The Queer Variety Show
The Queer Variety Show is a variety show that features Queer/LGBTIQA+ and Disabled (includes, chronic illness, mental illness, neurodivergent) people, with the occasional ally.
A map showing where Smith's Alternative is.
We are located on Ngnunnawal/Ngambri country, otherwise known as Canberra, Australia.
The show is held roughly, bi monthly, at Smith's Alternative in Civic.
76 Alinga Street, Canberra City.
By clicking on the information below, it will take you directly to
that part of my website.
Queer Variety Shows for the rest of 2025
Next show is the 22nd of July 2025
Image description: This is an invitation for the Queer Variety Show. The background is a rainbow of paint like marks going diagonally across the page. It has several text boxes and logos. There is a Smith's Alternative logo, an Arachne Art logo and an ACT Government logo. The text is black in white boxes: Text: The Queer Variety Show, 22nd July, 7pm to 9pm-ish, Smith's Alternative, tickets $20/25.
Our next show is on the 22nd of July. For a relaxed evening of queer entertainment.
This is a relaxed show, feel free to wear whatever you are comfortable in, whether it be your Pjs or an evening gown. It also means you can move around during the show if you need to.
Please consider wearing a mask, to help make the environment safer for disabled people. Similarly, please refrain from wearing perfume/cologne, as some people are allergic to this.
This month our performers are: Mena Paws - Emcee, Kaotic Dezires, Electra Powerhouse, Nexus Cave, Ashtray Moonay, Makedonka, Ramona Powers and Isabelle River and Jem Allen.
You may be wondering why we have a government logo? We were fortunate to receive funding to support aspects of our show. One of these things being, WE WILL NOW BE HAVING AN AUSLAN INTERPRETER at our shows.
For tickets to our show on the 22nd of July , click here
Performers 22nd July 2025
Makedonka
Makedonka is a Macedonian-born, now Canberra-based comedian used to call south west Sydney home. She likes to think of herself as the bridge between the ancient history of the Balkans and the slightly less ancient but still confusing world of Australian suburbia. She’s adapted to the dry wit of Canberra’s political scene mixed with the passion of her heritage— whether it’s navigating Aussie slang or explaining why you should never challenge a Macedonian mother’s cooking, she’s here to make you laugh
Image description:
This is a head shot of, Makedonka who is a white skinned woman, she has long curly brown hair and dark eyes. She is wearing a green top and is smiling broadly at the camera. Behind her is a white and black screen.
Kaotic Dezires
Welcome to meeting Kaotic Dezires, an eancient toybox of unwanted things, filled with tales told by toys we discard as mere playthings.
Be engulfed into the madness of what dwells in the deep crevices of the mind, be lured down paths less travelled, be embraces with the evil of love that only toys can bring. Prepare for a restless slumber.
Image Description:
Everything is bathed in red light. Kaotic Dezires is wrapped in pale clothing and rags, including a mask and hood - crouching near and looking at a wooden box on a stand.
Ashtray Moonay
Miss Ashtray, well what can you say. She has done just about everything when it comes to being a queen. One thing Ashtray hasn’t done is Rupaul’s Drag Race. Who knows maybe 2025 is the year for a Koori drag queen to bring home the title. I’m so excited to be asked to perform at The Queer Variety Show produced by my friend Megan. I just want to see my Queens of colour in the spotlight. That’s my goal to encourage younger black sisters to give it a go.
Image description:
Ashtray is a First Nations drag queen, in this photo she appears to be backstage somewhere. She is standing in a small space with a shelves and things around her with random stuff on them. She is standing with her left hand folded backwards and on her hip, the other had is resting on some boxes on a shelf. She is wearing a black fishnet body suit with sleeves just past the elbow, and it ends on her thighs. Underneath she has a black string bikini that has multiple straps going across her body. She has dark coloured heavy drag makeup and long brown hair in braids with a ponytail with braids hanging down.
Nexus Cave
Photo by Empress Eyrie
Welcome to the Nexus we hope you have a good time and don't get too lost in the dark moist Cave. A non binary badass here to give you it all and then take it away again. With a background in poetry and performance Nexus is ready to lure you in to the darkness of their Cave with their mystique.
Image description:
Nexus Cave is a white skinned person. They have dark stage makeup up with a purple tinge to it. They have collar length wavy dark hair with purple highlights. They are standing side on to the camera, the photo is from the waist up. They have their right arm bent with the hand, which we cannot see, behind their head and their other hand on their hip, they have bluish nail polish on. They are wearing a black corset, with shiny black rhinestones and a lacy bra. They are also wearing some kind of black skirt or pants, that we just see the top of. They have a seductive expression on their face. The background is purple.
