All posts filed under: Interviews

Interview: Urzila Carlson Talks Perth Comedy Festival

South African/NZ comedian Urzila Carlson is performing at Perth Comedy Festival with her show Unacceptable and she’s excited about it! We had the opportunity to talk to her about her style of comedy, sexuality, the financial stability of Perth coffee buyers and more.   Perth people are obviously very excited to see you perform, with your shows selling fast and extra shows being added. Are you excited to be performing in Perth again? I am, I love Perth, it’s warm and dry and the coffee cost a fortune! There’s nothing that makes you feel like you’ve succeeded in life than when you walk into a coffee shop in Perth and just buy a coffee…not even worry about the price! Just buy it…. I like Perth and I’ve got friends there so I’m excited to come back. Can you give us a few hints about what to expect from your show Unacceptable? It’s literally just me, not willing to put up with Unacceptable shit anymore. I cover everything that I think is unacceptable and acceptable and things that …

TropOut 2017, Half-Naked Cooking & More: An Interview with MKR’s Jordan Bruno

Jordan Bruno Never stops! Thank goodness though, because he continues to do some amazing and exciting work. Since his time as a semi finalist on My Kitchen Rules with mum Anna, he’s released an e-cook book to raise awareness for LGBTI mental health, started a YouTube Channel, become an outspoken advocate for marriage equality in Australia and more recently, an ambassador for New Caledonia’s TropOut 2017. We had a chance to chat to Bruno about all of this and more! A lot has happened since your time on MKR! How has your life changed since your time on air? It has been a very busy 12 months! My life is almost unrecognisable from where it was pre-My Kitchen Rules. I now get recognised wherever I go, and I’ve also been lucky enough to land ambassador roles with a range of high-profile organisations including my personal favourite, TropOut 2017. You released your own digital cookbook late last year to benefit youth mental health, in particular, LGBTI youth. Can you tell us a bit about that project …

Interview: Jack Colwell Talks About “No Mercy” & Raising Funds For QLife

The rights of LGBTIQ+ people in Australia have been thrust into the spotlight over the past 12 months. From the debate on marriage equality and the plebiscite, to the vicious attacks on young people and their right to learn about diversity through Safe Schools, nowhere feels safe. However, dark periods like this tend to ignite a flame within LGBTIQ+ people to fighter harder for our rights than ever before. One of these people is Sydney musician Jack Colwell. He’s passionate about the rights and mental health of LGBTIQ+ people in Australia and has just released his single “No Mercy” to raise funds for Australia’s LGBTI  telephone and web chat counselling and referral service QLife. Firstly, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your music? I grew up listening to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and a Peter Paul and Mary live-in-concert album, singing harmonies with my mother – which was very reminiscent of that painful scene from Nick Hornby’s ‘About a Boy’. Now I listen to Hole and perform most of my material on the piano, …

Interview: Intersex Activist and Artist Pidgeon Pagonis

To celebrate Intersex Awareness Day (October 26), we had a chat with Intersex activist, artist and consultant Pidgeon Pagonis about recent shifts in intersex awareness, how they met Jill Soloway at the White House and got a role on the TV show Transparent, their NEW YouTube channel and more!   Firstly, a lot of people are still ill-informed or confused about what it means to be intersex. What is your definition of intersex? To me it’s just any body born with sex genitalia, chromosomes or reproductive organs that don’t fit either the male or female binary. That happens in about 1 in 2000 births at the high end of the statistics. So it’s quite common, just like the same amount of natural born red heads. You’re intersex yourself, and you’re so involved in advocating for the rights of intersex people. How important do you think it is for people to advocate for themselves and the rights of the community/s they are a part of? I think it’s extremely important. I think for intersex we’ve had …

Interview: All Trans Band Ryan Cassata & The Rhythm

Ryan Cassata & The Rhythm formed in July of this year, the by-product of connections formed through college, social media and the Long Island music scene. With a rock sound, a passion for music and some studio singles in the works, I’m not surprised if you think this band sounds a lot like the many others out there. This however, is not the case.   The thing that sets this band apart are its members, Ryan (singer, acoustic guitarist, harmonica player) , Jordi (electric guitarist), Destroy (drummer) and Acadia (bass player). They are all amazing musicians, and they ALL identify on the trans spectrum. Trans visibility is continually increasing but still low, so to have an all trans band making some noise in the music scene is amazing, and up until this point more or less unheard of! Lead member Ryan Cassata is well known as many things; a singer-song writer, actor, YouTuber and LGBTQ activist. We had a chance to ask Ryan a few questions about the newly formed band, trans visibility and projects …

