“How do you tell the story of a mixed race, fat, bisexual, underwear model, performer and Instagram influencer? You sing a fistful of killer songs in a brand spanking new cabaret of course,” reads the show’s official description.
“Straddling pretty much all of the hottest 2024 minorities (take that as you will), Milo’s unique perspective has her perfectly placed to unpack the now.”
After a successful Sydney season, Milo is ready to share the show in its world premiere taking place at the University of Melbourne Arts and Culture (UMAC) this month. With intersectionality at the forefront, the show approaches “pretty much all of the hottest 2024 minorities (take that as you will)”.
We speak to Milo ahead of the show about the current state of the influencer, theatre and singing scenes in Australia, and the importance of challenging the norms through performing arts and advocacy.
A huge congratulations on bringing Black, Fat and F**gy to Melbourne. How does it feel to do this off the back of showing it in Sydney?
BLOODY AWESOME! I am doing this interview after my penultimate show in Perth, my home town, which after Sydney and before Melbourne feels so special. Sydney, specifically Gadigal country, wanted to cultivate this show (THANK YOU Andrew Henry, Dino Dimitriades, the Old Fitz and Robin Goldsworthy for making this a reality). Perth is my hometown, and we have been welcomed home with open arms, and now to do it in my current hometown makes me feel so EXCITED, especially doing it in Gay Christmas (Midsumma)!
The synopsis for your show mentions: “How do you tell the story of a mixed race, fat, bisexual, underwear model, performer and Instagram influencer?” The first thing I think of here, as a woman of colour, is the intersectionality that is highlighted in this sentence. How important is it for people to consider intersectionality when having conversations about people?
Extremely important, especially if you claim to be a feminist, intersectionality is so key!
Intersectionality is the way we can communicate how oppression all links to each other, but also how we can have understanding in how we are all linked with what we experience. But if you’re looking for an intellectualised dissection of feminist intersectionality, this is NOT the show for you hahahahahaha! I am trying to bring a light and bright, funny take on the hard parts of being a BFF, and it is a little raunchy and a lotta grotty! But that’s me hahahaha!
As an editor and entertainment journalist, I’ve often examined the somewhat lack of diversity within the theatre and music spaces in Australia. Are there any diversity gaps you identify – whether that’s cultural, LGBT, body diversity or other gaps? What has your personal experience been and how can things be improved?
AH dear hahahaha! All of the above tragically are gaps in this industry. I don’t think I look at many shows we have here and go “oh yeah that looks like the world” and a lot of the time I can’t say that I see anyone on stage that is my size or a POC in MainStage or large-scale productions.
My experience has been pretty poor to be honest, which is why I wrote this show. I started writing it after I had my final round for a musical up in Sydney, and the producers of the show put out a statement saying “recent Sydney auditions had a shortage of people of colour trying out for roles” despite the amount I saw auditioning, and they said “We’re not lacking talent, but we’re certainly lacking in colour, we’re hoping somebody walks through the door that we can get excited about,” essentially saying talented people were auditioning just not POC. That was a real punch to the gut, I was like oh so I am invisible to these people. And that’s what I would say encapsulates my experience here.
But when POC speak up we are blacklisted from the industry, which in Music Theatre here I think has happened to me, because I refuse to be put in a “sassy gay,” “ugly and fat,” or “black best friend” box. I refuse to allow people to represent me on stage who aren’t POC. I refuse to be branded as non existent.
Cabaret and song plays a huge role in storytelling through this production. When did you first start performing, and how does music allow you to convey such important messages in an entertaining way?
I started performing when I was quite young, being a little dance school kid. Then I started gaining weight and stopped for a while. But I started performing again at about 10, when I did an impression of Austin Powers at my primary school talent show. So you could say I have always been into high art xx
I love to write a little parody, but also just to SANGGGGG! Music is such a full body experience especially when it’s live, and really I just want this show to feel like a hangout! My accompanist Lucy O’Brien is absolutely incredible at facilitating this vibe, and we work together to get the best results for our audience. I think it’s important for my show to have music as it has always been a huge part of my life. And also I invented singing (my director Robin Goldsworthy’s favourite quote of mine) so naturally I had to do it in the show.
How did you go about choosing the songs for this production? Do you have a favourite?
Well! Robin (Bobby) Goldsworthy, my head chef (director but he prefers this) when we were first conceptualising the show, asked me to go between picking my favourite songs, and songs that I thought would work for the show. I started by splitting the show into three parts, B, F and F, and picking songs which spoke to those titles. And then I sang/played/showed my ideas for rewrites to Bobby and we went from there. We have adjusted from the initial Sydney season and the at came from seeing what worked there, and cutting what we didn’t like from last time! The people who saw the first season however got to see a version no one else ever will and I think that’s special.
I think my favourite song to sing is Dick At Night by Victoria Monet, and favourite to perform is Horny by Mousse T, because the whole audience is involved, you’ll have to come to find out how xx
With the title being ‘Black, Fat and F**gy’, I’d like to ask how fat bodies can be normalised nowadays – whether that’s in fashion and beauty campaigns, on stages, on screens, in the workplace and in social circles?
