Chinewrde Carnival Collective Profiles: Jac

Zombie Carnival Queens, 2010 (Jac's the one sat on the chair!)

For me, it all started in the late 1960’s…

I wanted to be like my cousin Phil, dress up in trousers and be black! I was about 6 or 7 years old at the time. Instead, my debut appearance was as a little white girl in a black skirt (The Black and White Minstrals, Harris Family circa 1968-70).

From childhood, Carnival Day was always something to look forward to and get excited about, being with the all family at once. It was a tradition that started a few decades earlier with my grandparents, or was it? We had a Great-aunt who also lived in Arthur Street. Must ask mum about it, I’m sure she remembers every year. Although sadly now retired from the carnival, in her illustrious career she played Glenn Miller (1992) and Rambo (1988) amongst many others.

Having the memory of a fish, I remember playing Freddie Kreguer in a suffocating latex mask on a blazing day sometime in my early 20’s (Video Boom, Harris Family. 1988). And what I thought was going to be my last appearance as an androgynous lead-violinist (Classical Strings, Harris Family. Circa 1990). I came back in the mid-1990s dancing in the eighteenth century, for the Harris Family's last carnival together (Blue Danube, Harris Family. Circa 1995).  

In between times I really preferred and enjoyed being more active behind the scenes, prop design and make up.

As for cross-dressing I’m bi.

After a long absence, in 2010 I played a woman, Miss 1940 (The Zombie Carnival Queens, Chinewrde Carnival Collective). Last year I played a man, Blind Smokin Toots, the Tenor Sax in The Kenilworth Marching Band. My sister Stixx Malone said I looked like our dad, I reminded myself of my older cousin Steve. Interesting thing is, my dad and cousin don’t look remotely like each other.

This year I’m playing a sporty princess from the 1970’s, groovy baby, yeah.

I love group creativity, I love acting, I love disguise and I love my cousin Lou, for reviving an old and nearly forgotten family tradition.