Speaker 1: Oh, I love a bit of a gossip and detective work.
Speaker 2: I think they go so well together. Do you like
Speaker 2: it too? You don't have to answer that. I know
Speaker 2: you do. That's why you're here with me, Arts Simone.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting down with pretty bland people, you know, and
Speaker 1: uncovering the thing that makes them more interesting or more
Speaker 1: exciting than your regular Joe. And it's really simple. I
Speaker 1: do a bit of detective work, have a little kiki,
Speaker 1: and then get the tea. Really, it's the mother of
Speaker 1: all podcasts. This is concealed with art, Simone. Oh, let's
Speaker 1: bring in our.
Speaker 2: Guests raw time. Hi.
Speaker 3: My name's Sue. I live in Werribee. My age well
Speaker 3: a lady never tells, but what I will say is
Speaker 3: I share the same birth date as Sir Elton John.
Speaker 3: I have two cats. I'm a self proclaimed Martha Stewart
Speaker 3: of Melbourne, lover of art and crafts and quite the
Speaker 3: reputation for sourcing anything and everything. But today I'm here
Speaker 3: to set the record straight.
Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, Hello Sue, how are you?
Speaker 3: I'm very well? Thank you?
Speaker 2: Art.
Speaker 1: Oh no, this is very exciting because we are changing
Speaker 1: things up for our season finale.
Speaker 2: Because I know exactly who you are.
Speaker 1: I do, but I'm still going to play our fun
Speaker 1: game because I think our listeners are going to have
Speaker 1: a little fun trying to work out who exactly is
Speaker 1: sitting in front of me here today. All right, I'm excited. Okay, good,
Speaker 1: So you're covered in your drenched in sequence. You look
Speaker 1: like a disco ball. You've got a beautiful cropped bob
Speaker 1: there with the nice highlights and low lights. Very I
Speaker 1: want to speak to the manager. I like that, and
Speaker 1: a nice pair of spectacles as well.
Speaker 2: Do you like to read?
Speaker 1: I do read the house down boots, mamma. Yes, guide exactly.
Speaker 1: And that's what I call a yes and person just
Speaker 1: going with the flow.
Speaker 2: But you said you like.
Speaker 1: Arts and crafts and you're a self proclaimed Martha Stewart
Speaker 1: of Melbourne. What do you like to do with just
Speaker 1: you know, tax evasion?
Speaker 3: Please keep that to yourself.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Now you'd need a job. But but
Speaker 1: now what do you get up to? What makes your
Speaker 1: Martha Stewart?
Speaker 3: I love baking, I love home decorating. Yes, and my
Speaker 3: specialty from what my family considers is birthday parties, special occasions, celebrations.
Speaker 1: Right, I go all out what's your favorite like the
Speaker 1: daycre the goodie bags, the favorite bag. Oh, okay, you're
Speaker 1: queen of the favor bag. Yes, well, I do know
Speaker 1: a lot of people that love a good bag, so
Speaker 1: I think we have a lot in comment. What I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do today is ask you three questions, and from
Speaker 1: the answer to those three questions, our wonderful listeners have
Speaker 1: to try and work out what you're concealing.
Speaker 2: I'm ready, all right, and also who you are? I guess.
Speaker 1: So the first question I have for you is which
Speaker 1: on screen hairdo would you like to try once in
Speaker 1: your life?
Speaker 3: H Marge Simpson, of course, Marge Simpson.
Speaker 2: What do you like about the Simpsons.
Speaker 3: Blue hair?
Speaker 2: You like the blue hair? Blue hair?
Speaker 1: Marge Simpson? Yes, So do you like the Simpsons or
Speaker 1: you just like her hair? I just like her hair,
Speaker 1: all right, right, hair lover? Okay, okay. Question number two
Speaker 1: for you is which Kardashian are you most like? Oh,
Speaker 1: Chris Jennas mammager exactly, yes, right, okay, so you're most
Speaker 1: like Chris Jenna. But well, the matriarch of the family. Okay,
Speaker 1: she seems a mean She's done some wonderful things with Look.
Speaker 1: Look how she took off Kim's career.
Speaker 2: Do you think she would film the sex tape?
Speaker 3: I think so?
