Getting Back to Performing Live

So, ‘The Trouble with Tina’ has snowballed a bit. Well not so much snowballed, but someone let off the handbrake and it’s trundled slightly forward. The result: I am going to perform at TransActShon (click the link) in Melbourne in mid October. This will consist of a lip sync to the video of ‘The Trouble with Tina’ and a live set by lil ol me singing and playing the guitar. I have nearly 3 months to get myself properly in gear, so yesterday I dusted off and tuned up my Maton guitar and played for an hour or so, and started to work out a few songs which might suit the occasion. The thing is, though, although I used to perform regularly as a male, apart from the writing and recording of the song and video, for the past three years 100% of my creativity has gone into Tina, and my voice and guitar skills have got very rusty. Result: not panic, but a very slight feeling of trepidation and ‘what have I got myself into’. You know, when you volunteer for these things and as a performing artist generally, you have a vision of what you will do, but then at some point you realise that there is an awful lot to do before you can achieve it!

Today I also enrolled for ‘Girl Dancing’ classes (to rolled eyes from wife and son). No point in performing on stage en femme unless you can carry it off with feminine movements.

And finally I told a female colleague at work whom I felt I could trust to both understand and keep a secret about Tina. She was just wonderful. Jealous of my legs (tee hee). There is a serious side to this - until recently I was on our Diversity and Inclusion Committee but resigned from it because I saw most of what was being done as lip service and the company was certainly way off doing anything regarding LBGTQI issues. At the same time I was hearing various cliches from management, especially the one about ‘bringing one’s whole self to work’. That’s the last thing I can do in my line of business and with my family circumstances and I found it very hollow. However, with a confidant in the office, I now feel there is a tiny piece of that in my working day. Here are a couple of pics of me out and about as Tina that I showed my now special friend.