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Viva Bob Vegas is the first live tour in six years for legendary Australian (very) funnyman Bob Downe. Relax as Bob takes Maynard on a tour of his career and his favourite moments from his latest show.

Touring now to Brisbane, Brunswick Heads, Sydney & Melbourne.

Bob Downe’s very showy website

I spend most of my days answering DMs on Facebook. I feel like a teacher doing marking.

Bob Downe

The best way to get your hair done is to take it to your Hairdresser and leave it there overnight.

Bob Downe (hair enthusiast)

I’m a perfect bitch. But I don’t have perfect pitch.

Bob Downe (singer)

I’ve got someone very exciting, very showbiz on the line. You probably first bumped into them when he was a member of the Globos in 1982. Perhaps you saw him at Edinburgh festival in 1988. When he first played the Edinburgh festival fringe, which he played 12 of through to 2002, he released his greatest hits album in 1996.

His jazzy album in 1997, hosted the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade on TV. The Bob Downe show on Foxtel in 2000 many, many appearances on Good News Week singing along with Paul. He’s now brought Las Vegas to New South Wales. Whether Las Vegas wants to be here or not, with Viva Bob Vegas. People it’s coming to Brunswick heads, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, please welcome the Prince of Polyester, the Viscount of valour, that Nabob of nylon, Mr Bob Downe.

Oh my God. How do you follow an intro like that, man?

And that’s not all you’ve done. That’s just a snapshot.

That’s right. It doesn’t even take in my crochet classes or my crazy whisk drive that I always do with mum. How do I do it? How do I keep it up?

Particularly with this show, you’ve got a punishing schedule all the way up and down the east coast of Australia, how do you travel? You just still go via Ansett.
When I can. And sometimes I send myself by FedEx, but I’ve just ordered online a human sized drone. I think that’s going to be the easiest way to get around. Big enough to ride on. It’ll be like the chairlift at the Easter show.

This is no cheapo show. This isn’t just you with a cassette tape. How big is the cast?

I’ve got a four piece band. We’ve got two beautiful burlesque dancer girls, and I’ve got a special guest entertainer in Brunswick heads and Sydney.
It’s the lovely Shauna Jensen, who I’m sure you know, and in Melbourne, it’s the beautiful Pastel Vesper.

Will you both be singing the Ballad of John and Yoko together?

I think we should. I really do think we should. So this shows Viva Bob Vegas. I figured if we can’t go to Vegas, I’m going to bring Vegas to you.

It’s like a recreation and a tribute to the late-night lounge shows that used to happen in Vegas after the main room shows. There would be these wild lounge shows with people like Louis Prima and Francis Faye, and they had showtimes like one, three and five AM. You can imagine how loosey goosey and crazy those shows were.

That’s what I’m recreating. It’s very naughty with great jazz, great pop.

Are you going to have an Elvis impersonator or will you be an Elvis impersonator?

I am the Elvis impersonator. I’ll be telling my Las Vegas stories. I’ve played Vegas quite a few times and I’ve been there a lot. There’s a lot of funny stories to tell.

And you are known for your outfits too. Your outfits have always been completely Las Vegas. My favourite outfit of yours, which we might not see this time was the one you used to open a show with in the early nineties. That was your Xanadu Cape. And it wasn’t gathered. It was just basically a triangle that was stapled on your back.

That was my Xanadu space suit it was beautiful, but it was in a very thin cheap fabric that left nothing to the imagination.

And what costume is your favourite from this show?

My gold lamè, track suit. Made by the brilliant Maude Boat who created the foamy wigs for Priscilla. It’s a black trim gold lamè track suit.

Sydney listeners to Planet Maynard are disappointed because all those shows are sold out already. Is that correct?

All sold out, but we’re coming back. Keep checking in. At Bobdowne.com or on the Bob Downe Facebook page. We’re going to do return seasons in November and December.

You’re often at your best when you work against what people would expect you to do. I saw you doing a bit of Sexy MF by Prince once, and that was just fantastic. What’s an unexpected number from Bob Downe this time?

A little selection from Hamilton the musical. I think you’ll be quite pleased. Oh, I can rap baby. I can rap. I can rap with the best of them.

There’s one photo from the show where you look like you’re having a senior moment. You’re lying on the ground. It looks like you can’t get up.

It’s after I’ve done my commando roll under the slowly dropping curtain.

Well, you’re giving all to the people. I’ve got your singles of I Will Survive & Yeh, Yeh.

The act has never gone out of style. I was retro to begin with.

You were doing wonderful trips around the Harbour, doing a bit of a burlesque show in the Harbour there. How did they go?

It’s was going fabulously until the bloody pandemic. All of my P&O comedy cruises, suspended.

That’s why I’m on tour with this show. Cause you know, a girl’s got to work.

How did you handle the pandemic? Did you go out and hide in Murwillumbah with your Mum? Or did you put on your white lab coat from the Ponds Institute and find a cure?

Neither of those, I lived in a cave just on the Harbour cliffs. It’s amazing how much natural harbour frontage is left actually. Especially when you actually get in a tinny and have a look for somewhere to live.

On Facebook there’s a great great photo when you were the marshal at the Mardi Gras parade. I was interviewing you for one of my videos. Someone has pointed out, interestingly enough, I’ve never noticed this in the photo, but there there’s a railway station behind us and it’s Museum station.