Speaker 1: Oh, Gal, I don't want to be sued for defamation
Speaker 1: because Chris Jenner hobbing knock on that door in any second,
Speaker 1: be like she's probably she's like bloody Beetlejuice. You say
Speaker 1: her name three times and she'll appear. Let's not mention
Speaker 1: her again, okay. And our final question we have for
Speaker 1: you is if I were to give you a plane
Speaker 1: ticket to anywhere in the world right now, where would
Speaker 1: you go?
Speaker 3: England? It would be nice to see the Motherland? Oh?
Speaker 2: Do you have heritage in England?
Speaker 3: An association?
Speaker 2: Okay? All right, yes, yes, okay. Have you been to England? No?
Speaker 2: So that's why you want to go there.
Speaker 3: It's on my bucket list.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, So let's recap blue Hair, Beetlejuice, and.
Speaker 2: England.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, if I was a listener, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: know how to join those three things together. But I
Speaker 1: feel like there may be a little bit of a
Speaker 1: through line. You said Motherland, you said Mummager Christianna and
Speaker 1: Marge Simpsons may be the matriarch of a very famous
Speaker 1: family who are you.
Speaker 3: I am Sue Art Simon's mum. So hello, Oh.
Speaker 1: That was hard not to say mum a thousand times
Speaker 1: and also talk about things that I know that don't
Speaker 1: make any sense if I don't know them.
Speaker 2: Ah oh, well, that's glad. That's out. Why are you here?
Speaker 2: Why have you shown up to my job here today?
Speaker 3: I'm here today to tell the real story of how
Speaker 3: Art Simone became Art Simone.
Speaker 1: Oh oh, so you're here for my origin story.
Speaker 3: There'll be lots of surprises.
Speaker 2: Surprise Mom's here, all right.
Speaker 1: I want you all in your best behavior please, because
Speaker 1: I've never had her here at my workplace. I have
Speaker 1: no idea what she's come to present to all of
Speaker 1: you here today, but it Strappian.
Speaker 3: I guess.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: My mom has surprised me here live in the studio
Speaker 1: to reveal the origin story of Art Simone. Okay, which
Speaker 1: I don't know if I feel comfortable with that, but
Speaker 1: I want to say you are probably the second most
Speaker 1: mentioned person in Concealed with Art Simone besides Arts Simone.
Speaker 1: You have been a common theme throughout many of our
Speaker 1: interviews and stories. You are an off duty police officer,
Speaker 1: You're you're my merch manager. You're my house cleaner, You're
Speaker 1: my confidante, You're Mark Galpal, You're my driving instructor. You
Speaker 1: single handedly have helped to create the beast that is me,
Speaker 1: Art Simone. What are we doing today? What are you
Speaker 1: going to be revealing to the audience? Because I have
Speaker 1: no idea. I feel like you've prepared something.
Speaker 3: Well, we're going to go on a journey from in
Speaker 3: the womb until today.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to go into the
Speaker 1: womb with you again.
Speaker 3: We are all right, I'm here to talk about Art Simone.
Speaker 3: How Art Simone became Art Simone from the very beginning.
Speaker 2: All right with me? Let's h well, I knew.
Speaker 3: Art was destined to be a star from the very
Speaker 3: first moments of her life. On my routine ultrasound scan.
Speaker 3: So I've been given the happy news that I'm having
Speaker 3: a boy. Then the stenographer she was having a giggle,
Speaker 3: and I thought, what on earth is she laughing at?
Speaker 3: She said, I'm so sorry, but this is so funny.
Speaker 3: Usually the babies have got a finger up peace sign
Speaker 3: or the rude finger. But your little one, look, his
Speaker 3: jaw is just going NonStop. He's a little jabber jaw.
Speaker 2: Look at him. He's a chatterbox, but maybe I was hungry.
Speaker 3: No, you were perfecting the art of lip syncing.
Speaker 1: Ah okay, And I would like to know what song
Speaker 1: that was. What was your very first lip syncing song
Speaker 1: in the womb?
Speaker 2: What were you listening to in nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 3: Cindy Lauper?
