Damon Smith has spent approximately 50,000 hours checking stoves and spinning in circles. Josh Belperio has had his boyfriend watch him pee into a bottle.
Together, they are a little bit scarred. And a little bit ‘mental’. And they are baring all of their imperfections – in a cabaret double-bill full of original songs and onstage buffoonery.
Damon said, “I endeavour to breakdown the stigma attached to mental health with onstage buffoonery and some very personal moments when it comes to explaining these often misunderstood disorders.”
Absurdly hilarious, brilliantly musical and refreshingly honest, Damon is unrelenting in his mission to create awareness and speak his truth about living with a mental illness. In 2019, his journey will be featured in a documentary due for film distribution and his message will reach an even wider audience.
For Josh, whose show centres around his traumatic bicycle accident, writing it was a way of dealing with his post traumatic stress and anxiety. “The fundamental question is how do we go out and face the world again once we’ve had an experience that makes us realise that life is chaotic, and our lives can be cut short or changed at any moment, without warning, and there is no way to ensure that we are going to be safe?”
Date: Saturday the 4th of August
Times: 2pm & 7:30pm
Venue: The Loft, Chapel Off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel Place, Prahran Duration: 2 hours + 20 minute interval
Scarred For Life
With ‘a musicality that is equal parts Minchin and Mozart’ (Scenestr), let Josh Belperio regale you with the time he came off his pushbike, and wound up with an eight-inch scar. Or, as Andrew Bolt puts it, ‘man falls off bike, becomes star’ (Herald Sun).
Mental As Everything
Then, witness Damon Smith take you on a guided tour through his clinical OCD and often crippling Bipolar Disorder with his equally nervous cohort, Adam Coad, as they embark on a quest to come face to face with their demons in a unique show that is ‘fun, powerful and totally immersive’ (Stage Whispers).
Both shows display candid and intensely personal glimpses into the performers’ lives with comedy and grief, pain and triumph!
Mental As Everything & Scarred For Life just finished their 2018 Adelaide Fringe Festival seasons to unanimously positive reviews. Scarred For Life also won the Week 3 BankSA Best Cabaret Award
Tickets to Mental As Everything & Scarred for Life are $45 for adults and $39 for concession. Tickets may be purchased online via the Chapel Off Chapel website at www.chapeloffchapel.com.au or via phone at 8290 7000.