Betty, it’s a beautiful Sydney day today Not much to grumble about. I assume that Betty Grumble is your stage name. It’s clever but mightn’t put some people off Are you happy with your choice? Stage names can be tricky.
Grumble is in my DNA. A Grumble is a bleat, growl, protest, rumbling sound. We kick up a stink, make a fuss and push back. We should be put off by the seriously ungroovy behaviour of people in positions of power. We Grumble towards a better world. Our stomachs rumble n’ grumble… Hungry for LOVE. Hungry for JUSTICE. (And deep disco dance floors).
How long have you been working as a performance (artist?) and what first drew you into this genre of performance?
I’ve been engaging in the live play and pleasure since I can remember. The moving and dynamic stages of the underground provided me with great space to experiment over the last decade. My stuff is a bit of a genre smash of things. I’m into agitating expectations. It’s quite tongue in cheek to call it ‘Cabaret’. But it is! It’s also performance arty, theatre, party, secret meeting, bust up, lapdance and seance. People are invited to see and feel what they want. I am very grateful to histories of drag, strip and clownage for making so much space for us to share in.
Are there any particular performance artists that have inspired you and in what ways have they been an inspiration?
Absolutely. Glitta Supernova is responsible for bringing burlesque (especially an alternative, subversive theatre of it) to us and providing me with some of my first gigs, alongside Sydney’s beloved Glitta Militia, anarchic party starters and finishers. I am proud to be mentored by Annie Sprinkle, supreme sex positive, eco-sexual goddess of art. Lindsay Kemp, Elizabeth Burton, Leigh Bowery, Karen Finley, Peaches, Lydia Lunch and Diamanda Galas have had huge influence on me as well. All of these beings have inspired a rebellious, joyful, magical spirit in me. Often where comedy and horror might collide, the grotesque and spilling is celebrated as a contagion for change and empowerment. I am also part of performance collective Gang of She who have provided me with endless inspiration and acts of sacred stupidity.
What do you look for when you start on creating a new show? Are there particular signs that you get when you know that you’ve got an idea/premise that you will be able to run with?
A tickling feeling in my guts. Music is a big influence. Ideas often spring while dancing to music, or perving on nature or in another performance! If I start laughing or moaning about an idea I usually stick with it until it reveals itself. I also can’t totally explain the making process, I respect it’s mystery.
In mainstream society sex is still a fairly serious subject with a lot of political correctness around it. It makes your idea of a sex clown that tries to save the world particularly appealing? What was the genesis of your idea and can you give readers a bit of an insight into your creative process when developing the show?
The show is born out of a desire to unshame. There is so much shame, paralytic stiff energy that is perhaps born out of a capitalistic desire to control bodies and space. Sex Clowns want to liberate their body and other bodies through laughter and exposure and a divine sense of vulgarity…OR at least, tapping into what is touted as ‘vulgar’ and massaging it into the sublime, revealing our connected gooey, humanoid ecosystem. Which is actually all ‘noids’, beings and plants and stuff. We are everything and NOTHING! It’s exciting when you can let go into that. My performance is a way for me to remind myself to drop into that feeling of letting go, I have to practice it, the unplugging, the returning. I invite people to do that with me. My process is about following pleasure. I believe that pleasure is a radical act. We can weaponise laughter, if not for others, then simply at that moment, for ourselves. So we can be stronger, softer, out there.
What can audiences expect from your show? Are you hoping to see them leaving the show laughing or do you want to give them plenty to think about or a bit of both?
I hope you have fun. Even if the fun is difficult, I thank you for coming.
The Festival Of Dangerous Ideas is on again this year during the weekend of 3rd and 4th November with programs at both Sydney Town Hall and Cockatoo Island. Betty Grumble’s will be performing her show SEX CLOWN SAVES THE WORLD at Cockatoo Island on the afternoon of Sunday 4th November.
https://festivalofdangerousideas.com/
https://festivalofdangerousideas.com/ideas/sex-clown-saves-the-world/