Speaker 1: Okay, girls just wanted you were still a decade late
Speaker 1: listening to her? Then John John again, answer, I think
Speaker 1: I was thinking to whatever you were doing, whatever you
Speaker 1: whatever gossip was coming out of your mouth. Miss all right,
Speaker 1: so I'm lip syncing in the womb. Yes, pop out.
Speaker 3: Now we're going to go to age three, and there's
Speaker 3: the end of year kindergarten performance.
Speaker 1: That's Christmas time normally, so that will weigh in a manger. No,
Speaker 1: Santa Claus is coming to town.
Speaker 3: No, it wasn't Christmas scened. No, you were devastated you
Speaker 3: did not get the lead role. You were heartbroken.
Speaker 2: Oh that's a big word to use for a free role.
Speaker 2: You were Oh God.
Speaker 3: I had to then try and sell the role that
Speaker 3: you were given to you, which I thought, I will
Speaker 3: have my work cut out for me.
Speaker 1: I think you're revealing to me for the first time
Speaker 1: that that wasn't the lead, because I have always sad
Speaker 1: it was the lead.
Speaker 3: No, I can't remember. I must have sold to you that.
Speaker 2: You were the lead. You told me I was the lead.
Speaker 3: No oh no, oh, my goodness, I did do a
Speaker 3: good job.
Speaker 2: Did go on tell them the name of this.
Speaker 3: Character, Clarence the Clown.
Speaker 2: I thought it was fish Fingers the clown.
Speaker 3: No, and we had to provide your own costume. Now
Speaker 3: this is what sold it to you.
Speaker 1: Your very first wig, yes, from the Melbourne Show, A
Speaker 1: nice purple, curly, curly clown wig.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: And how was my performance? Is Clarence the clown? Be honest?
Speaker 3: You were a happy little vegamine which.
Speaker 1: Was not the pause. That was probably the biggest role
Speaker 1: id because after that I was a river.
Speaker 2: Yes I was.
Speaker 1: I've got the dud rolls for my entire rest of
Speaker 1: my school life.
Speaker 2: Yes I did.
Speaker 3: Yes. Age three was also the year that I found
Speaker 3: your love, found out about your love of makeup. I'm
Speaker 3: talking five am in the morning. I would get up at.
Speaker 1: I want everyone to know I'm still like that. I
Speaker 1: get up and I do a run, and then I
Speaker 1: do my yoga, and then my key gulls, and then
Speaker 1: I have a protein drink, and then I only eat
Speaker 1: egg whites, and then I go and save children from
Speaker 1: burning houses.
Speaker 3: Continue Okay, yeah, yes, yes, I would wake up. And
Speaker 3: where's little Art?
Speaker 1: Know?
Speaker 2: Where to be?
Speaker 3: Seen in their bedroom? Looked in the kitchen? No little
Speaker 3: Art there? Where is art?
Speaker 2: Are you exposing yourself as a bad parent for losing
Speaker 2: your child.
Speaker 3: In in the bathroom? I'm just ignoring that.
Speaker 1: You're so used to be that you just don't even
Speaker 1: acknowledge it anyone, Sorry, Continue.
Speaker 3: In the bathroom? Is little Art? Makeup case unzipped? We've
Speaker 3: got foundation, We've got muscaa, we've got lipstick everywhere. It's
Speaker 3: all over yourself and surprisingly not a hideous, horrendous mess either.
Speaker 3: Not too bad?
Speaker 1: Are you saying? I was slaying, yes for a three
Speaker 1: year old, and I've just been at that standard ever since.
Speaker 3: You've improved a lot.
Speaker 2: Oh well, that's very kind of your mother. Oh thank you.
Speaker 3: You may have seen Art's competitive side on screen, dummy spitter,
Speaker 3: I can tell you it started also at the age
Speaker 3: of three, I was summoned for a meeting with your
Speaker 3: kinder tea tea. I was puzzled as to why I
Speaker 3: was summoned because I knew that you were not naughty
Speaker 3: Ata I.
Speaker 2: Would have been in a fight. Now, that wasn't me.
Speaker 3: The kindo teacher, in all seriousness, was very concerned about you.
Speaker 3: Little art is too hard on themselves.
Speaker 2: You can't be too hard on yourself.
Speaker 3: Little art is too competitive.
Speaker 2: Well, I wasn't pushing people over.
