Few would disagree that the Square's makeover has been painfully distended. Originally scheduled for completion in time for last November's Gay Games, the $6.7 million project has since then suffered every kind of possible setback: bureaucratic, political, industrial and meteorological.

But after a frustrating 12 months in which Taylor Square was little more than a ruddy great hole in the ground, it's ready to be reclaimed as public space.

"The delays experienced with Taylor Square have been extremely frustrating both for South Sydney Council and the local community," agrees the mayor of South Sydney, Tony Pooley. "I apologise to local residents and businesses for the inconvenience caused. However, it is now with much pleasure that I can finally announce the completion of the Taylor Square project."

To celebrate the milestone, and to warm the space, a group of local residents and business-people have banded together to stage a mammoth "T" party, this Sunday 30 November, from 5pm to 10pm.

While everyone knows and appreciates that Taylor Square is a public space for everyone, it has a unique significance for Sydney's Gs, Ls, Bs, Ts and Qs (it's the turning point for our Mardi Gras parade, after all), so it is no surprise that the party's entertainment roster is dominated by performers from our community.

A stage on Gilligan's Island will feature a diverse array of acts, including Bob Downe, Michal Nicolas, Vida Las Vegas, Brown Skin and Gaye Abandon, while Kate Monroe and Tim Blanshard will spin the records right round, baby, from a DJ box to be set up on the balcony of Middle Bar. Acclaimed lighting designer Allan Parkinson – whose work is well-known to many a Mardi Gras partygoer – has come on board to light up the party.

"We've all donated our time and are doing this because we want to see a square full of vibrancy again," Monroe says. "That's what we want people to bring on the day. We want to put our stamp back on that square, because it really has been a hole for so long."

Laura Burgess from Middlebar agrees.

"Ultimately we're just a bunch of people who live and work in the area, and we've seen the Square in a state of disrepair for such a long time," she says. "We want to see something really positive come out of the negatives."

To be held on the eve of World AIDS Day, the T party is also billed as a fundraiser for the AIDS Council of New South Wales. (Some of the local businesses are also getting into the charity aspect of the day. Arq nightclub, for example, will be charging $10 at the door for a big Sunday night bash, and 100 percent of proceeds will be passed on to ACON.)

Laura Burgess says part of the reason for the party is to show how Taylor Square can be utilised as a public space.

"It's a great space, and it should be used to its full potential," she says. "And who knows – if this goes really well, then maybe we can make it an annual festival."

But first things first: reclaiming Taylor Square as a community space. Already, many community members have voiced their opinion on the upgrade – and, as always, some people love it and some people don't.

"One thing you can always guarantee in the gay community is that people are always going to have an opinion," stresses Kate Monroe. "You can count on that. But it's finished now; it's not really about what Council puts there – it's about what we do there."

Well said. It's time for us to reclaim Taylor Square.
David Mills

What I know about...

Politics It's the art of compromise, not con. Are you listening John Howard? Thought not.

Power To be exercised with extreme care and compassion, not shock and awe. Are you listening, Dubya? Oh, forget it.

Love It takes two. At a time. Not three, or in a group, or in any other overlapping combination.

Loss/Death A burden to be carried as lightly as possible.

Age I honestly thought it was going to happen to everyone else.

My body I'm finding ways not to be a skinny and pudgy man, the worst of all possible worlds at 44!

Alter-egos They're very handy to face the world and pay the mortgage.

Safari suits surprisingly comfy to work in. Don Dunstan was right - about so many things.

Comb-overs Cover it or chrome it, baby

Gravity I'm seriously up and down about this one.

Consumerism You mean, when your Visa is maxed out and they offer you a credit limit increase?

Happiness That there's much less of it than you'd think when you're young, and much more when you're older.

TV In wide-screen, colour, high-definition and plasma with 50 channels, there's still nothing on.

Comedy It can be very dark in the wings.

White goods They're never white any more!

Audiences Like snowflakes, every one is different.

Talent That it's not enough.

Faith Ditto, unfortunately.

Sex Proof of the law of diminishing returns.

Shopping Ditto, except there's often no returns.

Music The gift that keeps on giving.

Tempers That we all really should count to 10.

Mark Trevorrow performs with the John Thorn jazz trio next month in the Famous Spiegeltent, Domain.

Bob Downe resides deep within the psyche of performer/singer Mark Trevorrow who recently performed with the Australian Jazz Trio at the Sydney Opera House to rave reviews.

