| 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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