FREAK OF THE WEEK
Photography by: Dane Singleton
Julianne Sisinni spent most of her 20’s living abroad chasing her dreams. From crooning jazz songs in dimly lit bars in Edinburgh to producing and performing an original (sold-out) burlesque show in London, Jules has been hustling for many years to turn her dreams into a reality.
Like many others, COVID completely changed her life forcing her to pack her things and move from London back home.
After two years of limbo and pining for her craft she has re-established herself in Ulladulla behind her trusty sewing machine furiously making new costumes for her Australian burlesque debut. Julianne is working with us at the Deadly South and is producing and hosting our inaugural event season of ‘Cabaret’ . Celia Lipz, her saucy stage character will be gracing this little town with her quick wit, amazing voice and enthusiasm for the spotlight. But first, let’s get to know the girl behind these amazing handmade costumes and find out when and how it all began.
Have you always been musically minded?
Yes. I started guitar in grade 3 in primary school. My teacher was fantastic, Colin Whittaker. I branched out into singing from there. It was really strange because when I started I was really shy about it. I distinctly remember one time at a performance in school, some of the other girls and I did “Am I Not Pretty Enough” by Kasy Chambers.
Classic.
Yep, they were dancing and I was singing it, but I was so scared, I was singing it under a desk. I was crouched under this little desk “Am I not pretty enough…” and they were doing interpretive dance. Obviously, the kids laughed at us! That scared me off for a while.
Is there a moment that you can remember when you finally realised you were good?
I think it was the beginning of high school. Primary school was such a small school, so coming into high school and doing a bit of music and singing in year 7 and one of the teachers realised my potential before I did. They threw me into performing at assemblies, it was “here sing in front of 1200 kids!” As the collective for the school to say I was a good singer, and older students which were more or less adults to me at 17, 18, for them to say I was really good. That was an aha moment! As much as I would like to say I had it within me, I did and probably still do, need someone to encourage and validate me. The affirmation that it’s good. I’m not sure that I love it as a quality about myself, but we are
social beings.
Shortly after you finished Uni you moved to the UK, can you walk me through that decision?
It’s pretty interesting because growing up I was never interested in travelling. Once I decided that I wanted to pursue Musical Theatre I worked really hard at Uni. Shortly after I graduated I had a few auditions and I guess…
Auditions in Sydney? For professional Musical Theatre shows?
Yep. I was finding it difficult to get that work/income/performance balance. I found that I was not doing well at the auditions because I was having to work so hard in my mundane job just to build up a bit [of savings] to buy new chorus shoes, or pay my rent, buy food etc. I decided to just work a bit, save, and hold back on the auditions. But after a while of putting the auditions on the back burner, I had to ask myself what am I doing? I’d worked so hard to get to that point and it all went out the window.
Well, it does when you finish Uni. All your support stops and you’re out in the real world.
And it’s like what do you mean I don’t have 8 hours a day to focus on my art??
At that point I thought about travelling and trying musical theatre in the UK, especially London. That’s when the seed was planted. After a while I bought a one-way plane ticket for a bit over a year in advance.
…Deadline!!
Yeah. I set my savings goal and planned to travel for a bit, then move to London and be a Musical Theatre STAR! Not quite how it worked out…
So you were over Sydney?
Yeah, I needed a change and to shake things up. Also, because I worked at theatres for 4 years I knew all of the faces. I don’t know, I kind of wanted to be anonymous in a sense. I think this was just my perception, I felt like I was always the front of house girl to them, to everyone. I didn’t want to be that. The pressure of messing up… they knew who I was! If I didn’t have enough time to prep, which happened a few times, it shows. You only have one chance and one chance that can taint other chances, if it’s the same people, people talk.
Did you become a musical theatre star in London?
*laughs No. I landed in Edinburgh originally which was kind of an accident. I wanted to hang out there for a few months before moving to London. I ended up staying a year because I adored it. In Edinburgh, as far as I could see, there wasn’t much of a Musical Theatre scene at all, it’s quite a small city, a beautiful city, but small, and the vibe was more jazz, underground bars, wintery, sipping whisky in a dimly lit bar, so I went into the Jazz scene there. I became pretty obsessed with it. By the time I got to London, I didn’t want to audition for musicals, it wasn’t my vibe anymore. I enjoy the whole creative process. I’m not into writing pieces - more like concerts with a concept where I can put work into the music arrangements, costumes and the intention without giving a written storyline. You take what you take.
DS: So Jules, where is your go-to spot in Ulladulla? When you want to get away from everything and clear your head, where's your
happy place?
Jules: I would have to say flat rock.
