Featured Collaborator: Gerry Connolly
Gerry Connolly is an accomplished Australian comedian, actor, impressionist and musician, best known for his satirical caricatures of public figures.
Corporately and in one-off national events, Gerry Connolly is in demand as an after-dinner speaker and entertainer. Over many years, he has enlivened audiences and dinner guests with his musical charms and venting his observations through concise and sometimes ridiculous performances via political luminaries such as Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, Margaret Thatcher, John Howard and highlighted the unique leadership styles of the likes of Pauline Hanson, Bronwyn Bishop, Tony Blair, President Abdurrahman Wahid, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Clive Palmer. Media celebrity Lee Lin Chin is a crowd favourite, as is his most demanded character, Her Majesty The Queen, in whose guise he has launched nearly everything not nailed down.
For half the reign of the present Queen, he has represented Her Majesty in the Southern Hemisphere, and occasionally travels to her other realms when time allows. This turn began life at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in revue, and along with his rendition of former premier, Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen quickly became the basis of his one-man shows.
On stage, Connolly has appeared in Neil Armfield's production of The Marriage of Figaro (QTC), Cyrano de Bergerac (MTC), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (MTC), Lady Windermere's Fan (MTC), Once in a Lifetime (STC) Little Murders (MTC) He stunned Brisbane audiences in 2014 appearing as Mrs Nelly Dean in shake & stir's stage adaption of Wuthering Heights.
In 2012, Gerry Connolly world premiered the House of Marcus Lycus song in Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (GFO) to the composer's delight. Other stage musicals include Urinetown (MTC), Summer Rain (STC), Tomfoolery (MTC) and Pirates of Penzance (Essgee), and more recently Anything Goes (Aus Opera/GFO). October 2016 will see him perform as The Queen in The Opera House the Opera.
In 2006 Connolly ran away with the circus: La Clique and La Soirée, and performed with this unique ensemble from Darwin to Adelaide, Auckland to London, Brisbane to Blackpool. He has had great success in local and international Festivals. 2012 saw his return to the Edinburgh Fringe with La Clique Royale in The Famous Spiegeltent, and collaborate with ACO in Richard Tognetti's Maribor Festival.
He has meddled in television since The Gerry Connolly Show in 1988 via Fast Forward to the ABC's Dead Gorgeous, and has popped up in TV roasts and special events, and graced many shows with his majestic presence.
He is loved for his satirical political turns, and has habitually appeared on commercial and ABC radio and TV current affairs programs: AM, PM, The World Today, A Current Affair, Today Tonight, Nationwide, The 7:30 Report and Four Corners as well as variety shows such as The Mike Walsh Show, Hey Hey, It's Saturday and Tonight Live with Steve Vizard.
In debates and panel chats, as well as radio and voiceovers, he brings a breadth of knowledge and experience and creates a spontaneous and unpredictable mood which in the hallmark of his individual style.