Club sensation Betty Grumble returns to Connections Nightclub this month and is presenting her show ‘Grumble: Sex Clown Saves the World’ on Wednesday April 13th. We chatted to Grumble to find out more about her show which promises to both titillate and terrify.
Where did Betty Grumble begin?
Betty Grumble began in my guts where love and anger mingled to create her as a kind of war mask. Her first outing was at a queer talent quest on Oxford St. With a deranged pageant tantrum act – she (very ironically) won – and has been gigging since.
How would you describe a Betty Grumble performance?
A Grumble show is a collision of comedy and horror. She is a surreal showgirl and always delivers highly energetic thrashings of song and dance. It’s a genre-smash of drag, feminist performance art, cabaret, burlesque and shamanic striptease. She is grotesque and seductive, a faery at the bottom of the garden and sex clown spinning in the middle of the dance floor.
Where do you find inspiration?
I find inspiration in nature and the nightclub. I respond unapologetically to the world around me and what I think needs more push-backery. I’m deeply moved by histories of artists who used their work to simultaneously celebrate and challenge our humanity. I’m inspired by the idea of connection through the ritual of live performance and partying.
Your show is ‘Sex Clown Saves the World’, what does the world need saving from?
Greed, lack of empathy, cruelty, war, the patriarch, fracking, fascism, bigots, ourselves and the tyranny of the mundane. Mostly ourselves. We need to reconnect with nature, the true power – the world… And then we might save her, or at least in trying – find peace.
What type of attitude should people bring to your show?
All of them.
Take in Betty’s solo show on Wednesday April 13th or catch her at Le Club’s penultimate party on Friday April 15th. Tickets at connectionsnightclub.com