Bob Downe has been cracking them up at the Edinburgh Festival since 1988, making his 12th appearance in 2002. Our Aussie son became an instant hit and he played London throughout the 1990s, commuting between Sydney and Britain on a regular basis.

Back in Australia, Bob released his first Bob Downe album, Greatest Hits. His last three national theatre tours have been sellouts everywhere. Bob Downe is certainly on the up and up, because when you are Downe, there ain't no mountain high enough!

Performing with Bob Downe will be comedian Mandy Nolan who has joined him on a number of Queensland shows of late.

Also performing is everyone's inner Indian, Sandy Gandhi. There are two shows, 7pm and 9.30pm on Friday August 22. $30/25 (concession)

Tickets can be purchased at the Byron Community Centre or booked on 6685 4045.

Bob has just returned from performing in Las Vegas at the legendary MGM Grand with the Village People and is currently filming a series with the ABC which follows on from the success of his ABC documentary about Sinatra in Australia, 'The Way we Were'. Bob Downe resides deep within the psyche of performer/singer Mark Trevorrow who recently performed as a singer with the Australian Jazz Trio at the Sydney Opera House to rave reviews by the Herald. Bob's last three national theatre tours have been sellouts everywhere and Mark was awarded Cabaret Artiste of the Year in 1999 and 2000.

Performing with Bob Downe will be comedian and professional fool Mandy Nolan, who has joined him on a number of Queensland shows of late. Mandy says, 'He's an absolute delight to work with, the highlight would have to be having dinner with ten women between 45 and 75 from the Townsville Aqua aerobics group! He has such a honed knowledge of the craft, and is such a consummate professional, he really knows how to critique a performance. He expressed an interest in teaching a class as a guest teacher. I said, name the day, I'll have 'em lining up!'. On this leg of the tour Mark will be taking a four hour masterclass with 25 new stand up comics.

You could sense Bob Downe watching from the wings: a spiteful understudy devising an unpleasant demise for the star. You see, Downe's creator, Mark Trevorrow, has come out, so to speak, leaving his alter ego supposedly "having a long rest in the country" before he explodes back onto the boards for next year's 20th anniversary tour.

After all this time, however, Downe is inevitably part of the real Trevorrow, and he was periodically spotted in the glint of a smile or an eye.

Trevorrow was in the Studio to sing, but really he is a member of that endangered species, The Entertainer. Ad-libbed jokes, audience interaction, belting vocals, zany dance steps, tender ballads and name-dropping anecdotes all jostled each other, hustling away any chance of a dull moment - even on songs where Downe may have put a hex on Trevorrow's intonation.

The repertoire, being "not really jazz and not really cabaret", we were told, must be "jazzaret", and in the expertise of pianist John Thorn, bassist Brett Hirst and drummer Dave Goodman, Trevorrow had a safety net to let him take some chances.

The musical highlight was a reading of Sondheim's The Ballad of Sweeney Todd, based on an innovative arrangement from Lea Delaria's Play It Cool album. Initially the Miles Davis-like swing feel suggested the breathless tension may have been ironed out of the piece. But it was merely simmering before coming to a sudden, disquieting boil, with Trevorrow in exceptional voice and the band both supple and able to crunch when it mattered.

The success of Anthony Newley's The Joker owed as much to Trevorrow's manic facial expressions as to anything aural. At the other extreme, he was completely convincing on the pretty It's for You (written by Lennon and McCartney for Cilla Black), and even moving on I'll Be Seeing You, dedicated to friends lost to AIDS.

Whether serious or madcap, almost every line was delivered direct to the eyes of an audience member, yet Trevorrow's innate likeability allowed him to do this without any sense of confrontation. Perhaps Downe will let him out more often.

Until Saturday
John Shand

What: Mark Trevorrow.
Where: The Studio, Sydney Opera House.
When: Until Saturday. Tickets $29.90. Bookings 9250 7777.

IS he serious? Well, yes. Then again, no.

For his first and belated cabaret as himself, rather than as Bob Downe, his better-known comic alter ego, Mark Trevorrow sings an impeccably chosen set of pop and show tunes backed by an equally impeccable jazz trio.

That's the serious side of the evening's business. But then his between-the-songs patter is studded with jokes and anecdotes, so he hasn't turned his back on comedy completely.

There's a hillock of disbelief to be climbed. For the first few songs I couldn't get Bob out of my mind. Where's the wig, the polyester suit? But by the time Trevorrow was winding up, a thoroughly entertaining 90 minutes later, I'd forgotten all about the buck-toothed goof and his flared pants.