Speaker 3: But you wanted to read the kinder story at the
Speaker 3: end of the session. You wanted to sit on the
Speaker 3: kindo teacher's chair and read the end of session story
Speaker 3: to the students.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I've got drive.
Speaker 1: You imagine being around a little kindergarten kid who doesn't
Speaker 1: want to do that.
Speaker 2: Oh no, hopers, no hopers.
Speaker 3: Well, you were throwing a tantrum, having a meltdown because
Speaker 3: you couldn't read to that standard. You couldn't read a book.
Speaker 2: I'm just angry at myself, not anyone else. That's fine.
Speaker 3: Well, no, you were also competitive with another little boy
Speaker 3: there that could read a book from start to finish.
Speaker 1: If he was cheating, he his memorized it, he could
Speaker 1: write his name. I disagreed with the kinder teacher.
Speaker 2: Did you fight them?
Speaker 3: I did?
Speaker 2: He said, listen here I did. Kid's going to be
Speaker 2: hard on themselves.
Speaker 3: I had to disagree that it is not a bad
Speaker 3: thing to be competitive and always strive for your next goal.
Speaker 1: Oh God, you might have some parents not agreeing with you,
Speaker 1: But do they have a child who's an international drag superstar.
Speaker 3: No, no, they don't.
Speaker 2: Keep your opinions to yourself.
Speaker 3: Art is a fabulous performer, as you all know, a
Speaker 3: great dancer. But it wasn't from her taking dance lessons,
Speaker 3: but rather from you observing them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you wouldn't let me. You couldn't afford it.
Speaker 2: I couldn't dance.
Speaker 1: I want to do jazz, I know for me now,
Speaker 1: I'm so so sorry. I would imagine if you had
Speaker 1: paid for it, I can still do it anyway. So
Speaker 1: I say, we say money.
Speaker 3: Well you would have just got the jazz hands.
Speaker 2: I can already do that.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, no, because my sister was a dancer and
Speaker 1: I didn't get to do it because she did all
Speaker 1: the dance classes. So I would come in every Saturday
Speaker 1: and watch, and I'd help set up the bars to
Speaker 1: the ballet bars.
Speaker 2: Yes, then I go and eat two pies.
Speaker 3: There was never any complaints from yourself dragging you to
Speaker 3: the drop offs and pickups because you bribe me with pies,
Speaker 3: and the sewing sessions and the behind the scene.
Speaker 1: The sewing was fun because the ladies were just bitch.
Speaker 1: It was hilarious. I love it.
Speaker 3: We've spoken about this several times because I have apologized
Speaker 3: that I didn't get you dance lessons, and yes, you correct,
Speaker 3: it was not affordable. But you absorbed like a sponge,
Speaker 3: everything that you were seeing, everything that you were around.
Speaker 3: You stored it in your vault, didn't you.
Speaker 2: I mean not really. I don't think I'm very dance,
Speaker 2: but I took it a lot. From the costumes, yes,
Speaker 2: the stage the costume yes, yes.
Speaker 1: And also how to survive being in an RSL in
Speaker 1: the middle of winter with no heating. I survived. I
Speaker 1: got a lot of tips about that too.
Speaker 3: The camera might love you now, but your first time
Speaker 3: on camera was when you were in primary school. Gramps
Speaker 3: came to visit with his video camera, right, and you
Speaker 3: were very much into little skits at our entry grate.
Speaker 3: You might remember we had a flight of brickstairs.
Speaker 2: That is very descriptive of you. Very proud.
Speaker 3: Yes, brick stairs, yes, that's very important. The flight of
Speaker 3: brick stairs.
Speaker 1: Cho.
Speaker 3: Your little skit was you were going to pretend to
Speaker 3: slip on a banana skin, acting you had actually badly
Speaker 3: slipped on the banana peal. You had slipped and dived
Speaker 3: face first into the bricksteps.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe I wanted a free nose job. Maybe it
Speaker 1: was forward thinking.
Speaker 3: You're Harry Potters.
Speaker 1: Fully ignore me, hilarious, Like, no, I'm trying to finish
Speaker 1: my story. This is the epitome of parents, Like we're like,
Speaker 1: mum mam, mam, mam, ma'am mam mam, mam, mam mam.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, your Harry Potter style glasses were smashed beyond repair.
