In a circus of comedy, music and magic, Aria award-winning Mic Conway and flat-picking guitar champion Robbie Long will play Wauchope Community Arts Hall on Saturday June 4. They’ll present an hilarious array of idiosyncratic songs to make your jaw drop, toes tap and sides split.
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Best known for his tongue-in-cheek humour as lead singer of The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, Mic says this show is stripped back, irreverent, and shameless - surreal vaudeville for crooning and swooning.
“It’s more mayhem and silliness, so expect the unexpected,” says Mic, who likes to mix comedy with music.
“I love playing with Robbie Long, because he is a brilliant musician but he also understands theatre.”
And just for something a little bit different, members of Port Macquarie UKESTRA will play and sing along for a couple of songs.
Mic was born into a family of vaudeville performers. His grandfather, Manny Aarons was known as the Wizard of the Wurlitzer, and used to come out of the floor in the State Theatre in Sydney. And his great-aunt was a tap-dancing champion.
So although he trained as an art teacher, life on the stage beckoned. In the 1970s, Mic and his brother Jim founded the Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band. To their surprise, it became a cult phenomenon, recording seven records, two of which achieved gold status.
Mic was also ringmaster, juggler and acrobat at the legendary Pram Factory Theatre in Melbourne and helped found the now world-famous Circus Oz.
As well as touring the world as a singer, Mic is a children’s entertainer. He works with The Wiggles and is the voice of "Wags the Dog".
His favourite songs include “My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes”, “I Call My Baby Hinges Because She’s Something To A-Door” and “If I Can’t Have-Anna in Cuba, I think I’ll See-Esther in Spain”.
“When I was a kid, I used to collect old 78 records of vaudeville songs, and I always wanted to do what they did. I love novelty, and crazy bands, so I ended up making my own.”
Last year, Mic was amazed when a publisher commissioned a biography about him and his brother, Jim, who has lived with multiple sclerosis for 30 years. The result was “Captain Matchbox and Beyond” by John Tait and Catherine Fleming.
“I’m amazed and delighted with the result. The publishers have done a beautiful job with photographs, and as well as tragic events in our lives, there’s plenty of fun and humour.”
Mic is looking forward to playing at the Wauchope Community Arts Hall again.
“It’s big enough for a gig but not too big, and we always get a really good reception from the Wauchope audience.”
Tickets are available online at trybooking.com and at the door from 7.30pm, $25/$20 for members. If you want to know more about Mic, his website is www.micconway.com
Letitia Fitzpatrick
Worked as a journalist and assistant producer for BBC news and current affairs in the UK, Ulster Television, Q Radio and the Irish News in Northern Ireland. Moved to Australia and joined Fairfax Media in 2016. Won a Rotary Paul Harris Fellowship award in 2018 for reporting the Pappinbarra bushfires and the subsequent Rotary appeal which raised $30,000.
Worked as a journalist and assistant producer for BBC news and current affairs in the UK, Ulster Television, Q Radio and the Irish News in Northern Ireland. Moved to Australia and joined Fairfax Media in 2016. Won a Rotary Paul Harris Fellowship award in 2018 for reporting the Pappinbarra bushfires and the subsequent Rotary appeal which raised $30,000.
