, Life's a Drag - a one nighter with Kevin Peters, Betty 'Legs' Diamond and friends and Whoops Cinderella - a show saucier than a coach load of ketchup. Maggie Raye fans will enjoy Mime's a Ladysham wherein Ms Raye, back in her late-night gin-joint, opens her trunk entrancing you with dames and names, past and present. All in all, a venue worth checking out - after all, it is where Julian Clary started out! INSINUENDOS |
| From Melbourne to Marylebone - bona 1-7 July 1994 | |
 At home in the luxurious West London abode of TV's Mr Cabaret! |
 Sofa so good: "It's a definite velour isn't it?" |
| John Axford luxuriates in the well-appointed London home of Viva Cabaret star Bob Downe.
In the late 60s, when the young Mark Trevorrow was growing up in Murrumbeena, a sleepy garden suburb of Melbourne, it seemed as though nothing could undermin the fabric of society. Hardly surprising, when you consider that, in those days, that fabric was likely to be an indestructible blend of Terylene and Polyester. With only the slputter of a distant lawn-mower to brake the monotony, he lost himself in the daily dross of imported American TV. Daytime soaps vied for attention with entertainment extravaganzas hosted by the likes of Sonny and Cher, alongside low-rent Australian imitations. They were to spawn a tacky TV super-host in the young Mark's fevered imagination. Now, as 70s survivor Bob Downe, he has become the darling of the festival circuit both in the UK and Down Under, toured with Lily Savage as well as joining her on TV's Viva Cabaret, and releases his first single later this year. Sitting in Mark's airy London flat, it's tempting to see it as Bob's spiritual home, and a daily source of inspiration. Mark, 35, says: "Well yes, it's beige, although the landlord described it as magnolia. And the sofa is perfect really. It's a definite velour, isn't it?" His soft furnishings are the base for his non-stop consumption of magazines. For self-confessed "media junkie" Mark started his working life as a journalist on the Melbourne Sun at 17, worked in TV, radio, and on Australian Vogue, before succumbing to showbiz. Mark says: !I've been doing a version of Bob since I was a young child, putting on shows with my kid sister. We were obsessed with Liza Minnelli specials and stuff like that. For little kids, we had a highly developed sense of camp. "Cher was the best. She would have colour-coded mikes to match her Bob Mackie gowns and we were bewitched by it, because as well as being over-the-top, she knew. Bob Downe is a composite character taking the p*ss out of dozens of crappy Australian light entertainers from about the same time. His time is the 70s. Bob's basically a big closet queen who oils and sleazes up to the women in the audience." But unlike his comedy character, Mark certainly feels no need to hide in the closet, and reckons there has been an encouraging shift in attitudes towards gay performers: "There used to be this big nervousness about our gay entertainers, so they would have to hide behind some unthreatening, sexless persona. "The difference now is that gay performers can do drag without being really self-conscious about it, and people like Simon Fanshawe, Julian Clary and me have become accepted." But there are times when he feels like giving up. Mark admits; "I look at Anthony Newley sing and I realise that I'll never achieve that level of corniness." Music lovers beware: Bob Downe's version of Georgie Fame's Yeh Yeh is released in September. |
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