Speaker 3: We didn't have a spare pair.
Speaker 1: No, I didn't have a spare pair of glasses until
Speaker 1: I was an adult and I could buy them myself.
Speaker 3: Those glasses expense Yeah, specksavers two for one.
Speaker 1: No, oh my god, the luxury I found out when
Speaker 1: you can just have multiple pairs of glasses and pick
Speaker 1: what color you want to wear for the day. But
Speaker 1: also I couldn't do that because my eyesight kept getting
Speaker 1: worse and worse and worse and worse. Degenerative eyeballs I have,
Speaker 1: So what was the point in having two pairs of glasses?
Speaker 1: You just have to get another one in a few months. Anyway,
Speaker 1: back to you, I'm glad I got that out. I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about that a lot.
Speaker 3: Are you feeling better now?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I am actually good.
Speaker 3: So your poor little Harry Potter style glasses, one arm
Speaker 3: was missing off them. It had to be sticky taped
Speaker 3: back on. The lenses were smashed. I don't even think
Speaker 3: you could see out of them. But you had to
Speaker 3: make do with those until we did order a new
Speaker 3: pair of glasses.
Speaker 2: Or Oshkosh Bergosh glasses.
Speaker 3: Yes, so there's actually a lot that took place at sixteen.
Speaker 3: Perhaps a pivotal moment was when I took you to
Speaker 3: see Rocky or why I didn't actually take here?
Speaker 2: Stop lying to everyone.
Speaker 1: You bought tickets and then said just go and I said,
Speaker 1: I don't want to go to this. That looks that's inappropriate.
Speaker 1: Why would I like that?
Speaker 2: And then I liked it?
Speaker 3: Yes, I knew you would like it. You're right, mother
Speaker 3: knows best.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I did see it, and then I saw
Speaker 1: it again, and then I saw it again, and then
Speaker 1: I saw it again and I saw it over ten times.
Speaker 3: What I was going to ask, how many times did
Speaker 3: you end up seeing Rocky Horror?
Speaker 1: Ten and then also I broke in and sat in
Speaker 1: the foyer for one of the sessions.
Speaker 3: You also made friends with fellow Rocky horror fans. Yes,
Speaker 3: you would wait backstage.
Speaker 1: Yes, which I don't like to admit now because I'm
Speaker 1: very fortunate to have worked with some of these people
Speaker 1: in my career now and know some of these people
Speaker 1: think how embarrassing. And I was annoying one of those
Speaker 1: annoying rats at the stage door with a T shirt
Speaker 1: I handpainted and feather bowers, being.
Speaker 2: Like, I'm a fighter, can E sign this? Yuck?
Speaker 1: But they gave you the time of today and the
Speaker 1: people I always remember. That's why I always have time
Speaker 1: for people. Because I liked I want to pay it back.
Speaker 1: But when I saw I just fell in love with
Speaker 1: it because I mean, deep down, I really loved sequin
Speaker 1: and glitter and drag and all of that. And it
Speaker 1: was so nice to be in a space and to
Speaker 1: watch thousands of people watch these quote unquote freaks on stage,
Speaker 1: and to see thousands of people every single night celebrating them,
Speaker 1: was like, Wow, maybe there is a place to me.
Speaker 1: Maybe I can be who I actually am, Maybe I
Speaker 1: can be proud of who I am, and maybe I
Speaker 1: can put a lash on and have thousands of people
Speaker 1: cheer for me, and I mean it's usually twenty people
Speaker 1: at bingo.
Speaker 2: But I think we're doing well. I think we're doing well.
Speaker 3: Do you think it had in some way an effect
Speaker 3: on you to come out as being gay.
Speaker 1: It definitely did, because it was like, oh, this is okay,
Speaker 1: this is okay, there's other people there like me.
Speaker 3: It was the same year that you came out as
Speaker 3: being gay, because you never came out. At secondary school
Speaker 3: celebration day the very end day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I went in drag yes, muck up day. Yes, Yes, I.
Speaker 3: Went in a Frank Confurter style.
Speaker 2: Everything was Frank Confurter.