Mad About The Boy by Noel Coward is a good example of Trevorrow's cabaret technique: he introduces the song with a droll and pricking anecdote, sings a couple of bars in Coward's frightfully proper English accent, then slides into an utterly sincere and jazz-inflected interpretation.

Bob may be the king of synthetic fibres, but there's nothing fake or ersatz about the emotion Trevorrow instills into several of these songs.

If Bob is doomed to be forever stuck in bad 1970s TV, Trevorrow looks to cinema cool, widescreen soundtracks and reaches even further back in time for the vibe of this show, to the jazz of the 1950s and the pop and Latin of the 1960s.

Although they're not represented on the song list, I'd guess the inspirations for the evening are Miles Davis, Gilberto Gil and Bacharach and David.

Trevorrow describes the show as "jazzaret" and "popanova" (that's pop fused with bossa nova to the rest of us): rhythmically speaking, it shuffles, waltzes and swings.

The set list is strong on the recognition factor, but puts these songs into novel and exotic contexts: classics with a twist, if you will. He's unearthed a couple of rare gems, too, including an obscure, Bacharach-style Lennon and McCartney tune, It's For You.

The immaculate accompaniment from pianist and arranger John Thorn , Brett Hirst on stand-up bass and drummer Dave Goodman is indicative of a group striving to make pop perfectionism look effortless.

Trevorrow reserves the out-and-out comedy for the encore, which includes an almost indescribable version of the Carol Bayer Sager hit You're Moving Out Today. Spare me the effort of trying to describe it and go and experience this terrific show for yourself. Recommended.
Colin Rose

The tone of the show is set before Trevorrow or his three piece band even enter the room. Sergios Mendes and Brasil 66 casually shakes through the Studio's sound system. After coming on and singing a few numbers Trevorror jokingly labels the show's music 'jazzaret' or 'popanova' which is an apt description. He acts the 'show queen' and opens with Don't Rain on My Parade. Trevorrow jokes that Thoroughly Modern Millie, which he performs in the second half of the show, is the campest song ever but any song famous for Barbra Streisand belting it out from a tug boat as she did in the wonderfully camp Funny Girl would have to be up there too.

Trevorrow is backed by the John Thorn trio with piano, acoustic bass and drums (and the odd bit of tambourine work and a solitary strike of the cow bell by Trevorrow). The band is tight and play a wonderfully smooth arrangement of All That Jazz. They also kick some serious cabaret butt in It's For You, a little known Lennon/McCartney composition written for Cilla Black at the beginning of their career. Nearly all of the songs are either show tunes, traditional cabaret numbers or pop songs from the 60s. There are a few exceptions, Steely Dan's Riki Don't Lose That Number gets a burl and so does Randy Newman's It's Lonely at the Top.

But cabaret isn't just about the music, especially when the song selection or arrangements aren't particularly ground breaking. It's about the talk, the banter and the vibe of the room. Trevorrow goes for a familiar, intimate feel but unfortunately, the open space of the Studio doesn't accommodate this well. The atmosphere dissipates with the high ceilings and distant balcony seats. And Trevorrow's attempts at banter are mainly gushy tributes to friends or exercises in name-dropping. But he is a quick wit and has some funny stories. Mention is made of working with Cilla Black and her ability to name the highest chart position and its date for all her hits. There's also a wonderful tale about one of his former idols, Noel Coward. Trevorrow is also prepared to take the piss out of himself.

Running through the show is a feeling of something that has past and can't be retrieved. On the stage in the first half of the show is a portrait of Trevorrow as an eighteen year old- cigarette half way to the lips and a serious look on his face. It's no secret he's living out a boyhood fantasy by singing all his favourite songs from his childhood. There is plenty of talk of 'the old days' when Trevorrow played Kinsela's club in the 80s with his cabaret group The Globos, with mention of dear friends he's lost over the years bringing home the nostalgia.

But Trevorrow also embraces the present. For all the reminiscing he's just as excited about what's happening now. The old photo is gone for the second half of the show, replaced with a black and white shot of Trevorrow looking very much content and at peace. There is talk of a new series he's doing for ABC TV and he gives thanks for a new space in Sydney for cabaret, The Studio.

It may be Mark's show but Bob does make a few brief appearances throughout the night; the occasional cross eyed stare and grin, the odd shimmy and kick- and the energy is appreciated by the crowd. Like any pumped up performer (or any kid who has got the adults' attention), Trevorrow finishes the night with no less than three encores.