Get us IN THERE! Get fat people and people of body diversity on stages and screens. Show the things we can do and that being fat isn’t a bad thing, some people (like me) just look like this.
Have there been instances where you’ve been overlooked for influencer campaigns or performance roles, and how did you navigate this?
Constantly. Constantly. It’s a constant battle, I am always going between quitting altogether because I see the things that people half as hard working and half as talented are afforded because they are white thin straight and rich, but I navigate it by getting pissed off and frustrated taking a step back, and then coming back with a banging one woman show.
You have an incredible following of over 30,000 followers on Instagram. How do you navigate the combination of positive comments and negative critiques that comes with being well-known on social media?
I think I am pretty lucky I find most things funny. I think if I didn’t have my sense of humour this life of being a Black Fat and Faggy, BFF list celebrity, in the public eye for homophobes, racists and fatphobes to call all names and slurs under the sun, would be pretty fucking tough. But if anything is gonna give you a thick skin, it’s growing up a BFF in Western Australia. I think at the end of the day Instagram/online presence is fun and I like to try and shift peoples perspective but at the end of the day none of it is that deep.
Further to that, how do you navigate a balance between showing your personal life and keeping it private?
I think people truly believe they know the whole me, just based on instagram, and it’s pretty wild to me how real par asocial relationships feel to people. But the truth is I keep a lot of my life private. People think they know the whole story, but of course there’s things just for me, for my friends, for my family, for my partner, for in my home etc.
The same goes for my show, I think a lot of writers/comedians change small details about their stories a) for the joke to land better/for the flow of a story, but b) to keep some level of privacy. I want my audience to feel welcomed in, and the vibe is very me and the audience hanging while I tell a story and sing some songs, but for my family and friends, and for my own sanity, I gotta have little tweaks for privacy.
All in all though I am a pretty open person, but I also like to consider what I share!
What is something that is often misunderstood about influencers? How does this show deal with these issues?
That influencers aren’t intelligent. I think there’s a big assumption that influencers are not smart, but influencers make a living off of something that I think is in comparison to other things quite low effort and I think that is so smart.
I do think the cost is parasocial relationships and some level of loss of privacy, but every job has a cost I think. I think in the show I just show some of the perks of being in this job really, and place it next to the cost (aka the messages I get online from haters). I do look a little at the difference between being an influencer who is white/thin as opposed to me also, but as much as being a public figure who is a BFF is shit sometimes, I also don’t think I would be where I am today if I wasn’t a BFF.
The show also tackles some assumptions about, and the state of theatre and singing scenes in Australia. What are some of the other misconceptions around these industries?
I think the main misconception about the arts industry that I am constantly talking about and try to highlight a bit in my show is that the arts industry is woke. People think that all artists are lefties who believe in communism and equal rights, but in its current state the arts industry is rife with racism, sexism, assault, fat phobia, and largely monopolised by rich white men, who don’t support any initiatives in DEI. I wanted to do this show to prove BFFs are funny, talented, intelligent and good fucking entertainers.
I try not to dwell on it in the show, but I feel as though the industry needs to change so drastically, every day we are losing incredible talents in this country because marginalised folks aren’t included or wanted. Day after day, in the indie, large scale, Main Stage, queer, and even leftie arts scape, we are just seeing all white, all thin, all non disabled line-ups and enough is ENOUGH.
Do you have any advice for other young people from various walks of life who look up to you, and have struggled with feeling accepted?
FUCK THEM HOES WHO DONT ACCEPT YOU, YOURE AWESOME!!! Just kidding (kind of), I think my real piece of advice would be, make sure if you are feeling alone/like there’s no place for you, that you seek out people you admire/aspire towards that are similar to you. My whole Instagram feed pre 2020, was Instagram thinfluecers, dieting recipe accounts, white people I liked in comedy and MT, and American celebs, which naturally made me feel like shit.
But of course it did, everything I was aspiring to was so out of reach, I was never going to be straight, thin, white or do comedy/ MT in the ways they did. I was going to do it in ways MILO does it. For people like me.
I made an active choice to unfollow those accounts in 2020, and start following people I liked and admired who reminded me of myself in some way, and I think it really helped me to
Two fun questions to wrap things up: Who would you like to play yourself in a biopic? If you could have dinner with any famous person in the world, who would it be and what would you talk about?
OOOOOOO I think, the person I want to play myself in a biopic hasn’t been born yet, but some young, Black Fat and Faggy trailblazer born in like 10 years, who does everything I can and more!!!!
Hmmmmm I’m gonna say two because I couldn’t choose, and they might be a bit like, OBVIOUS from me but idgaf. Firstly Raven Symoné because I would wanna pick her brain about EVERYTHING acting and comedy related, and ask the things she wished she did in her early career, so I can make sure I do those exact things.
And then Halle Berry, to firstly tell her she made me gay, and then to pick her brain about acting for drama and what she thinks is important to hold with you as an actor and the best prep for her process.
Black, Fat and F**gy runs from February 3 to February 6 at the University Of Melbourne. Ticket details available here.
Top photo source: Supplied/Lazy Fair