Mark Winmill: ‘We Met This Crazy Muso Who Was in ‘The Clash’ in the Middle of the Desert…”

Mark Winmill from popular Fringe show ‘Briefs’ stops by to tell us about his bus trip across Australia to make it to Perth, and what whacky and wonderful things you can expect to see in the show.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sime for another Fringe Festival act with Classy and Lisa.
Briefs is back for Fringe again with They're So Jealous
at the Auroraspiegel Tent in the Pleasure Garden from now
until February sixteen. Tickets are available through fringeworld dot com
dot are you Mark Windmillers with us this morning?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning, Thanks for having us.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
You are the co creator of this boy lesque ye troupe.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
I am the co creator, a co founder with my
partner Fez, who's the Bearded Lady MC. We started two
thousand and eight and this is our thirteenth Fringe, which
is mental and we have such a brilliant loyal following here.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
So two thousand and eight. I didn't actually realize it
was that long.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
That's how long the company has been going for. But yeah,
so yeah, we've seen a lot of boys come and.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Go donates with the MC.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
She's the security Guarden, Bearded Lady, She's the immigrant drag queen.
She's hectics, she's very political and fun, super fun.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
So Jealous Jealous with three s's Yeah, I love that.
Tell us about the show.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yeah, Jealous is it's sort of a homage to our
club Briefs Night, which is a party you know, it's
an hour of power.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
It's a party night.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
It's a party show, but with super high skill acrobats,
drag queens in six inch heels in the air. You know,
just it's actually it's intense. It's super entertaining and inclusive and.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Ridiculous. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
Sometimes get the chance to watch the crowd, see that
looks on their faces and get that wow factor going on.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
I was actually doing that last night. One of the acts,
Dale wouldbridge Bound the First Nations. Boy, he does this
ridiculous sideshow drag number. It's just absolute comedy genius and
just watching the audience a just like losing the plot.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
You know, he's about to swallow a knife.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
But flips over them so he's actually.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Got them hardcore in his hands. Yeah, yeah nice.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Just walking in six inch shoes is acrobatic to me.
I've never been able to walk in heels. I will
roll an ankle before I'm out the door. What is
the key? Is it not? Step? Is there a certain
part of your foot you meant to step on.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
All of your foot, all of your foot not the
don't sort of push back, but it does. My feet
are caning today. They stripper hills that have changed my feet.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
And Showy is little people with bad feet. Stephen Tyler
from Aerosmith and Prince and that they all did their
feet into.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, bought some kiss It's not new, is it.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Good?

Speaker 1 (02:28):
So I hear you came over on a bus.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
We bought a bus.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, Priscilla.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
It's a priscilla Ish bus on a budget. It's a
Toyota coaster, a right three theater. It's covered in this
huge colorful banner that we put on in Brazil. Yeah,
we spent eight days driving across with about six of us.
We had a couple of film makers that jumped on
border broken hills so they're doing a docco and yeah,
that sounds like fun.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
It was so much fun.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
There wouldn't have been any seliness count on with the Shenanigans.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
My god, we broke down and had an eski full
of grogs. So that was a fun day around scenes.
In some of the smaller towns, it just stopped out. Yeah.
We stayed in some dodgy motors, dodgy pubs, but brilliant
pubs because there's such eclectic people living in these places,
you know, we met this crazy music from London who
was in the clash, and so what are you doing

(03:18):
in the desert?

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Ridiculous? Yeah, really crazy.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
He was literally in the clash.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, and living in his in his eighties. Yeah, living
in this I can't remember where it was, this tiny town.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
What a great story. You meet some cool people.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yeah, that's cool. But what are you like with criticism
if anyone. Yeah, there's been a little bit, a little
bit of stuff online which is ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Everyone loves a bit of criticism, feedback, feedback, keyboard worries
completely both positive support, of course. But yeah, per's amazing
for us. The fan base is epic, you know.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
It's like London for us, very loyal on.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, and they come back every year and we've got
heaps and new people that come back. So it's like
not to come back because haven't been, but people who
bring their family members and fred. You know, it's this
huge thing that has grown. Yeah, we love it here.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
It's been a warm one.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
This she has done. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Luckily I end the show in a big bird bath, okay,
and the audience do get a little.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Bit in the front, a little bit in.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
The I had a friend who just had a hair
done and she brought a shower cap in front roads.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
A bit dramatic that bath.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, how did Nickers go? Because that was the other show, Nickers.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Nias Nickers has been in the pipeline for years. It's
our all female dream team of lesque, crazy full on
women that are just intense, you know. So we had
some headliners from UK and amazing Australian artists that we
put together and yeah, it was a crazy It was
only three nights, but it was such a well responded
piece that fees put together online.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
So they all just did it online, you know.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Okay, Yeah, amazing, awesome show, really good reviews and won
a weekly award.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, brilliant. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
I would imagine you're right there on the front line
to be able to gauge just how much the Fringe
festival has grown over the years.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
The Fringe has gotten massive. I think it's the third
largest now in the.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
World, like Edinburgh.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
That's pretty impressive.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Pretty much. Yeah, it's pretty wild.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
They've also pulled it back a little bit where I
think the concentrated sort of area, I think it's smart
to sort of have a hub, I guess, you know,
It's always great to have sort of satellite spots where
you can, you know, on the beach or wherever.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
They used to do a few sort of satellite spots.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
But the hub, I think is great because it does
bring everyone into this area where they've got this menu
of shows to choose from. You literally see them at
the front, just sort of which I think is such
a great culture. Tickets are available, great to encourage that.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
Sometimes, at least when I have these moments every now
and then, we go, is this a pretty damn good job?
You know, then we're talking at Graham Nash from Crosbee
Stills Nat. But you must have times when you go,
this is work, this is.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
And we're so lucky to you know, I turned fifty
this year and still doing my thing, and you know,
to have this as a career and a job that
we've created this company and you know, employing artists and
everyone's on good wages now and you know, we're getting
royalties and it's like that's hard, the hard work that
has paid very cool.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, so cool, and.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
That's doing that so many performers who will be doing
it and yeah maybe just just in front.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
And we've learned a lot and it's like learned a
lot of the actual business side of things, which is
boring but it's actually so important important.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Well, the Aurora spiegle Ted is in the Pleasure Garden,
which is you know, we were just saying, there's a really
good vibe there this year. Get along. It's on from
from now until February sixteen. Tickets are available through Fringe
world dot com dot you lovely, to see you again.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Nice to see you. Yeah, we love it here. Yeah,
it's good on Loyal Perth, we love it. See you tonight.