Playful and poignant stories told with wit
and gen-X wisdom.

When I started writing my first monologue, Pearls, I was intending to write a conventional memoir for publication. The more I wrote, the more I realised that it was really a piece to be performed.

This presented me with a conundrum, because I had dabbled in stand-up in my mid-30s and discovered that I have terrible stage fright (like throw up in the toilets beforehand type of fright). I had never written for theatre before. And I had no acting experience beyond my role as Grandpa Joe in Port Pirie Youth Theatre's 1984 production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

But the story of Pearls meant so much to me that I pushed on, thinking I would just perform it for family and friends and see how it went from there.

It's been worth every terrifying second.

I wrote and performed Pearls at the 2018 Adelaide Fringe. In that show, I told the story of my mother's strange pearls of wisdom. Since then, it has grown into a trilogy titled You Can't Hide in the Desert, and comprising the three shows Pearls, The Forgettory and I Made an Adult. Together, they explore family memory and identity across different life events.

An Evening with the Vegetarian Librarian is based on my early stand-up work and tells the story of how I morphed from librarian into funeral celebrant.

Each show is debuted at the Adelaide Fringe, and I regularly tour to regional South Australia and (now covid is less restrictive) interstate.

Learning how to perform has given me a whole new way to see my writing, and as cliched as it sounds, I love the immediacy of the connection with an audience that can only come from live performance.