Speaker 1: Yes. Inspired because then I went to science camp later on,
Speaker 1: where I was dressed as Frank and Ferter. Yes, that's
Speaker 1: how I first learned how to sew because I was
Speaker 1: trying to replicate his costumes.
Speaker 3: Speaking of that science camp, people may not know the
Speaker 3: path that you were going to go down with your career.
Speaker 3: You were very much maths, science, medically.
Speaker 1: Fair not to have a confrontation with you live on air,
Speaker 1: but also I think a lot of that. I mean
Speaker 1: I was good at it and everything, but I was
Speaker 1: also doing it because it was like drilled into me
Speaker 1: that you know your grandfather, Yeah, got to be smart,
Speaker 1: You've got to do the smart subjects. You've got to
Speaker 1: be successful or everyone is looking on you.
Speaker 2: It's up to you. You know.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of pressure on my shoulders, so
Speaker 1: like there were many times throughout my teenage years and
Speaker 1: right from the beginning when I wanted to do a
Speaker 1: jazz class where I wish I could have steered off
Speaker 1: to do more creative and artistic things, but I couldn't.
Speaker 1: But then I guess when I got to Science Camp,
Speaker 1: I had a.
Speaker 3: Yes because you did work experience at Cabrini Hospital in
Speaker 3: the lab, Yes, the pathology labor and who organized that? Yes,
Speaker 3: you know you grandfather. Yes, you wanted to do him proud.
Speaker 3: You didn't want to let him down, and he was
Speaker 3: the big male influence in your life.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're a good dad.
Speaker 3: Well I played the role of both. Yes, I still do.
Speaker 3: You were offered a spot at the Science Forum camp
Speaker 3: in Perth. On Science Camp, one of the big events
Speaker 3: was a end of week camp celebration parties.
Speaker 2: I was going to say, what was it called?
Speaker 3: And you were encouraged to dress up as a character,
Speaker 3: so of course Frank and Furter.
Speaker 1: And because I've been playing it very low key, you know,
Speaker 1: with all the science nerds throughout the week. And then
Speaker 1: I went back to my little room and came back
Speaker 1: out in full drag, and everyone was like, oh, Margat.
Speaker 3: Or your first pair of heels.
Speaker 2: High heels.
Speaker 1: I don't know which person, which random big footed lady
Speaker 1: in mural Bark donated those of the shops. Yes, but
Speaker 1: there was a site. They were too big for me
Speaker 1: and I've got size thirteen lady's shoes. They were like
Speaker 1: a fourteen.
Speaker 3: I thought they were too small.
Speaker 2: No, I don't know. They were too big and I
Speaker 2: glittered them myself.
Speaker 3: They were meant to be. But my mind boggles. Can
Speaker 3: I ask you, how can someone so clumsy can be
Speaker 3: so elegant and poised walking in high heels without an accident.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what it is, because you're not afraid
Speaker 1: to fall anymore. I've fallen so many times in my
Speaker 1: life that there's no It's just about confidence. I'm like,
Speaker 1: worst case I'm going to fall. I've done that a
Speaker 1: million times. There's no mystery to it.
Speaker 3: Now, returning home from your science forum camp, there was
Speaker 3: a big pivotal moment. Then I'm not going down the
Speaker 3: science path anymore. I don't want to do science anymore.
Speaker 3: I want to change all my subjects in year eleven
Speaker 3: to the arts.
Speaker 2: But can I say, before I presented you with that speech,
Speaker 2: I'd been to my art teacher and shown her my
Speaker 2: photography and got her to write a letter of recommendation
Speaker 2: to you to say that I'm actually very good.
Speaker 3: I also had I was summons to another meeting. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but they both assured me that whatever you were going
Speaker 3: to put your mind to you would be a great success.
Speaker 3: And they were so convincing that it was okay, let's
Speaker 3: follow you, dreams, follow you.
Speaker 1: Real prefacing this like it was a massive It was
Speaker 1: a big deal to me. But I literally just dropped
Speaker 1: chemistry and did studio art instead.