Interview: Avery Holderness-Roddam Talks About Organising Australia’s First National Trans Camp

Avery Holderness-Roddam is a 29 year old trans individual from Tasmania, Australia. Now past the early stages of his transition, Avery is eager to give back to the trans community by organising Australia’s first national trans camp. The camp is aimed at giving information and support to the trans community, their family and friends, information Avery wishes he’d had easy access to when starting his transition. We had a chance to talk to Avery about what to expect from Trans Camp 2016, transitioning and supporting the trans community. How did the idea for Trans Camp 2016 come about, and what pushed you to take it beyond just an idea? I was at a Yule festival in 2015 and the location struck me as a great place to hold a camp for the Trans community. There’s plenty of privacy, it isn’t close enough to suburban areas that we’d have random people stumbling upon us, and there’s an area for camp fires… by which I mean marshmallows toasted over a camp fire. What more could you want? …

Meet Eli Erlick: A Trans Youth Activist Who Stars in Tegan and Sara’s New Music Video “Faint of Heart”

Tegan and Sara released the music video for their song “Faint of Heart” last month. The song, from their 2016 album Love You To Death, is an 80’s inspired pop anthem about listening to your heart and not worrying what other people think. The music video, starring a group of young and inspiring LGBTQ people dressed as iconic figures in music history, is a beautiful hit of nostalgia, self-love and diversity. One of those young and inspiring people is Eli Erlick. Erlick is a queer transgender youth activist, writer and public speaker. She is also the Co-Founder and Director of Trans Student Educational Resources and has an uncanny resemblance to the Quin sisters themselves. We had the opportunity to talk to Erlick about the trans activism work she does, working with Tegan and Sara, and what it’s like to be the long lost Quin sibling. How did you get involved in the filming of the new Tegan and Sara video – Faint of Heart? It all started with a shirt. A friend commented that the …

“ZE”: Queer as Fuck! Perth Fringe World 2016: An Interview

Michelle/Ryan, also known as Ren, is debuting hir show, “Ze”: Queer As Fuck, at Perth Fringe World 2016. Hir show is described as a “one-person, genderqueer, kinky, femmesexual, polyminded, gay-divorcee PRIDE parade through the real life of Michelle/Ryan.” Born in Washington State and raised close to the Canadian border, Ren has been performing for a long time, acting in theatres from the age of eight or nine, and studying theatre and psychology at university. Ren came out after ze moved to Vancouver in British Columbia at age 18, and considers hir identity to be reformed around Canadian values. Having lived in Australia & New Zealand for almost two years though, ze feels this part of the world is as much like home as that part. We had the chance to talk to Ren about what to expect from hir upcoming show in Perth, the importance of pronouns, how identities in the queer community have changed of the past 10 years and MUCH MORE. Take a look! The QA: Firstly, how did the idea for the …

Interviewing Hannah Hart: The #NOFILTER Show, Being a YouTuber, Working with Whoopi and More!

Hannah Hart is a lot of things. She’s an award winning comedian, a professional YouTuber and Internet personality. She’s an actress, producer, philanthropist and New York Times best-selling author. All of this and she hasn’t even reached 30 yet! Most would probably know her best from her My Drunk Kitchen series on YouTube (for which she’s won multiple awards). She’s currently touring Australia as part of the #NOFILTER Live show with friends Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart. I had the awesome opportunity to talk to the very talented, funny and hardworking Hannah Hart about the show and more! Take a look below. TheQA: So is this going to be your first time in Perth? I remember the first time you announced you were coming to Australia a few years ago and there was no Perth visit. I was so devastated! HH: Yeah well last time we were in Australia it was just me and Mamrie and we were traveling with a group called Contiki, and I was doing it just making videos about each place …

Gaining Employment: A Trans Perspective

A few weeks ago I wrote an article talking about my experiences in gaining employment as a queer person. The post was popular so I decided to post again about gaining employment, but this time from a trans perspective. I was able to ask Oskar about the ups and downs of gaining employment as a trans man in Perth and here’s what he had to say! What are the main problems you’ve had to face when it comes to finding employment as a trans person? As I’ve been struggling to change my name – my legal name is my biggest indicator that something is up – particularly since I don’t present as female at all these days. Little things such as what clothes to wear – female clothes or male clothes at a job interview? I’ve been forced to present as female for job interviews and it sucks. I worry a lot about my future career – I’m worried that despite my studies, I still won’t be hired in my chosen profession because I’m trans. …