| THE BIRTHPLACE OF
EATERTAINMENT |
| In Australia, Jackie made great
strides with her singing and performing through her wonderful
friend and mentor, Paulene Terry-Beitz. An incredible
actor, director, and writer, she took Jackie under her
wing and together they devised Jackie's first one-woman
show, "Black Pearls and Strange Fruit". |
"The show would have never happened without
Paulene. It was her idea that I needed my own vehicle
in the first place. I would have never found the courage
or the belief in my abilities without her. And when
she had to leave five weeks before opening, because
her partner had a heart attack, I almost had one too.
I was petrified, but the show must go on and I was very
glad it did."
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| "Black Pearls and Strange
Fruit" debuted in the Melbourne Fringe Festival,
beating all 150 other shows for the coveted Best Show
prize. |
"I couldn't believe it! Four weeks of sold-out performances
and to top it off, we'd won the opportunity to have
the show produced in the Melbourne International Festival
of the Arts. Alongside Dance Theater of Harlem, Leslie
Caron, The New Budapest String Quartet, Amanda McBroom.
And Paulene would be back to direct it. Pretty exciting
for my first show!"
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| She got on the corporate circuit,
performing shows for BMW, Bolle, Macquarie Bank, as well
as private clients. The challenge was keeping her image
in the public eye. The second run of "Black Pearls
and Strange Fruit" was scheduled for a year later.
She had to do something in between… |
"A funny thing happened during the debut of "Black
Pearls and Strange Fruit." A blurb was written
about it in the Epicure section of The Age newspaper,
the equivalent of the New York Times Dining
Out section. They'd picked up on my being a chef and
wrote, "Come down for some real southern fried
chicken." All of a sudden I'm getting calls from
people who want to come to the "dinner show. My reaction
was, "What?!!!" It was all I could do to
put on a show, now they're asking about dinner and
a show, for only $12.00? But it gave me a great idea..."
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