Maybe it is the man in woman's clothing, but the Liverpudlian presenter of Blankety Blank seems to appeal to people's basic common emotions. The frequent appearances of camp Australian singer Bob Downe often drew more laughs from the packed audience than Lily herself.

I'm sticking to the 'Hello!' magazine line, we're just good friends."

Bob Downe is a legend of Australian regional daytime television and he has been the host of 'Good Morning Murwillumbah' for more years than he cares to disclose. He lives with his mother, Ida Downe (life President of the Women's Institute), at the 'Now or Never' Caravan Park.

A seasoned showbiz all-rounder, Bob started performing in childhood - on the recorder, winning many Eisteddfords - and is equally at home on a department-store microphone, the 'Oriana', children's parties, or in a window at 'Top Shop'.

A keen home sewer and confirmed bachelor, Bob's TV, theatre, cabaret and recroding credits are vast - including two albums, 'Greatest Hits' and 'Jazzy!'. His television credits include 'Barrymore', 'Late Licence', 'Surprise Surprise', 'The Royal Variety Show' and his own LWT series 'Bob Downe Under' as well as his 1997 one hour 'Bob Downe Special' for ITV. But his many British TV credits cannot match those in his own country. He has appeared on EVERY SINGLE AUSTRALIAN TV SHOW since 1987 (except Crimewatch - thank God!) and is quite well known in New Zealand.

Bob considers the UK to be his second home and regularly entertains the crowned heads of Europe, schmoozing his way from Des to Cilla and back again. He is thrilled to be back treading the boards again with Lily...

"As long as she doesn't touch my hair!"

Bob Downe burst on stage to a rapturous reception, introducing his new girlfriend, the very lovely Miss Pastel Vespa, tall, blonde, with a voice to die for and his perfect foil.

A consummate entertainer with an inimitable patter, Downe presided over an evening of well choreographed and beautifully performed songs and duets, with a generous helping of costume changes.

However, at one hour and 45 minutes, this show was too long, largely due to Bob and Pastel's two-handed chats which, although charming, wore thin. But as it's a brand new show, things should tighten up during the season.

The best jokes are in the inspired reworkings of Seventies lounge music hits, more recent songs (victims including Alanis Morissette and Neil Diamond) and perennial favourites such as Windmills of Your Mind, backed by his excellent four-piece band, the Millionaires, with genius musical director John Thorn on keyboards.

This show is cabaret at its best with wonderful re-arrangements of classic tunes, a fair smattering of showbiz razzamatazz and good, honest fun.

Worth seeing.
Marlene Zwickler

In New Zealand this month for his fourth visit, Trevorrow has scheduled nothing less than multi-media saturation for Downe-not bad for a confirmed bachelor whose favourite colour is beige. He's in the ASB International Laugh! Festival, he's got his second CD Jazzy! out (his first was Greatest Hits) and his first book All Bob Downe! has just hit the stands here.

Downe's got a tour schedule to rival any rock star-plus he found out this month he's been commissioned to front 10 one-hour variety shows which will screen prime-time on Australia's Channel 10. That's the same channel that televised the 20th Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade which Downe compered.

"That was the most difficult three hours of my life," Trevorrow sighs, remembering his entry via TV into living rooms across Australia. "The floats didn't appear in order and the material on the autocue didn't show up the right material for ages so I was left there carrying this event with people who didn't really know anything about what was going on." On the list of celebrities with him were Dannii Minogue, U2 lead singer Bono and Brisbane rock sensation Savage Garden's Darren Hayes. A party was going on in the same room and only his earpiece linked him with the crew. "Gay people whine that having a straight rock star with me was the wrong thing to do," says Trevorrow, "[but] people such as Bono have huge influence on his fans who are potential gay-bashers."

Continuing with the straight talking, Trevorrow reflects on some parallels between his career and Julian Clary's. Both began as camp entertainers in 1980, but more significantly both draw audiences which are largely made up of straight suburban types.

"Julian once said, gay men only want to see drag queens or women on stage and if it's going to be a man, then it has to be a muscle man. I think there is a lot in that comment." He pauses, but he's not complaining. He loves stepping onto a stage where his audience is eclectic. And he sees the linking of comedy and defiance as the key to his success.

"If you look at any openly gay entertainer-be it me, Julian or the Topp Twins-people really relate to the 'fuck you, I don't care what you think of me' stance. But of course [underneath] we all care, because we are not operating in denial, which so much of society is."

One example of such denial, Trevorrow suggests, is relaxed attitudes to the computer-related millenium bug. "Compare this to alien abductions and Madonna," he laughs, talking of less significant concerns which nevertheless fascinate people. "Get the aliens to abduct Madonna. She sums up every extreme distortion in the show business world. She is a totally untalented suburban person who has become one of the biggest entertainers of our time. And gays love her because we love this fame thing, that somehow once you're famous you transcend that need for love, to go to the sauna, to look for love in bars....

"Stars needing love doesn't fit into this fluffy idealised cloud of unreality. Mind you," he muses further along his tangent, "she is a symbol of defiance herself isn't she? It's so ironic."

Trevorrow's own brand of entertainment combines cabaret and comedy. Performing at home is a challenge. "Australia is such a harsh land and the people are harsh, aggressive," he says. "You have to be quite a disciplinarian with these pissed panelbeaters. Australian audiences are so badly behaved." But at 39, and with more than 20 years in show bizz, he's not green.