Where’s that?
Next to Racecourse Beach. The rock shelf to the side. I grew up really close to there, I have been collecting shells there since I was 7 and it’s where I’ve always walked my dog. It’s a place I go often to reflect.
I know a bit about you already and I’ve done my homework. I know you moved to Sydney pretty much straight away after school finished. There was no gap year. I want to know why. Can you tell me where you went to in Sydney?
I went to Uni at The Australian Institute of Music (AIM). The admission was not by ATAR but by audition, that was a huge part of the reason I didn’t have a gap year. [At the audition] I saw all these other kids who had danced since they were 5, knew extensive music theory, etc and at that point, I thought I wasn’t going to get in! My backup plan was to have a gap year in Canada working in the summer camps and snowfields. It was a fun thing so if I didn’t get in I wouldn’t be too heartbroken… but I got in!
Did you always feel Uni was the clear next step or did you ever think about other ways to develop your talent?
Yes and no. I realised that I needed more tuition, especially if I wanted to perform in [professional] Musical Theatre.
I would not have been able to, at that point, walk into an audition room with the experience I had, I was nowhere near ready. It seemed that the easiest and the most financially viable way to get that much tuition was Uni. This was a place I could spend 40-60 hours a week focusing on progressing my art and finding exactly what I wanted to do. The conclusion I came to is Musical Theatre - I like drama and I like music - A + B = Musical Theatre!
It’s like “What am I good at? How do I make a living out of this?”
Exactly! It was the only answer for me in a sense. I had no other idea how to approach it! I didn’t know what other avenues there were. Coming from Ulladulla and having not branched out earlier, I couldn’t really see other options.
Spoiler alert… How does one go from a wholesome, country girl who sits underneath the school table singing Am I Not Pretty Enough, to a London burlesque performer, taking off your clothes in front of strangers, straddling chairs, popping out of bins, and covering your naked titties with cream? If you could just walk me through that transition. I’m very curious to know.
When I was living in Edinburgh I travelled to Spain to walk the 800km Camino de Santiago. I went in intending to find some clarity with my career. I wanted to come out the other side knowing what I want to do with the rest of my life. It was not that and I did not find that at all! But I found a sense of self and self-worth.
Whilst travelling I ate a lot, drank a lot and didn’t exercise. I had a lot of weight gain. When I got back [to Edinburgh] I felt really out of sorts.
I wanted to give Burlesque a go and take ownership of my space. I felt like I needed to regain control of my sexuality and my body.
I moved to London and had to start over AGAIN, which was a blessing and a curse. There were so many venues to try new things. The Rock n Roll Cabaret, where I started, was a funny place, anyone was welcome, not just to watch but to perform. It doesn’t matter if you’re a drag queen who sings Rocky Horror Picture Show or if you’re doing burlesque or singing, or DJing, fire twirling, it doesn’t matter we welcome you.
I told the MC that I loved the show [after watching for the first time] and I would love to maybe perform one time. She told me she had room the following week!
There’s your deadline.
Yeah I know! I just said yes and then had a week to come up with a concept, a costume, a dance, an act! All of the stuff. I didn’t have time to psych myself out. It was frantic preparation. After I did that first performance I adored it much more than I thought I would. It’s so liberating and fun. The audiences are so encouraging and it was such a great experience. It was such a high that I had to do it again. It was the beginning of something I wanted to pursue seriously.
As a woman you spend a lot of your life being ogled or catcalled, you just feel eyes on you throughout your whole life, whether you want to or not. So at that moment, you get to regain control, like you said, you're choosing the eyes to be on you, you're choosing what they see, you get to reclaim it.
Yeah. It’s like I want you to see this. I also feel like it’s a really fun way to not only express yourself but… it’s 5 minutes that is entirely yours. It doesn’t have to be a cohesive storyline, it doesn’t have to have a concept, but you can make a political statement or you can share something personal or you can be silly. This is my body! And I love it! And you love it too! I adore so many aspects that I didn’t expect to. I thought I’d try it once and
be done.
I like that and it’s clear to see the transition. Burlesque is still singing and dancing, which is what you were doing at AIM, but it’s like the glittery underbelly of Musical Theatre.
I like the rawness. Musical Theatre has come a long way with acceptance of all shapes and sizes but even through Uni there was this underlying thing… and teachers would say to me “You need to lose weight, you need to look good in a bikini on stage.” You’re either a big girl or you were skinny. I feel like that is changing but there’s not that constraint at all in burlesque, it celebrates everybody's shape. It doesn’t matter what you look like or what you identify with, everybody is welcome.
