Lessons from 2019 with your favourite cabaret chameleon, Gemini!

Gemini is always one of the most requested artists at any show that I run. A welcome respite between swarovski swaddled showgirls. But seriously, they are an artist I have so much respect for because they offer such a unique blend of cabaret, burlesque and performance art. I caught Gemini between gigs and got some insight into their upcoming show. But you might also be interested in hearing about the challenges they face between gigs - a really rare and privileged insight into the bits between the glamour and frivolity you see on stage.

We started with the basics. When I did a straw poll of favourite acts of 2019, this one was a hands down winner. In Gemini’s words, “….It’s a farce. What’s more fun than helping a sad trans stripper take their clothes off to a Leonard Cohen song for at least seven minutes. Trust me, get ready for a weird, yet satisfying, arousal.” I actually couldn’t put it more aptly myself. It’s sad, funny, weird all in one act.

Like many artists, Gemini loves getting up close and personal with the audience. “…. It’s gonna be great to see everyone looking so nice and well made up, before the gutter fire we call NYE and we all look like how we did for our grade 10 leavers, after Aaron cheated on us with our best friend, and told everyone about the time we cried after sucking him off in the gym toilet… You know right after you pissed in the ballot box for class king and queen because there was no way you were going to let that bitch Brittany out popular you on this most important night of the year.”

Mum if you are reading, none of the latter applies to me :)

I think in all seriousness, Gemini’s willingness to get up front with the audience and take some big risks in their creative development is what people look forward to. And a definite highlight for them this year has apparently been that engagement, specifically “…Running through The Grand Poobah semi naked with a huge crystal bowl of mainly not semi-chewed Cheetos covering my crotch, offering them to any takers”

We laugh.

The audience laughs.

But there’s also so much that goes behind the scenes that you don’t see.

I’ve known Gemini since they tentatively stepped into a burlesque class about 8 years ago. Nervous, shy, head stooped down. Yeah - it’s unimaginable now when you think of how thye have grown.

The first drag performances at Les Girls, group burlesque routines. Now I see this amazing hybrid of burlesque, political activism, cabaret, drag and circus. It’s unlike anything else anyone puts on stage in Tasmania.

The highs are amazing. You have seen them develop solo performance work, regular cabaret shows, travelling interstate and sharing Gemini won the “Unifying Voice Award” at Artfully Queer, for QT Cabaret (their regularly produced show). But Gemini also spoke so eloquently about the challenges they face on the daily, “HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) is a hell of a drug. And as my body changes, and I cry at the sight of Greta Thunberg saying “right here, right now” in a Fatboy slim mix, it has been harder for me to face the hungry male gaze, as new flaps appear, more bulges grotesque, and facial hair remains deliciously 5pm shadowy. But I’ll still gets my bits out, if not for you, then for me”

And that’s something I’ m excited about!

See Gemini in action at the last Burlesque After Dark for 2019 on Saturday 23 November at Moonah Arts Centre.

You can also follow the adventures of their regular show, QT Cabaret on social media.