The good: fabulous arrangements of well trodden songs
The bad: a few too many 'in' jokes
The vibe: the energy of a Bob Downe show, minus the colour and movement
genre: Cabaret
location: The Studio at the Opera House
season ends: 5 July 2003
cast_1: Mark Trevorrow
cast_2: The John Thorn Trio
Samara Fitzpatrick

ABC TV is producing a 10 part factual entertainment series, The Way We Were, hosted by Mark Trevorrow. Screening later this year, the series follows the successful special The Way We Were: Frank Sinatra in Australia that screened in October last year.

Trevorrow leaves his alter-ego Bob Downe at the door when he presents this probing nostalgic interview-and-archive show, exploring who we are today through the prism of the way we were.

Recorded in front of a studio audience, The Way We Were embraces themes, ideas and emotions close to the hearts of all of us. It holds a mirror up to Australian society reflecting how its manners and mores, interests and anxieties, tastes and traditions, have evolved across the last century.

Each episode will zoom in on a defining moment in our history that helped to change us from the way we were then, to who we are today. It will move back and forth from that pivotal point, introducing us to key individuals using illuminating footage of the time to illustrate how we've evolved across the years.

The program is a blend of remarkable archival footage, sourced by respected ABC TV archivist Wendy Borchers, and discussion with high-profile personalities and extraordinary everyday Australians through whom we can chart our development into the people we are today.

Topics will include Sharks, Love and Marriage, Hair, Childhood, Drinking, Flying, Making Babies and The Elements (Fire, Flood and Cyclones).

The Way We Were is an ABC TV co-production with GNW TV, the team behind The Glass House, Good News Week and The Great Debates. Executive producers are Ted Robinson and Courtney Gibson, Producer is Pam Swain and Associate Producers are Pip Mattiske, Jane Cameron and Sophia Zachariou.

For further information or interviews contact Dylan Brookes, ABC TV

Mark Trevorrow looks like he's just been unwrapped. New polo shirt, new jeans and sneakers: everything he's wearing is so neatly pressed, so spotless, he could have bought the lot this morning.

Now imagine him in a polyester suit and bum-hugging flares, a feathery, ash-blond wig covering his closely clipped sconce and that dazzling overbite on high beam. Who have you got a picture of? Trevorrow's razzamatazz alter ego, the king of kitschy comedy, Bob Downe, that's who.

Next year Bob, as Trevorrow refers to him, celebrates 20 years of sending up television, light entertainment and almost everything that was embarrassing about the 1970s.

Bob's retro song-and-dance spoofs have been seen on stage - his last three national tours were standing room only - and TV and have taken him to London, New York and, a dozen times, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Bob hosted three telecasts of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade (during one of which he famously kissed Sir Ian McKellen) and has had his own comedy chat show on pay TV.

Yet recently Trevorrow has been stepping out from behind his long-lived comic creation, appearing increasingly as himself. He was a regular panellist on Channel Ten's Good News Week and, last year, fronted the ABC TV special The Way We Were: Frank Sinatra In Australia.

How ironic: back in 1984, Trevorrow began using Bob to poke fun at the cheesiness of variety shows on the box and now he has legitimate and distinctly non-cheesy employment as a TV presenter.

This week, Trevorrow takes the next step in his post-polyester career, performing in cabaret at the Sydney Opera House's Studio. Bob will be staying home.

"These are songs I couldn't do as Bob because they're serious lyrics that don't lend themselves to a comedy interpretation," Trevorrow said. "There's a bunch of songs I've always loved which I would never do as Bob. They're songs I'm doing as Mark.

"People have been asking me for years to sing seriously as myself. I guess I've come to it pretty late because I do see it as a bit of an indulgence.

"I wanted to wait until I had something to say with my interpretations of songs, which I feel I do now that I'm in my 40s. I think that's a good time to be singing seriously."

A serious jazz buff has been lurking under Bob's wig, waiting his turn in the spotlight.

"We're doing 1950s and 1960s bebop and cool, a lot of Latin, a lot of bossa nova, all different kinds of jazz," Trevorrow said.

His backing group is a jazz trio led by pianist John Thorn.

"I'm doing show tunes and standards, but not in a theatrical way. Noel Coward's Mad About The Boy I'm doing as sort of a smooth [jazz trumpeter] Chet Baker number; [Stephen Sondheim's] The Ballad Of Sweeney Todd like Moondance, like a swinging Van Morrison thing."

