No-rules, Adults-only Circus-cabaret Returns To Brisbane For A Headline Season

Feature-Late Night Vice

Direct from sold-out seasons in Melbourne and Sydney, Strut and Fret, the masterminds behind Blanc de Blanc Encore are bringing Late Night Vice back to The West End Electric, featuring new cast! Audiences who attended the show’s sold-out Brisbane Festival debut were warned Late Night Vice has a much sharper bite than previous Strut & Fret productions and embraced the hilariously risqué show with open arms and minds.

The show’s success means it will this time return as a stand-alone headline show outside of festival season, with a line-up of world class cabaret, burlesque and circus talent from the USA and Australia.

Straight from a Vegas residency as the opening act for Kylie Minogue and Christina Aguilera, Jake DuPree (RuPaul’s Drag Race) stars alongside Spencer Novich (Cirque du Soleil’s KA, FX’s American Horror Story); leading vocalist Em Mylott (Les Misérables, We Will Rock You); Melanie Hawkins (Saturday Night Fever, Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom musical); Brett Rosengreen (The Voice, X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent) and Brisbane’s seductive cirque performer Katrina Louise, who has toured across five continents.

“Brisbane is my home town and I’m so excited for this to come back to West End. I’ve performed in 18+ entertainment around the world, and I think we’ve needed a show like this for a long time. It’s wild, it’s fun and it’s absolutely filthy,” says flame wielding hair-aerialist cast member Katrina Louise.

Described by the creators as a ‘cocktail-drenched fever dream where cabaret collides with chaos’, Late Night Vice opens on 19 March.

The scandalous content of this sell-out show has remained under wraps with no cameras, no phones and no reviews allowed. The X-Rated experience is strictly Adults Only 18+ with a valid ID.

Dress to impress in black tie or all black and enter a world of mystery, mischief, and midnight glamour. Late Night Vice is set to become Brisbane’s bold after-hours escape once again, showing off the river city’s glimmering wild side.

Expect shadowy glamour, whispered secrets and a rogue’s gallery of theatrical renegades in an electric feast captured by your eyes only!

CONTENT WARNING: The show contains nudity, profanity, strobe effects, pyrotechnics. Explosions of feathers, confetti—and quite possibly your mind.

WHERE: The West End Electric, 125 Boundary St, West End (Brisbane)
WHEN: 19 March – 19 April; Thursday to Saturday 9:45pm | Sunday: 8:00pm
TICKETS: $69.00 (ticket types General, Premium, Moët & Chandon Tables); https://latenightviceshow.com/brisbane/

 

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Sydney Film Festival Announces New Board Members

Feature-Sydney Film Festival

Sydney Film Festival has today announced the appointment of three new members to its Board, welcoming respected leaders from across Australia’s creative industries, screen sector and business community. Business leader and founder of the Calaur Advisory Deb Eckersley, joins the board as Treasurer, while Madman Entertainment co-founder and CEO Paul Wiegard and award-winning actor and writer Thomas Weatherall both join as directors. Thomas’ contribution joins a wider arts initiative spearheaded by the NSW government to include young arts leaders on boards of preeminent cultural institutions.

The appointments bring together expertise spanning film distribution, performance and writing, corporate governance, finance and strategy. Together they strengthen the Festival’s capacity to support Australian and international filmmakers, while guiding one of the country’s most significant cultural institutions.

Together they join Sydney Film Festival Chair Darren Dale, alongside fellow directors Debbie Lee, Amanda Maple-Brown and Penny Smallacombe in leading the strategic direction of the Festival. Preparations for the 73rd Sydney Film Festival are currently underway, with the 2026 edition set to take place from 3–14 June in cinemas across Sydney.

Minister for the Arts John Graham welcomed the appointments.

“I’m very pleased to see the Sydney Film Festival backing the call to support young arts and culture leaders by appointing Thomas Weatherall. Thomas will bring such a unique and youthful perspective to the stewardship of this treasured cultural event. I’m also excited to see Debra Eckersley and Paul Wiegard bring their extensive experience to the board.”

Sydney Film Festival Chair Darren Dale said the new appointments reflect the Festival’s ongoing commitment to strong leadership across the arts and screen sectors.

“I’m delighted to welcome Deb Eckersley, Thomas Weatherall and Paul Wiegard to the Sydney Film Festival Board. Each brings a distinct perspective and a breadth of experience across the creative industries, the screen sector and the broader commercial landscape. As custodians of a Festival now in its 73rd edition, we share a responsibility to honour its legacy while continuing to champion bold filmmaking and strengthen its unique place in Sydney’s cultural life.”

ABOUT DEB ECKERSLEY

Deb Eckersley joins the Sydney Film Festival Board as Treasurer, bringing more than 30 years’ experience across professional and financial services. A Chartered Accountant by training, she is the founder of Calaur Advisory and previously served as Group Executive, People and Culture at Bank of Queensland and Managing Partner, Human Capital at PwC Australia, advising major Australian companies on strategy, workforce transformation and organisational change. Eckersley currently sits on the boards of Technology One Limited and Chief Executive Women. She is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.

ABOUT PAUL WIEGARD

Paul Wiegard joins the Board with extensive experience across film distribution and production. He is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Madman Entertainment, one of Australasia’s leading independent film distributors, which has released more than 35 Oscar-nominated films including Parasite, Anatomy of a Fall and Searching for Sugar Man. Wiegard has executive produced more than 50 feature films and documentaries including Nitram, The Australian Dream, The Giants and Girls Can’t Surf. He also founded the documentary streaming platform DocPlay in 2016 and currently serves on the boards of Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Screenrights.