Speaker 3: Yes, while where in high school years you first discovered
Speaker 3: Draculas se of restaurant or a Dracula's cabaret feed of restaurant. Yes,
Speaker 3: so you fell in love with Draculas once again, setting
Speaker 3: yourself goals as soon as I turn eighteen, I'm going
Speaker 3: to work at Draculas. So you went for your interview,
Speaker 3: and you didn't think you'd gone down too well the interview,
Speaker 3: because you were so enthusiastic. Yeah, I think that was
Speaker 3: a bit of about Draculas. You'd come across as a
Speaker 3: Dracula's fan.
Speaker 1: Fan, and now that I've been on the inside, you
Speaker 1: do not hire those people because they're like freaks.
Speaker 2: But somehow, Yes.
Speaker 3: They first started you weight service.
Speaker 2: I was a food runner.
Speaker 3: Didn't go down so well, did it?
Speaker 2: Food running was fine?
Speaker 1: What went badly was it because you had to work
Speaker 1: up from food running to be a drinks runner and
Speaker 1: do the drink trays. They're like, all right, it's time
Speaker 1: for you to learn how to hold drinks. They're like, yep,
Speaker 1: we'll just lead up your tray with drink with glasses
Speaker 1: to practice maneuvering through the venue. And I got like
Speaker 1: three steps out and I dropped the entire train and
Speaker 1: smashed them and I said, no more, I'm not doing that.
Speaker 3: It was no surprise, It was not a shock. This
Speaker 3: is Clarence the clumsy clown. Well, yes, so then they
Speaker 3: found a perfect position for you in the gift shop.
Speaker 1: So during this whole time, I've watched Rocky Horror, I've
Speaker 1: fallen in love with it. I've gone to Arcamp I'm like,
Speaker 1: I need a name, and I didn't. I wasn't calling
Speaker 1: myself a drag queen yet. So I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I like spooky things, I like draculas, I like Rocky Horror,
Speaker 1: I like spiders and vampires. I'm going to be Count Jacular.
Speaker 1: And I was so dedicated to creating this persona that
Speaker 1: I made a website. I like fully made a logo
Speaker 1: that used to go on all my photos and everything.
Speaker 1: And I really saw that through until I was like
Speaker 1: nineteen years old, and then I got into the real
Speaker 1: world and I realized how lame that was.
Speaker 3: Well, it was all your friends were calling you count
Speaker 3: ejaculated them at the ENNGV in top Arts.
Speaker 2: Instead of putting my beautiful name, in which.
Speaker 1: You gifted to me as a child, I made them
Speaker 1: right Count Jackula on the plaque. And I just went
Speaker 1: back there to celebrate a thirty year anniversary of top Arts,
Speaker 1: and I had to say, I'm so sorry, Jesus.
Speaker 3: Well, you put a lot more thought into your current name,
Speaker 3: Aunt Simone.
Speaker 1: The name came about because I was at Traculas, but
Speaker 1: I was like, no, I will you want to do
Speaker 1: drag drag now? So I saw there was a local
Speaker 1: drag competition I wanted to enter, and that's where I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I need a drag name. Now. I
Speaker 1: can't be count Jackular, I can't be Anthrax, I can't
Speaker 1: be Scabitha.
Speaker 3: And he didn't want the camp drag.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, you want to be a cantname. And
Speaker 2: I actually tried.
Speaker 1: I was like, maybe Scabitha could work because I thought
Speaker 1: it was you know, it's a bit camby, it's drag
Speaker 1: and I was a bit oookie spooky at the time,
Speaker 1: but I tried it out. RuPaul did her last ever
Speaker 1: live in person show. I bought tickets to go and
Speaker 1: see that first time in full drag out in like
Speaker 1: a queen venue. I'd never been to a queen venue
Speaker 1: before to watch RuPaul. And for the warm up of
Speaker 1: the show, the drag host at the time got some
Speaker 1: people up to walk a catwalk and do a fashion
Speaker 1: pray and see, you know, like who could win. And
Speaker 1: I went up there and she goes down to lunch,
Speaker 1: she's like, and what's your name? And I said Scabitha.
Speaker 1: And then later in the night she came up to me,
Speaker 1: she's like, don't use that name ever again and that's
Speaker 1: because her name was Tabitha.
Speaker 2: And so she was like, oh Turlington, Tabitha Turlington.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: So after that I was like, well, that can't be
Speaker 1: my name. And then fast forward, I entered a drag competition.