Long story short, COVID happens! 2020… You come back to Ulladulla, back to where it all began. Hometown life. Big city London to little town Ulladulla. What was that like?
I didn’t think I was coming home permanently! I thought I’d be here for a couple of months while everything blows over, then back to London. Didn’t really work out that way… which was pretty heartbreaking to be real with you. Months before the COVID spread I produced my own burlesque show, with a relatively unique concept. Three performers who all sang and danced. We had this moving show where the three of us did a 10 person job in a variety show.
I felt like I had worked a long time to get to this point and then something that was completely out of my control snatched me away from it. In saying that, I still feel very lucky to be able to come home, but it’s just a very very different journey from what I was on this time two years ago.
This is the first time I’ve been back for more than a week. It was a bit of a culture shock. It was a nice holiday in the beginning. I went from being busy all the time, where there’s no green space, to being back and not being able to find a space where there isn’t a tree!
It’s clear from this conversation that you’re very goal orientated. You like deadlines and clarity. What is next?
That’s a really difficult question and I feel it’s one that I’ve been trying to work out for the past year or so. I know I want to get back into burlesque. I’ve been procrastinating. I have been working on costumes and doing bits and pieces here and there. The reality is, it’s going to have to be the same as London, I’m going to have to bite the bullet and apply. Apply to some venues in Sydney to perform.
Sydney?
Yeah, I’m also interested in Wollongong. I’m looking to start doing some jazz sets and gigs around town, which I think will be good, different to the whole cover band vibe. My taste in jazz is quite old, from the 1920s to ’60s, throwing in some contemporary tracks, Amy Winehouse or Jorja Smith, [I like] finding those gems that no one has heard of or maybe heard once in a movie soundtrack. A lot of it is such good music.
So in a nutshell, I would like to get back to performing once everything is kind of back on its feet. It’s tricky at the moment to give anything a deadline. I am teaching music at the moment which has been an awesome experience and one that I’ll come back to later.
It’s been good now to have this downtime, I feel like I’m prepping for future openings.
Everyone’s in the same boat and everyone listening or reading this will know exactly what I’m talking about. There’s just a certain point where you ask yourself what can I even do? And like I said I work so well with deadlines it’s really difficult for me to get everything ready for whenever the world opens.
Okay, what if I was to say to you, tomorrow when you wake up there is no COVID, you don’t have to worry about money, responsibility, anything. You get to wake up tomorrow and do whatever you want and it’s possible - what would you do?
I would go back to London and keep going with my show because I really do believe in it and it’s something that I love doing, not only doing but bringing it to people and sharing that joy, the meaning within songs, or acts. I feel this is realistic Julianne again, but it’s a sustainable thing, it’s not a show with a cast of 20 where I have to pay all of them and secure a venue and ticket sales, the logistics worked well, and we had such a good starting point. I was looking forward to honing our skills and the show. I would go right back to where I was.
Fair enough, it was snatched from you. Even though you have to use the words “go back” you’re not going backwards, it’s going back to what you had before the world broke.
Yeah. Realistically I won’t be able to go back there and live for - if ever - it won’t happen for a few years with work visas and things like that. Maybe in the future, I don’t know. I don’t want to open myself up to that hope and have it not happen, but there’s always this part of me that asks what I could have done? The little seed started so well… maybe it was going to flourish into a huge tree.
What’s stopping you from pursuing that same goal here? Would you take that same show format, obviously without the performers, and perform it here?
100%! I really would. I kind of planned to. I would like to take the concept, which was my baby. I would. I think it’s more about venues and popularity of burlesque and the amount of performers. It’s a lot smaller industry here. There’s even a tiny part of me that wonders if I’ll cut it, the competition is so tight - that inner saboteur that looks at the Australian girls who are doing it really well, and because it is a smaller stage…
Do you think there is less room for other performers? Or it feels that way.
Yeah. Why would someone hire me and my show?
Are you kidding? You need to listen to this interview!
*laughs. But they could hire someone like Lou-p-Scarlett or Brendan Delahay, people who have been doing it in Australia for a long time. There’s just not that many stages that are taking it at the moment.
It’s so funny you say this because at the beginning you were saying “It’s the same faces, I want to be that anonymous girl”, and in a way, you can be now. You have been away, and maybe they remember you from Uni you’re a different person now. You’re a bit more of an underdog, you’re unfamiliar now.
I guess, that’s maybe scary in itself, I would be representing myself, on a different stage.
You’re right, I hadn’t really thought of it that way, but it’s a nice thing to think I have this opportunity where I can go back and say
“Look at me now!”
FIND MORE OF JULES HERE
Freak of The Week is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.