The tunes he's elected to sing are "songs from my childhood and teen years, songs that I loved back then".

His interest in jazz goes back that far, too.

"The first record player I was given as a kid was a wind-up gramophone. Mum got it at the local op shop.

"Dad had a whole lot of [the old vinyl] 78s which had been thrown out by a radio station when they switched over to 45s. Me and my kid sister danced around the house to Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae and Louis Armstrong. These brilliant jazz records."

He chomped on another forkful of salad. He'd chosen Green's Cafe in Bondi for brunch. The food is tops; it's a sentimental choice, too. He and the owner, Cathy Armstrong, used to work together in a restaurant. They also wrote and performed the very first Bob Downe sketch at an outdoor food fair.

"I did Bob," Trevorrow said. "Cathy played a tragic, B-grade comeback queen in rehab. Somebody in the crowd that day, who was working for the ABC radio comedy unit, booked us and we started writing and recording radio sketches together."

Like Dame Edna Everage before him, Bob and his act took off in Britain, so Trevorrow was based in London for much of the 1990s.

"I moved back [to Australia] just before I turned 40. I wanted to come home. I bought a house in Melbourne, but I'm living in Sydney now."

And he's staying in more these days. "I love night-life. I've always been a real bar fly. But I find myself being able to do it less and less because it's just too draining.

"I worked out once that from the age of 18 to the age of 35, and I'm not exaggerating, I went out every single night - unless I was ill.

"Now I'm a lot calmer and quieter. I was really histrionic and over the top. Finding an outlet for it and making it my professional life, as in creating a character, gets that wildness out of my system. Now I have to crank it up."

Part of the pleasure of singing as himself, he said, will be in relaxing and not having to crank it up.

"The best thing about performing as Mark? No make-up! And I can just walk off stage and sit down with my friends."

Yet he's still edgy about singing not from the funny bone but from the heart.

"I'm terrified because it's something I've always wanted to do. The things that are closest to your heart mean the most to you. Often you put them off for longer because you're scared to confront the possibility that it might not work."

Mark Trevorrow opens on Wednesday at the Studio, Sydney Opera House. Tickets $29.90. Bookings 92507777.
Colin Rose

"I'll have my morning coffee while sitting plonked in the winter sunshine on my balcony. I bliss out here, looking out over Mrs Macquaries chair. It lifts my spirits. It is the best view I've ever had - friends come and stay and can't take their eyes off it.

After my morning coffee I'll spend 20 minutes on my Fitball while listening to a jazz CD. It's the equivalent of 40 laps - great for the stomach.

Then I'll saunter up to my tribal home, Oxford Street. Taylor Square was where I was reborn as a performer, when I started playing at Kinselas in 1982. Oxford Street is always evolving, in a constant process of change and renewal.

I'm a real boulevardier - someone who loves to stroll around the streets, seeing and being seen.

On Saturdays, it's magical because I see a lot of people I know who say hello. Even people that I don't know, who have seen Bob Downe (Trevorrow's alter ego) will come up and talk to me. I'll pop into the gay-and-lesbian community bookshop and flick through the current issues of interstate gay newspapers and airfreight magazines. It's also a bit cruisy.

In the afternoon, I'll have a beer at my favourite bar, the Colombian on Oxford Street. It's one of the first gay bars that doesn't try to hide behind smoky glass windows. Its design is very open and you can sit in the window and watch the world go by.

I don't go out much on Saturday nights - the strip is a zoo. It gets a bit edgy when you have too many suburban gay-hostile straights. I don't feel very safe when I walk around at night. So I usually stay at home, invite some friends over and watch a DVD.

On Sunday I like nothing better than to shop at DJs, then watch a drag show in the evenings."
Brigid Delaney
Mark Trevorrow appears at the Studio, Sydney Opera House, from Tuesday to July 5.

Where: Brisbane Powerhouse - Centre For The Live Arts
119 Lamington St
New Farm, QLD
When: 27 May-1 Jun Tue-Thu 7.30pm, Fri-Sat 9.15pm, Sun 7.30pm
Price: Bookings (07) 3358-8600

A former journalist, Trevorrow turned to musical comedy in the early 1980s, releasing songs such as Tintarella Si Luna and The Beat Goes On. The entertainer has often been asked by fans when he's going to sing "as himself". So here he is. Audiences can expect a little less comedy than normal in this debut song set of pop, standards, jazz and show tunes. Although there'll still be witty chat from Trevorrow between songs, it's more about singing than a comedy act.
Michael Libucha

Bob said the only thing he knows about Mackay is that is beautiful, tropical and a long way from Murwillumbah. He promises not to mention the war in his performance but admitted that he had been approached to entertain troops overseas but declined the offer because he doesn't like getting sand in his hair.