Speaker 1: Art was not just art. You had a lecturer who
Speaker 1: said the work that you were doing this is not art.
Speaker 3: That'll never be art.
Speaker 2: No, it was told I'd never be art.
Speaker 1: So me, being a sassy little bitch that I was,
Speaker 1: I called myself art. Yes, which is not the right
Speaker 1: way to start your career, but I'm stuck with it
Speaker 1: now anyway, and I quite like it.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's fabulous fart.
Speaker 2: It's very handy.
Speaker 3: Do you remember, once you'd selected art, you ask for
Speaker 3: my help to select the name to go with the
Speaker 3: second name, so you have your new drag stage name,
Speaker 3: ready to perform art simone. You enter, at the age
Speaker 3: of eighteen, your first drag competition, and it was similar
Speaker 3: to RuPaul's drag Race that there was a different challenge
Speaker 3: every week.
Speaker 1: Well, they'd make you do a new drag performance every week.
Speaker 1: You have to have a new look, a new song,
Speaker 1: and it was to a theme. And then as the
Speaker 1: competition whittled down and they eliminated people, they still needed
Speaker 1: to fill an entire night of shows, so they'd make
Speaker 1: you do multiple performances and then a group number, and
Speaker 1: then this and then that. Gosh, it's a great business structure.
Speaker 1: Just get twelve nobody's in to do your entertainment all
Speaker 1: night long.
Speaker 2: Don't have to pay them anything.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, think of it that way. It drew in
Speaker 3: the crowd.
Speaker 1: But the funny thing is what I I don't think
Speaker 1: people understand is I'd been doing drag on my own
Speaker 1: terms at Dracula's and on my own things for years
Speaker 1: at this stage, but I'd never really set foot into
Speaker 1: gay clubs. I was any drag, so they had no
Speaker 1: idea where I'd come from. It was quite fun, but
Speaker 1: you stuck with me through the whole competition, and I
Speaker 1: don't want to say it.
Speaker 2: I wanted to my own horne. But what happened winn
Speaker 2: Winn winner.
Speaker 3: So the drag competition was your first entry into the
Speaker 3: world of drag competing. You ended up on the world
Speaker 3: stage through Paul's Drag Race.
Speaker 1: You've been along the whole journey. You've been there to
Speaker 1: help celebrate me. There's a million stories I could tell.
Speaker 1: There's like stories where I'm like, Maum, I need a
Speaker 1: new prop so I send you to sexy Land to
Speaker 1: go and buy a whip.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Like every week I'd be like, Mum, I need this,
Speaker 1: and you'd go off to a two shop and search
Speaker 1: every single gift store in the state to try and
Speaker 1: find bras shopping.
Speaker 2: We did bra shopping with me.
Speaker 1: You have been my little helper for anything I've ever
Speaker 1: needed to succeed. You've been more than happy to be
Speaker 1: part of it. So also, thank you very much for that.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it very You're very welcome.
Speaker 3: I am blessed beyond to be traveling this rainbow path
Speaker 3: that you're leading me along. I love every minute of
Speaker 3: it and I will continue to help you whatever you need.
Speaker 3: You know you can yell out.
Speaker 2: Well, let's go to sexy Land. Oh we go?
Speaker 1: Well that was mother dearest, Yes, Mother, Simone, Susie C Susan.
Speaker 2: I hope you enjoy it all the scolding tea that
Speaker 2: she delivered to you here today.
Speaker 1: But if you want to support my mother, come along
Speaker 1: to a show and borrow a tea shit because she
Speaker 1: works on commission given listening to an iHeart Australia Production
Speaker 1: Concealed with Art Simone and Utsimone's mum.
Speaker 2: Listen to more of what you love on iHeart and
Speaker 2: check us out on the socials.
Speaker 1: Ah, I am exhausted after finding all these interesting people
Speaker 1: and interrogating them, so you know what, I'm going to
Speaker 1: take a little break before I introduce you to more people.
Speaker 1: But if you're loving Concealed with Art Simone, why don't
Speaker 1: you go back and listen to all the episodes. They're
Speaker 1: really good.
Speaker 2: Anyway, we'll see you next time.