But your head’s just at an angle blocking it off. So you’ve got, it looks like it actually says Cum Station in the background. To which I replied. Yes, very disappointed. It’s actually a building.

That does remind one of the early days of Mardi Gras. I’ve got lots of stories about early Mardi Gras days. It’s quite naughty. This show’s quite naughty. Don’t bring the kids.

a few people here asking some questions. I’ll just go through these up. These are people from the internet and we know how rude they are. Yeah. Oh, well look, lay it on me, baby. I’m used to it.

You wouldn’t believe what fun those comedy cruises are. We really miss them because there’s always you plus another five or six comedians and you’re out for three days and it’s yeah. So much fun. Right? There’s that interesting mix.
When you get comedians together, they’ve worked hard in front of an audience for a number of years and there’s sort of a dark humour that comes out, isn’t it?

Yeah, very much.

Jenny Carruthers from Facebook writes, can you please do another duet with Gina Riley and wants to know when you’re going to be hosting the new version of Blankety Blanks?

I want to do everything that she’s mentioned and more, I’d love to do a Blankety Blanks. God, that would be fun. And you could be on, you’d be great.

I don’t know if I’m more of a Marty Rhone or an Ugly Dave Gray kind of guy.

Oh, I think you’re more Marty Rhone than Ugly Dave Gray.

I think that’s a compliment.

Evan Steer writes from Hong Kong. He says that he once had a chat with you at Mardi Gras and found you totally charming. That’s the word that keeps on coming up Bob, charming.

The one that keeps coming up at the moment is that I’m a national treasure. I’m a bit nervous about that because doesn’t that mean somebody needs to dig me up.

Or in a glass case at the Australian museum next to the thylacine.

Peter Young from Orange writes. What is your take on the significance of Australia by Good News to the people of Australia? Is it the gay games?

Dreadful Village People style song, Australia, Australia, that song is hideous.

Hideous. I’ll never sing it again. It’s like Copacabana. I’ll never sing it again. Some songs. People love them, but Oh my goodness.

But look, I like to do good songs rather than the songs that, yeah. Nah, I won’t be doing that one again. As much as I enjoyed doing the gay games, opening ceremony, that’s been retired.

What is one of the newer ones that you might be putting in the list?

Oh, I’m, I’m throwing in all the Vegas classics, Dankeshein, Volare, Sway, Hello Dolly, songs from the Wizard of Oz, Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head, Candyman there’s 20 songs in the show with a four-piece band.

So that’s you and six people touring up and down the East coast of Australia.

Absolutely. So I really want people to come and see us this week at Brunswick heads picture house, and it’s I’m on this Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. And you’d better book because tickets are going fast. We’re already sold out in Sydney.

What’s it like doing Matinee shows?

It’s amazing. You wouldn’t believe we did a Matinee in Brisbane and it was just like an evening show. Everybody was just so up for it. See, people are so pleased to be back in a theatre. It doesn’t matter what time you’re on. They’re so excited to be back in a theatre to have a laugh.

Has their behaviour changed any because they’re so used to sitting in front of the TV?

They’re so excited that they forget how much they love live performance. Everybody’s full of this incredible communal energy, that they had forgotten was part of going to a show.

You are well known for your haircare products, a question from Justine, she wants to know what is the secret of your hair care products? How does your hair always look so good?

Well, what you do is you go to the hairdresser and you leave it overnight and you come back the next day and there’s something about it. It just becomes perfect.

Do you ever have a hairdo malfunction?

If your hair catches part of the set as you make your entrance, it’s never good losing your hair as you make your entrance.

I remember doing a very deep bow once and I got up and my hair was on the floor. So no more deep bowels.

Do you remember what your very first song was that you did Mr. Bob Downe?
The first song I ever did was strangers in the night. I made the backing on a Casio directly into the back of the stereo and recorded onto a Chrome cassette.

Oh, I must congratulate you on being one of the few people I know that are following Mari Wilson on Facebook.

Mari Wilson. Yeah. See she was doing that sixties, fifties thing. The same time that we started doing the Globos and the same time that Paul Rubens was doing Peewee, that kind of fifties, sixties, mid century, retro entertainment all happened spontaneously around the world. People need to realise this was before the internet. This was all just happening locally. That’s what was so interesting about working back then.

The range of songs you do, just looking at Starman, David Bowie. Your version is very special.

You have many interviews to do. How has your media circus been this time?

It’s been, well, “Bob’s back” and I’m like, I’d never went away, but they all think I’m back. This is the first time I’ve toured a new show on terra firma for six years since Bob Sweat and Tears. Can you believe that?

Do you answer DMs on Facebook?

I certainly do. It’s exhausting. I spend most of my days there, I feel like a teacher doing marking. It’s a bit of a similar feeling.

Have you been filming this or are you going to do a live stream of this?

I’d love to, I’d love to, but because we’re doing return seasons and everything, we might hold off for a while, but I’d love to. It’s time for a live Bob Downe video. It really is.

Those Hazy Crazy Days of Summer was that from a movie?

No, it’s a pop single written and released by Nat King Cole. One of his pop hits from the early sixties. I love that early sixties, pre Beatles period. I think it’s so interesting.

People sing along at home. There’s a lot of people who like to sing along with you at home.

That’s what I love. That’s what I want people to do at my show.