He confirmed that his nanna wouldn't be touring with him because she pulls too much focus from the audience because of her ability to really rock it out on her zimmerframe. His mum, Ida Downe, is busy with her CWA duties in Murwillumbah and won't be joining his tour either.

Bob will be performing all his disco favourites including Fame, I Will Survive and Something Stupid at his performance in Mackay.
Judy Kelly

He's back. Quadriplegic, recovering alcoholic, lapsed Catholic Reilly O'Reilly is a man who doesn't take being labeled sitting down - not by choice anyway. He and his differently-abled friends find that maintaining their lavish residence Maimed Manor is a constant battle with con-men, do-gooders and deviants. And then there's the outside world to deal with. Welcome to John Callahan's QUADS!

In the first series, we met Reilly "never-misses-a-party" O'Reilly who, after being paralysed in a car accident, started hanging out with the variously disabled, Lefty, Fontaine and Blazer. After Reilly quit the booze so his friends could stand being in his company, the 'Magnificent Severed' moved into Maimed Manor, a mansion Reilly received as part of his settlement from the accident. Joining them shortly afterwards was Reilly's gay Australian physical therapist, Spalding, and visiting constantly were Reilly's earnest girlfriend, Franny and the not-so-earnest drunk barman, Griz.

In the second series, our handicapped heroes still form a dysfunctional little family of sorts and engage in the pursuit of their goals and dreams: money, sex and the occasional payback and humiliation of their enemies. The same things we all want - it's just a little harder for them to get it.

And whilst a cruel world, especially the affluent neighbours in this series, may see the residents of Maimed Manor as crippled freaks or two dimensional beings that are easy to dismiss as soon as they're out of sight, QUADS! seeks to prove that the differently-abled are in fact no different from the rest of us.

This series introduces Mark Trevorrow (aka Bob Downe) starring as the voice of lead character, Spalding. Also, look out for cult rock legend Tex Perkins (Cruel Sea) who voices the character of rock-god Flem Fleming in Cain and Enabler on Monday 30 December at 9.00pm.

Among the visitors were Spencer McClaren (of Secret Life of Us) and Mark Trevorrow (aka Bob Downe).

ChillOut spokesman Peter Fitzgerald said crowd numbers were up 30 percent on last year, with some people coming from overseas to taste Daylesford’s queer atmosphere.

Mr Fitzgerald said commercial support also increased and the area’s football club, which until now refused to take part because of homophobic leanings, joined the fun.

Australia's high camp Prince of Polyester Bob Downe is about to take Maryborough by storm with music and laugh-packed show on Saturday 29 March.

He's bringing his safari suits, his backing tapes, a note from his Mum – and of course that bullet-proof hair.

The songs are all cabaret-disco classics. The stories are wild, hilarious and family-friendly. "Bring the kids but be prepared for a few questions in the car on the way home," said Bob.

Comedienne Mandy Nolan provides a versatile support act on what promises to be a memorable and guaranteed hilarious night.

Bob's alter-ego Mark Trevorrow actually began his chequered career in newspapers before turning to performance and his forte comedy across television, radio, cabaret and stand-up in Australia and overseas.

Mark continues to tour Australia every year and BOB's first album, 'Greatest Hits', produced and arranged by Andrew Thomas Wilson, was released in 1996, with 1997's 'Jazzy!' (arranged with John & Fiona Thorn) being nominated for a Best Comedy Album ARIA Award.

That dazzling smile and impeccable blonde hair have been seen regularly on 'Good Morning Australia with Bert Newton' as well as high-profile TV appearances on "Midday", "McFeast Live", "Good News Week" and host of Sydney's Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Bob Downe's star continues to rise and while he wows audiences with his high energy, hugely funny stage show – even the critics can't get enough, applauding him as "Oh so fresh!", "Peter Pan on speed", "The bri-nylon King of Sing".

Why not discover for yourself what they're all raving about when Bob blitzes the Brolga for one night only.

Ticket prices range from $29 to $34, and Friends of the Theatre $30 and you can book at the Theatre, by phoning 4122 6060, or at Torquay Post Office or Bay Central Flowers, Pialba.