2019 Recap: Fairy Godmother Powers with Mama Alto and Odyssey Works

A recap of significant projects I undertook over 2019! Sign up to my Patreon to get early access to future recaps and other goodies.

One of my favourite things to do is playing Fairy Godmother: granting people’s wishes and helping them make their dreams come true. Giving gifts tailored to their interests, researching and presenting the most useful resources, connecting them with the right people for their projects. I’ve long aspired to be someone like Oprah or Ellen - having the resources to grant even bigger, life-changing wishes for others, especially those that have gone through a lot in their life and need a break.

There’s something really gratifying and fulfilling about seeing their happiness, knowing that they are loved and cared for. I was reminded of this when I got a group together to throw a surprise birthday cabaret party for my dear friend, queer non-binary trans femme jazz cabaret chanteuse and community organiser Mama Alto.

A gang of friends posing on the stairs of Hares and Hyenas. Clockwise from top: Mama Alto, Creatrix Tiara, Mx Munroe, Bradley Storer. Photo: Alexis Desaulniers-Lea

Mama Alto herself is a pretty powerful Fairy Godmother figure within Melbourne’s indie arts, PoC, queer, and trans communities. I actually owe a lot of my creative career in Melbourne to her: I got back into performing via her album fundraiser in mid-2017, and since then she’s connected me to so many other creative opportunities and supported my projects, including organising a fundraising cabaret for Queer Lady Magician. She also connected me to a wider community of artists, activists, and friends - including one of my best friends, the self-described “dark princeling of cabaret” and Chad in Queer Lady Magician, Bradley Storer - who I met at her album fundraiser! Our shared cultural heritages (Mama’s half Indonesian and I’m Malaysian) allowed us to develop a unique bond - especially during times like the Christchurch massacre where we were able to support each other.

I actually did try to organise a surprise party for Mama in 2017, as thanks for all the work she’s done - however, she bailed last minute (my cover story was that I wanted to interview her for Autostraddle) so the party was cancelled. A month before her birthday this year, I decided to try again. Without getting into too many details, 2019 was a rough year for Mama for personal reasons. She persevered and kept working through it all, but even so she’d talk to me about feeling confronted by the things she “wasn’t good at” and not having the time to do what she knew she was good at. I figured it was time to remind her of the things she truly was good at, with the people that cared for her.

I pitched the idea of a surprise birthday party to my Facebook friends and everything came together incredibly quickly, mostly thanks to the help of my mentor and Mama’s collaborator Maude Davey. Hares and Hyenas (where Mama hosts a lot of her shows) offered a free venue, Mama’s partner Michael confirmed that he’ll make sure Mama makes it on the day, and a whole bunch of people signed up to help. Following Mama’s tradition of organising community cabarets - including her annual Christmas specials and the fundraisers for her album, Queer Lady Magician, and the YES Equality Campaign - we decided to host a cabaret in her honour.

Given the sheer amount of artistic and community work Mama has done in Melbourne and elsewhere, I decided to reach out to other organisations, events, and people that have worked with Mama and invite her to be part of the birthday proceedings. To my delight, I received an overwhelmingly positive response: so many people were touched by Mama’s work and agreed that she deserved to be celebrated. Some RSVPed to the party while others sent gifts, cards, and messages. We even managed to rope in Mama’s long-time collaborator Miss Chief, who had moved interstate a year or so ago, and Monash University Centre for Theatre and Performance Professor Stacy Holman-Jones, whose book Torch Singing: Performing Resistance and Desire from Billie Holiday to Edith Piaf was so instrumental in Mama’s career that she carries a copy with her everywhere and even created a cabaret show based on the concepts in the book. At one point, the advisor for Martin Foley, Victorian Minister for Creative Industries, even asked for an invite - probably the most surreal part of the planning.

The party was a smashing success. A full house of attendees, wearing flowers in their hair in honour of Mama’s usual show attire, enjoyed performances and shared stories about the ways that Mama touched their lives. Courtney Gale, a mutual friend with experience in baking for special needs diets, made a cake that suited Mama’s particular dietary needs. The party was photographed and filmed for free, thanks to JT Piper and Queer Town. We presented a mountain of presents and cards (mailed directly to Hares and Hyenas from the people I’d contacted earlier), as well as our grand final gift: an air freshener in the shape of a vintage microphone, a representation of a microphone that we donated in Mama’s name to Melbourne Fringe’s fundraiser for their new venue Common Rooms, as Mama has done a lot of work for Melbourne Fringe over the years.

(That microphone air freshener actually ended up being the spookiest part of the party. Mama seemed oddly excited over the air freshener, even before we told her about the Fringe donation. She then told us this incredible story about being in a taxi in Brisbane one year that had the same kind of air freshener, which she attempted to buy off the driver to no avail. And now the very same air freshener is in her possession!)

Mama was blown away by the party and all the love demonstrated through it. Throughout the whole party, the dinner afterwards, and in various emails and social media posts, she kept talking about how appreciative and grateful she was for everyone’s support, how the party itself was a soothing salve after a rough year, and how it gave her the motivation to continue her work just as she was feeling lost. Making Mama happy through that party was one of the most fulfilling things I’d ever done.

I was reminded of this when I learned about Odyssey Works, a performance collective based in the US that creates Odysseys: highly personalised long-form performances dedicated to one person. Their work seemed like my dream job and dream birthday present: through deep research and interviews with their recipient and their friends & family, they develop immersive, multi-day performances tailored to their interests and life histories. A particular piece of music playing through different points of their day, custom books and letters hinting to mysteries ahead, excursions to secret places for secret happenings. I would suggest reading up on their past performances to get a sense of their work - it can be pretty hard to summarize otherwise.

I sent them a message pretty much gushing over their work and they sent me a really appreciative reply, inviting me to apply for their annual Masterclass, which serves as both a teaching opportunity for their method as well as the means to produce that year’s Odyssey. (Of course, I applied for the 2020 Lisbon Masterclass when applications opened - I’m also planning to fill out the participant application, mainly to get a sense for what the experience is like on the participant’s end.) I’m actually also in initial talks to bring Odyssey Works to Australia in 2021 for a Masterclass or workshop and am hoping to partner with a festival or organisation - if you’re interested, please get in touch!

In a strategic planning workshop I did with MILKE about a month ago, after very visibly lighting up while talking about Mama’s party and Odyssey Works, I decided to incorporate Fairy Godmothering into my 2020 goals. I would love more opportunities to show support and love to people that have also given so much to others in ways that truly honour them. I have reached out to a few wish-granting organisations, such as Make-A-Wish, Starlight, The Orange Pigeon, and Creativity Australia, though I’ve yet to hear back. I’d be most interested in doing something closer to Odyssey Works or Mama’s party, though: an artistic experience, designed with the recipient in mind, gifted to those that help enable the artistic gifts of others.