Panti Bliss

Frontier Comedy, in association with Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, are proud to announce the Mardi Gras Comedy Festival!

The first of its kind, the Mardi Gras International Comedy Festival will bring comedians from all over the world to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras for a week of laughs this February and March.

It all kicks off on 28 February with the first ever Mardi Gras Comedy Gala; a night of riotous and outrageous laughter hosted by Em Rusciano and Bob Downe. The evening will feature an incredible lineup of talent including Dixie Longate (US), Panti Bliss (IRE), Bridget Everett (US), Hannah Gadsby, Tom Ballard, Axis of Awesome, Stephen K Amos (UK), Shiralee Hood, Alice Fraser, Neel Kolhatkar, Joel Kim Booster (US), Emma Willmann (US) and more!

Following the Comedy Gala will be a week of solo shows from six world class acts. Celebrating the 2017 Mardi Gras theme of ‘creating equality’, there will be something for everyone with headline shows from the (drag) Queen of Ireland Panti Bliss, outrageous cabaret icon Bridget Everett, America’s most famous Tupperware lady Dixie Longate, author/singer/comedian extraordinaire Em Rusciano, and a ‘Gaymes Night’ hosted by razor sharp Rhys Nicholson and acid tongue prince Joel Creasey.

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is one of Australia’s most famous and well-loved events, bringing thousands of visitors to Sydney to join in the celebrations. It captures the imagination of Australia’s LGBTQI+ and mainstream communities, taking over the city for weeks on end, culminating in the world-famous Parade: a colourful and dazzling night of pride, celebration and self-expression.

Frontier Comedy are thrilled to join forces with Mardi Gras in 2017 to bring the very best from the world of comedy down under to celebrate love, diversity & pride.

The Queen of Ireland Panti Bliss invites you into her gender-discombobulating, stiletto-shaped world, exposing the stories behind the makeup – from performance giant to accidental activist – to reveal the National Treasure she is today.

Hilarious and poignant, High Heels in Low Places is a riotous comedy about life after 'Pantigate' - making movies and making history. Charting brushes with infamy, near misses with fame, and adventures in the seedy underbelly, this is a comedy about a life well lived, in which Panti promises to ‘say the un-sayable’.

★★★★ ‘uplifting, uproarious drag act...a cabaret phenomenon.’ - The Stage (UK)

★★★★ ‘a show that leaves lipstick traces on both heart and mind.’ - The Guardian (UK)

A former Tokyo club scene doyenne, Panti is Ireland's foremost gender illusionist. She has run some of Dublin's most seminal club nights, and hosted and produced the legendary Alternative Miss Ireland pageant which has raised money for more than 18 years for HIV/AIDS charities in Ireland.

In High Heels in Low Places, Panti traces her journey from small-town boy kicking against traditions to towering plastique woman in false lashes making history.

★★★★★ ‘courageous and hilariously honest...fabulously entertaining’ - Ed Fest Mag (UK)

★★★★★ ‘funny, level-headed, thought-provoking’ - TV Bomb (UK)

★★★★★ ‘exquisitely tart-tongued comedy...electrically revealing and masterful.’ - The Irish Times (UK)

Panti was last in Australia for the screening of The Queen of Ireland, a documentary about her rise from ‘giant cartoon woman’ to one of the highest profile activists in the LGBTIQ community, at the 2016 Sydney Film Festival. The documentary which was five years in the making follows Panti’s journey of self-discovery against the backdrop of Ireland’s 2015 referendum on marriage equality. The film, which The Irish Times called “the most important social document of the century thus far” received standing ovations and sold out two of it’s three sessions in Sydney.

In 2014, Panti landed herself in a media pandemonium and political furore, dubbed 'Pantigate'. Her speech about homophobia went viral, was broadcast around the world, remixed by Pet Shop Boys, caused a parliamentary meltdown, and fed into Ireland’s marriage equality referendum success.

Since 'Pantigate', Panti has penned a memoir Woman in the Making, starred in documentary The Queen of Ireland and toured around the world. Now in 2017, after playing to packed houses and glittering reviews in London, Dublin, New York, Paris, Edinburgh and beyond, Panti brings her story to the Australian stage in the critically acclaimed High Heels in Low Places.

Catch storytelling tour de force Panti across Australia this February - don’t miss out!

MORE ABOUT PANTIGATE:

'Pantigate' rocked Ireland and sparked a powerful conversation about equality.  On Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE’s popular Saturday Night Show, Panti asserted that journalists and organisations who actively campaign for LGBT citizens to have less rights than their straight counterparts were in effect homophobic. Those named threatened to sue the broadcaster, and were subsequently paid €85,000 in damages. Panti’s interview was removed from the RTE’s website and the host of the Saturday Night Show made a public apology. This payout and censorship resulted in public and media outcry in Ireland, with the affair promptly being named 'Pantigate'.

Support for Panti was expressed from the houses of parliament to the front pages of the national newspapers. As an act of solidarity, the Abbey Theatre invited Panti to speak about oppression and homophobia after the final performance of historical drama The Risen People.

A video of the speech was posted on YouTube, and within hours it had gone viral with celebrities including Graham Norton, Stephen Fry, Martina Navratalova, Alan Cumming, RuPaul and even Madonna all sending words of support and solidarity. To date Panti’s ‘Noble Call’ speech has been viewed over 800,000 times.