Welcome to the sixth guest blog post of Time Out Sydney's 52 Weeks of #SydCulture 2017 challenge! Every Wednesday of February, Heaps Gay founder, 'Queen of the Party' and Mardi Gras board member Kat Dopper is telling us what she loved the week before. Think of it as your recommendations for this week, from someone who sees a helluva lot of arts and culture. Over to Kat.
Have you ever wanted to see someone deep throat a 4-foot-long balloon sausage? Or watch a space alien gyrating hoola hoops to soft rock? You should have been at Chippendale’s Knox Street Bar last Thursday night – for The Oyster Club: Glamdrogynous Freakshow.
Photograph: Tim da-Rin
One of the newest things to arrive on Sydney’s ever-changing queer scene, the Oyster Club is a monthly variety show curated by a couple of performance artists (who have graced the stage at Heaps Gay): Julia Rose and Marlena Dali. It’s an all-inclusive line-up with a key ongoing theme: “More Art, Less Trump”.
Last week I took time out from planning Heaps Gay’s Marrickville street party to head over to the Oyster Club and see what the fuss was about. As soon as I wandered into the small bar I knew I was in the right place: this is a gender-bending and welcoming crowd, and a great event to head to solo and make some new pals.
The show is always in two parts, so you can shout your new friends a round of Aperol Spritzes in the intermission and chuck the spare change into the oyster feature, where all donations go straight to asylum seekers.
Round two began and we were asked to strap in our strap-ons as the fun started up again: pussy cats, pole dancing, a goddess on a bed of nails, a merman in a wading pool... The Oyster Club quite literally is some delightfully wacky dream come true.
The next edition of The Oyster Club: Glamdrogynous Freakshow is March 9, and tickets tend to sell out – so get organised if you’re interested.
Read more about our 52 Weeks of #SydCulture challenge, and let us know what you're seeing/loving on Instagram via the hashtag #SydCulture.