Ramona Powers and Isabelle River
Photo by Evelyn Hunt Photography
Image description: Ramona Powers and Isabelle River are two white skinned people. They are lying down close to each other, touching each other and looking into each other’s eyes as lovers do. They are wearing pajamas, and appear to be lying on bedding. Isabelle has long dark wavy hair and is wearing pink and Ramona has blond hair with blue ends and is wearing blue.
Emerging from your deepest fantasies, Ramona Powers explodes into the Burlesque world. This time with special guest Isabelle River!
Together Ramona and Isabelle will bring your slumber party fantasies to the stage.
Their every move feels like a shared secret whispered under the covers, a mischievous dance that rewrites bedtime rituals with teasing glances and lingering touches.
So grab your pillows, get your popcorn ready, and settle in to see what happens when the lights go out and the dreams take over!
Jem Allen
Photo by Nathan J Lester
Jem is a new-to-the-scene, old-to-the-craft musician making their way around Canberra reimagining pop songs with a sapphic twist and a thick Aussie accent. Her original music is open, honest, and takes inspiration from Australian indie folk artists.
Image description:
Jem Allen is a white skinned person with a short brown mullet style hair cut. They have glasses and dangly earrings, a nose ring, and a string of pearls. They are also wearing a tartan, green and black asymmetric skirt. They are standing, and playing their guitar whilst they sing. Their eyes are closed
Electra Powerhouse
Photo by Nathan J Lester
Once a fierce ruler of the Solar System, Electra Powerhouse fell to Earth after being struck by lightning. A thunderstorm of burlesque!
A regular of the Canberra scene previously and returning from a long awaited hiatus, Electra kicked in the doors of the Burlesque scene with their recent win of APPRENTEASE 2025!!! This Canberra spark will take your mind with intensity and dexterity for your nerves.
Image description:
Electra is standing and holding the corners of collar of their dark blue shirt up with the corresponding hand. Their chest is exposed revealing black nipple pasties with blue lightening bolts, there is red, yellow and blue paint marks across their chest and their exposed wrists. Electra is of Asian appearing with dark eyes that are staring into the camera, with their lips open with their tongue sticking out between their white teeth. They have shoulder length purple hair, purple eyebrows and purple lips. There is some sparkly makeup around their eyes. The background is mid blue.
Mena Paws
Photo by CaptaVitae Photography
Image description:
Mena Paws is a white skinned woman, with heavy drag makeup. She has grey collar length hair and several tattoos on her upper arms. She is wearing purple, lilac and white floral themed pants, with an orange lacy, his vis vest and black rhinestoned shoes. She also has several strands of chunky beads around her neck. In this photo she is sitting in a black bean bag and is reaching forward as if she is trying to escape. She has an exasperated look on her face.
She’s often cranky and she’s always sweary. She’s the librarian you feared when you were 8, but she’s also your favourite Aunty. She sits on the line of being un-PC but she has a heart of gold. She’s a proud Gen X-er, but has no time for privileged, ‘Karen’s’. Closer to 60 than 50, she believes in body positivity for everyone, and isn’t afraid to get her kit off. If you tell her age is just a number, she will remind you that you are most likely a foetus and have no idea, but she loves younger generations and believes they will save us. She likes beautiful gardens and prefers ladies to plough her garden. She’s dopamine dressing yet loves a great goth outfit. Her style icons are Iris Apfel, Kath Day-Knight and Lady Danbury.
She’s a proud queer and disabled person and in 2022 she won the Chief Minister’s Inclusion Award for Excellence in Making Inclusion Happen. In 2024 she won Entertainer of the Year, in Mx Burlesque Australia, placing 2nd runner up and in 2025 she was in the ApprenTease.
Accessibility
Canberra does not have many accessible and affordable venues to host events at. We acknowledge this and we are doing our best to add accessible elements wherever possible. We receive no funding to do this. Our show is run on the amount of tickets sold, and our performers are prioritised as far as payment is concerned. Each show has several volunteers that help us run it. The producers are rarely paid for their many hours of effort.
If there is anything you think we can do to improve accessibility, please let us know and we will do our best. Nigel and Beth the owners of Smith's Alternative are very supportive and do some parts of hosting a show, which adds to the accessbility of the show for the producers. Nigel and Beth are nearly always around to help out which is also very helpful.