Trevorrow has performed all over the world-including in the Edinburgh Festival for the last decade, in almost every Adelaide Festival, across the rest of Australia and here. Since he started there's been a cultural revolution that has seen Australia emerge as a strong contender in the entertainment stakes, and a huge rise in support for camp entertainment.

Such is his success that Mark Trevorrow lives half the year in London, enabling Bob Downe (who normally lives with Mum in a caravan at Wagga Wagga, or somewhere) to mix with such sophisticates as famed British drag queen Lily Savage. All that's needed now is for a little of Lily to rub off on Bob, and he might start wearing something more colourful....
Nigel Gearing

Red River cordial

You can drink it neat and pretend it's a fancy liqueur. That's what I used to do as a child. Rotting teeth is for down the track.

Cadbury's Snack

I get a family-size block because it contains all five major food groups and takes care of the fresh fruit requirement.

Colouring books

A must for the millennium bomb shelter. Anything by Disney but especially Donald Duck.

Sparklers and party balloons

Because you never know when you are going to have a party.

White scuff stuff

I use this on my shoes, but it's also good for getting scuffs off the skirting boards at the same time.

Anti-dandruff Huggie

Some people say I use fabric conditioner on my hair. I will leave that to public conjecture; people can think what they like.

Ajax Spray and Wipe

For cleaning my bomb shelter, which doubles as a caravan, because I'm going to be in there for quite a time.

Fake plant or flowers

They are much easier than the real thing - you just throw them in the dishwasher. I buy them as a present for Mum, but they are re-usable so I can then give them to Coralie Hollow, my co-host on Good Morning Murwillumbah.

Tins of Campbell's tomato and cream of chicken soup and PMU baked beans

I am building up a store for the millennium bomb, when everything goes wrong. I am going to send Mum on a coach tour just before it hits.
Bob Downe Comedian

Tottie, Dannii, Savage Garden, the state of Hollywood movies - nobody and no thing was spared in Downe's hilarious tour de force of life today. He was even using words you wouldn't be allowed to say on his top-rating show, Good Morning Murwillumbah.

That benign chat show host exterior is still there, but the darker side of Downe has now begun to ooze out (even if the darkness is camp-flavored).

Resplendent in a loud shirt, shorts and super-long socks - or looking "like a geography teacher from Mooroolbark High" in the 1970s - Downe emerged triumphantly on to the stage, his confidence shining almost as brightly as his perfect smile.

Heckling a few late-comers, Downe showed why he has so much in common with Dame Edna Everage. It's not just the humble roots to fame and fortune tale; it's the willingness to put down others, including your own audience - in fact, especially your own audience (although always with a smile).

Not that the crowd at the Town Hall didn't secretly love all of it. They know how well performer Mark Trevorrow has honed his alter-ego over the past decade.

It's a tribute to Trevorrow that an act whose main shtick is the kitsch suburban culture of many years ago is becoming even funnier.

And the songs! I'm afraid to have to report that the last vestiges of Downesque modesty have disappeared since he won an ARIA nomination for his album. He threw in a few twirls, plus a bit of what he called "finger ballet", and returned for the encore in a striking canary yellow suit.

Bob may still live at home with his mother Ida in the caravan (although he's got the annexe all to himself), but that doesn't mean he's not the most happening guy around.

* At the Melbourne Town Hall, 3 April.
Darrin Farrant

Entitled All Bob Downe, the book is a mish mash of Bob Downe's hints on life, fashion, television stars, style, and anything else that is completely irrelevant in the scheme of things.

I love Downe, and thinks his wit, humour and absolutely biting mouth will take him to the upper echelons of British high camp.

On fashion, Downe says: If a coat or jacket can't stand up in a corner by itself, then I don't want to know.

Totally overloaded with useless bits of information passed on by his mother, this book confirms that the seventies actually did happen.

And, for some, still do.
Vincent Lovegrove

'The longer you do something like this the more separate it all gets,' he explained.

'This whole idea that a character takes over someone's life only applies if the person is psychotic or on drugs or both . . . and that's strictly not me.'

Trevorrow, who threw himself into comedy after a cadetship on a Melbourne newspaper, began 'doing Bob' as a bored youngster.

'I did it as a small child to make everybody laugh while growing up in Melbourne,' he said.

'You've got to do something when you grow up in Melbourne . . . me and the kids next door were endlessly putting on shows in the backyard.'

His trip to Newcastle follows his televised stint as the 'patron poof' of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival.

Trevorrow (or was it Downe?) said the festival telecast was a ratings winner because 'they finally had someone who knew what they were talking about'.

The comedian has lived in Sydney on and off since 1982.

He calls London his second home and has become a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

'I've hosted a lot of my own stuff on British TV but that was my first time hosting anything on Aussie TV,' he said. 'I probably get more recognised in the streets of London than I do here.'

The solo show at the Civic, based on his ARIA-nominated Jazzy album, will include standards such as Fly Me To The Moon, Mack The Knife and Old Black Magic.

'Bob lets me do everything I want to do - that's sing, dance and a topical monologue,' he said.

After Dark has a copy of multi-talented Mark Trevorrow's tome, All Bob Downe!, to give away. For your chance to win, fill out the coupon on this page and send it to Mark My Words before 5pm on March 31.
Chad Watson