ABOUT THOMAS WEATHERALL

Thomas Weatherall joins the Board after serving as a jury member at the 2025 Festival, as an award-winning actor and writer working across screen and stage. He is widely known for his role as Malakai Mitchell in the Netflix series Heartbreak High and as Frank Gardner in The Narrow Road to the Deep North directed by Justin Kurzel. His performance in Heartbreak High earned him an AACTA Awards honour for Best Supporting Actor and a Logie Awards award for Most Outstanding Supporting Actor. Weatherall is also an acclaimed playwright. His debut work Blue, developed through the Balnaves Fellowship, premiered at Belvoir St Theatre in 2023 to strong critical acclaim and later toured nationally and internationally. The play was nominated for the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 2024.

The appointments come as the Festival continues its work supporting filmmakers, audiences and the wider screen industry through year-round initiatives and its annual June event.

For more information, visit sff.org.au.

 

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Bloodsuckers: Nature’s Vampires Revealed At The Australian Museum

Feature-Bloodsuckers: Nature’s Vampires

Feel the fascination when Bloodsuckers: Nature’s Vampires, a globally acclaimed, award-winning exhibition opens at the Australian Museum in time for the autumn school holidays. Join the waitlist today to skip the queue when this gripping exhibition opens on Thursday, 2 April.

Bloodsuckers: Nature’s Vampires is an immersive exhibition featuring more than 100 objects, specimens, large-scale models, digital interactives and installations, offering an experience where science, pop culture and curiosity converge. The exhibition was developed by the Royal Ontario Museum.

Director and CEO of the Australian Museum, Ms Kim McKay AO, said the exhibition would bring visitors face to face with some of nature’s most sophisticated micro-predators, but with a new appreciation.

“Some of nature’s most extraordinary survivors often give people the creeps, but this new exhibition, Bloodsuckers: Nature’s Vampires, showcases just how astonishing these species are. They have mastered the art of survival in ways that are impressive, demonstrating the power of evolution in action, playing critical roles in maintaining healthy ecosystems.

“By bringing this exhibition to Sydney, we’re inviting people to look beyond the misconceptions and engage with the science that shapes our world. Inspiring curiosity and deepening visitors’ understanding of biodiversity is at the heart of the Australian Museum’s mission,” Kim McKay said.

Featuring everything from vampire bats to black flies, plus oxpeckers, candiru catfish and medicinal leeches, the exhibition also explores bloodsuckers’ impact on literature, mythology and popular culture. And for the first time, Bloodsuckers will also highlight the special Australian bloodthirsty insects that can be found across the continent.

WHAT TO EXPECT: Visitors will journey through nine immersive sections exploring:
• The biology of blood and why it is such a powerful food source
• The evolution of bloodfeeding over millions of years
• How to live safely and confidently with bloodfeeding species

JOIN THE WAITLIST: With strong global attendance across the exhibition’s international tour and significant interest already building, visitors are encouraged to register for the Bloodsuckers: Nature’s Vampires waitlist today to receive discounted tickets, priority booking access and exclusive updates.

The exhibition was named Overall Winner at the American Alliance of Museums 2019 Excellence in Exhibition Awards and received Merit Awards at the 2021 Society for Experiential Graphic Design Global Design Awards.

Join the waitlist now at: australian.museum/exhibition/bloodsuckers/

General Public tickets go on sale 18 March 2026.
Advanced adult ticket priced from $28
Advanced children’s (4-15 years old) tickets priced from $15
Exhibition opens 2 April 2026.

Bloodsuckers: Nature’s Vampire’s is proudly supported by hotel partner, Pullman Sydney Hyde Park.

Pullman Sydney Hyde Park is offering family-of-four accommodation packages for Australian Museum visitors, including tickets to Bloodsuckers: Nature’s Vampires exhibition, buffet breakfast, overnight accommodation, and an activity pack for children. The hotel is only a three-minute walk from the Australian Museum.

Spread the word on your favourite platform!

Chris Demos Is Back For Festival With “Chips In The Night”

Feature-Chips In the Night

Chris Demos is Crunching in Strong With Chips In The Night for Melbourne International Comedy Festival Do you spend your nights bathed in blue light, staring at screens and eating chips? Then you deserve a break. So come join me on my potato-ship and we’ll sail across the seven seas of hilarities in this stand-up show about gastroenterologists, double vanities and so many more things. Grab your chips and hold on tight, Chris is back with his signature sharp wit and storytelling finesse.

Chris, a former RAW Comedy Victorian State Finalist and mainstay of the Australian comedy scene. Following sold-out seasons of Casual Luxury (2022) and Legs in the Pool (2024) and Actually Kind of Hot (2025), Chris is back at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with his fourth solo show. Chips In The Night is for anyone who spent lonely nights on the couch with reality TV for a companion. There’s no nautical theme, but there may be an occasional reference to Below Deck.

A former RAW Comedy Victorian State finalist and staple of the Melbourne comedy scene, Chris has carved out a reputation for his keen observational humour and magnetic stage presence. Whether you’re a fan of Judge Judy, Judi Dench, or just the awkward spectacle of someone trying to remove a too-tight pair of boots, this show is for you.

Catch Chips In The Night at Melbourne Comedy Festival from April 7 to 19 at Storyville. Tickets on sale now.

“Strong stage presence, gaggy punchlines and insightful storytelling.” ★★★★ The Funny Tonne

“Demos is instantly likeable, making an immediate connection with his audience… a comedian on the rise and one to look out for.” Australian Arts Review

“A hilariously and viciously observant, radiantly talented storyteller.” Praise Dionysus

 

Spread the word on your favourite platform!