Film Clips
The following is film clips of the venue for purposes of accessibility. Watching these may cause motion sickness for some. Photos coming soon for folks who can't access the film clips. Pardon the shakiness in parts, that's my disability in action.
Clicking on the links (which are underlined) will take you to a new tab, and a clip on You Tube.
Entry to the upstairs accessible toilet
This toilet is more accessible than the downstairs toilet for mobility aid users. In most cases there will be a show or an event on upstairs, so you can go on up there. However there might be times when there is no event. Ask the bar staff before heading up, just in case.
For performers these films will be of use, however I have a separate clip specifically for you, which I am not going to list here, as it shows backstage area of Smith's Alternative. I can send you a link if you email me.
If you are unable to watch film clips, there are photographs below with information.
Entering the building and event room where the Queer Variety show is held.
This is the entry into Smith's Alternative. There is a small wooden ramp. The door opens inwards.
Image Description: A doorway with brown wooden doors and a big long brass handle. One door is open. The ground on the outside of the doorway is tiled. There is a small wooden ramp leading up to the door opening.
This is just inside the main door entry of Smith's Alternative. To the left is the bar area, to the right is an area with some couches. There is a step up to the area with the couches. The main door to the toilets is at the back of the room. The door/entry into another room is just past this entry to the right. This area can get quite congested just before an event.
Image description: A room with a bar on the left and some furniture on the right. The floor is black and white Lino.
This is the entry to the room where many shows are held. The person who checks peoples tickets, usually stands at a small table to the left of this doorway when you enter.
Image description: To the right is a wall with lots of posters on it and furniture in front of it. Looking through the doorway, there is a bunch of chairs and a small step up to the left. The stage with a screen down is just visible.
Image description: A room with an array of different chairs and tables. There is a red bit of floor to the right, this is a gentle ramp going up to the side of the stage. The stage is in the distance, there is a screen hanging down on the stage.
This is an overall view of the main show space, just after you walk through the door. Not quite visible is an area that is slightly raised to the left, with and array of seating and tables. To the right there is also an array of seating, including many couches and soft seating.
Seating can be and is arranged differently depending on what event is being held and how many tickets are sold. If sold out, the seating is usually in rows and fairly jam packed. In the right of this image there is a red ramp.
Wheel chair users can go up the red ramp and sit facing it. The furniture behind them is usually arranged in rows, all facing the ramp (facing the stage).
Image description: A room with a bunch of chairs on the left, a red ramp to the right of the chairs and further furniture next to the red ramp.
Getting to the downstairs toilets
To get to the toilets, you go through the red door in the first room, that the bar is in. This is not accessible to mobility aid users, as there are three steps on the other side of it.
Image description: An image of a room that has a black and white checked Lino floor. There is a wall on the left with some furniture and other furniture and some curtains on the right. In the middle of the photo is a red door with 'toilets' written on it.
To access the disabled toilets, you need to go back out the front door of Smith's Alternative, turn right and there is another building entry that is a couple of sliding glass doors. These open automatically.
Image description: An image of a couple of glass sliding doors. There is some signage written on the left hand side. text: physio, massage, podiatry. There is some signage above the door that is just visible.
After you go through the glass doors you will see a lift right in front of you, to the left of that is a some stairs to the right is a ramp with a red railing. This is where you go to access the disabled (and other) toilets.
Image description: A picture of a ramp that is the floor sloping downwards. The floor is dark grey and the wall is white, there is a red railing against the wall.
As you go down the ramp you will see the men's toilets on the left (there is a couple of steps down to them). At the bottom of the ramp you will see some steps ahead of you, this leads back into Smith's Alternative, to the left is the entry to the disabled toilet and the women's toilets. The door to the disabled toilet opens outwards.
Image description: A photo of a grey door, with white walls around it and a grey floor.
The accessible toilet is quite small and the corners that you need to turn to get into it are also quite narrow. Some people are not able to access it, due to the angles and the size of the toilet.
Image description: An accessible toilet room. The walls are white there is a white toilet on the left hand side of the room. There is a rail that starts behind the toilet and runs around to the left side of the toilet. Just visible is a hand washing basin on the left side of the image.
This is the side wall of the disabled toilet. You can just see the toilet in the bottom right hand side.
Image description: a photo of a toilet /bathroom. There is a white hand basin in the left corner, a rail that is along the wall, a sanitary bin and the edge of the toilet in the right corner.
Entry to the upstairs accessible toilet
To access the upstairs disabled toilets, you need to go back out the front door of Smith's Alternative, turn right and there is another building entry that is a couple of sliding glass doors. These open automatically.
