Ron Hughes: Countdown

Well here we are on the brink of glorious insanity as we count down to the Adelaide Festival of Arts and its concomitant Fringe.

There is so much queer content coming up we can hardly shoehorn it in. It seems the Garden of Unearthly Delights will be absolutely teeming with LGBTI acts, with others sprinkled liberally all over town.

This issue we feature interviews with the outrageous Tina C (aka Christopher Green), who claims she knows how to solve the financial crisis. She tells Peter Burdon, “There’s nothin’ wrong with the system, ya just have to be one of the winners!”

Irish performer Neil Watkins discusses his provocative one-man show The Year of Magical Wanking billed as a mixture of Jesus, porn and poetry (but fortunately no actual wanking.)

Gay favourite Judith Lucy also graces our pages this issue and as she tells Garrett Bithell with her trademark brutal honesty, the reason she has started touring her new stand-up show Nothing Fancy is, well, she needs the cash.

Melbourne’s Amanda Monroe – you may remember her from Drags Aloud! – tells the story of her very chequered past in Mangina while Liesel Knievel of Six Quick Chicks fame is bringing her latest show Hard Boiled Lolly to town.

Keeping to a very queer and gender flexible theme, our cover this issue features US drag icon Ru Paul whose Ru Paul’s Drag Race has become a firm queer favourite on the box.

We also take a look at a company offering a very attractive and alternative holiday experience in Bali and the AIDS Council/ Gay Men’s Health keep us up to date in their series on sexually transmitted infections: this week, Australia’s most common STI, Chlamydia.

Just to keep you on your toes we’ve hidden a couple of giveaway competitions in this issue. (OK, I’ll give you a clue: check out the Judith Lucy interview and the piece on Australian Dance Theatre's Proximity.)

Next issue we’ll continue our survey of all things gay and fabulous at Festival and Fringe. Meanwhile keep checking out gaynewsnetwork.com.au for breaking stories, news and reviews.

Ron Hughes is the editor of blaze.