Image description: An image of a couple of glass sliding doors. There is some signage written on the left hand side. text: physio, massage, podiatry. There is some signage above the door that is just visible.
After you enter the glass doors there will be a lift in front of you.
The inside of the lift is small. Probably only a couple of metres square.
You may need to enter the lift forwards and back out, there is not much room in there to turn around. I was not about to take photos of the inside because it was too small.
Image description: A close up of two metal lift doors.
When you get out of the lift (on the first floor) you turn left. You go through the red door to get into the various upstairs Smith's Alternative venues. The door opens towards you. In most cases I expect that if the venue is open the door will also be open.
Image description:
An entry into a room. The floor is black and white checkered lino. The red door is opened outwards. You can see into a hall way. There is a small table against a wall with things on it and a picture hanging on the wall with a black camera tripod in front of it, directly after the open doorway, to the left there is a corridor.
The accessible toilet is along the corridor to the left. The door opens inwards. The room is spacious enough to go in and shut the door. There are railings next to the toilet and behind the toilet on the left.
Image description:
Looking into a toilet room. There is a dark coloured door on the left, which is open and against the wall. On the back wall of the white painted room, on the right is a toilet. Next to the toilet there is a wall with a railing. There is a railing on the left side of the toilet. In the left corner of the toilet is a chair.
This view is taken from standing near the toilet and facing the doorway and sink area. The sink is at a height for non disabled people. However it is not really high and is probably able to be reached from a seated position.
Image description:
A white sink in the corner of a public bathroom. Above it is a mirror. Next to the mirror on the right is a soap dispenser. On the wall that is next to the sink is a hand towel dispenser and below this is a sanitary bin.
Outside Area
This is the outside area of Smith's Alternative, it is directly in front of the venue, with a walk way in between. There is a step down, and a lot of the furniture is big and heavy. However, a mobility aid user could get in there by moving towards Northbourne Avenue (to the right of the image) and going 'around'.
Image description: a bunch of outdoor furniture, with some plants in the background, a large column in the right, top corner.
This is to the left hand side of the outdoor area at Smith's Alternative. As you can see it is open, with no barriers, this could be accessible to mobility aid users.
Image description: A large wooden table with bench chairs is in the right side of the photo. In the background there is paved ground and some garden beds and a road in the background.
What we are doing to make our show more accessible
We ask our audience to consider wearing masks, this makes the show a much safer place for many disabled people who are immunocompromised, or have chemical or other sensitivities. This particularly applies to the performers who often find it hard to wear a mask if they are wearing makeup.
We ask our audience not to wear perfumes, colognes or other types of scents, as many people have chemical sensitivities.
We do not play loud music before, during the break or after the show. We also have gentle lighting, before,during and after the show. This means the venue is low sensory.
You can wear what you want to our shows, as long as you are comfortable, there is no judgement - you can wear your oodie, or you can wear an evening gown. Whatever you like.
Shows are 'relaxed shows'. This means that you can get up and move around, stim, do whatever you need to do, during the show, even if someone is performing.
We offer to have someone or a group of people walk to your transport with you.
We have system whereby you can get help with entering our competitions, or giving feedback, or even buying you a drink (with your money!), if you can't move easily from your chair once the show has started. We use a signalling system for you to get help from one of our crew.
We often have free tickets for those who cannot afford a ticket - contact us if you would like one.
Smith's Alternative now has venues upstairs as well as at ground level. Mobility aid users can access both venues. The front door opens inwards. The furniture is able to be moved around, which means we can move it to accommodate our needs.
If you are a performer, there is a ramp that goes up onto the stage. To get to the toilets, it requires you to go up and down a few steps at the back of the venue OR you go out the front door to the left and then left again down a ramp which takes you to all the toilets.
I am told that not everyone can actually use the disabled toilet on the ground floor, due to the way the door opens and the angles. Some wheelchair users are known to visit a neighbouring venue to go to the toilet in the past.
The Queer Variety Show is held on the ground floor. There is an upstairs space now, with an accessible toilet. The upstairs spaces are accessible via a lift. I will provide information on the accessible toilet soon (need to go in and film and take photos). It is possible the upstairs loo is more accessible for some.
I don't know if what we do is considered Open Captions. We will be project some text onto a film screen. The text includes the performer introductions, so partly what the emcee is saying.
At each show we have a couple of large print programs, in plain english available.
From the 20th of May 2024, we will have an Auslan Interpreter at our shows. They will interpret what the emcee says, and most spoken word art forms. (we are currently in the process of organising the interpreter (have not 100% confirmed for the May show)