Becoming Famous Sharron with comedian Bonnie Davies

WA’s own Glambassador Famous Sharron Famous Sharron is the alter ego of creative director, award winning producer and comedian, Bonnie Davies.  

Bonnie’s mission in life is to make things ‘unboring’! 

She gives us a backstage pass into her career in the highs and lows of WA’s comedy and festival scene during COVID, how Famous Sharron was born, and why Bonnie and her alter ego are parochially Perth and ambassadors for regional WA. 

Duration: 43 minutes.

 
Links:

The Gelo Company

Famous Sharron

Beach Ball City Beach 28 December

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·      Sincere thanks to Jay (Justin) Hill for his expert sound mastering and patience! Jay, together with the incredible Eva Chye, have inspired me through their passion project If Innovation Could Talk – a YouTube vlog also promoted through LinkedIn. If you have your own ideas for a podcast or video, feel free to reach out to them through the LinkedIn page.

·      Thank you to all my generous guests for their time in sharing their expertise and experiences around My Warm Table.

·      Music: ‘Sweet Soweto’ by Cast Of Characters. Copyright licence for use via soundstripe.com  

Transcript

Bonnie Davies: 0:00

She's made up. That's an extra level of imposter when you like, ah, Famous Sharron. We haven't even gotten to her story but I made her up for a gig that was not everyone else had left Perth. So there was no one else left to do this gig. So I said I'll do the gig a month out. And then there's that we're doing a Hollywood gala big martini glasses. mellimelon fascinated. And I was like, Do you want me to do a cat dog? I think I'm pretty casual. Like we didn't know you did characters and I said no, I don't but I will. So you know, how did Famous Sharron start? I made her up. She was a talent agent like In fact, I didn't even make her up the producer. He's she said or what kind of character I said she has to be Australian. Because I'm sick of people doing just being from anywhere except Perth. Because like I want her to be from Morley Galleria like she is a queen and Morley Galleria, awesome. And she's from wha she Suburban. She's not Bogan there's a little bit of Bogan and all of us but she's she's suburban do you know and she's and proud of it. And she is the queen of it. Like she's all over it.

Sonia Nolan: 1:07

Do you have an alter ego? Bonnie Davies does and it's the one and only wa glambassador Famous Sharron, who has become the unforgettable face of regional Western Australia. Bonnie is a creative director, award winning producer and comedian and she's got a mission in life to make things unboring. So you're in for a treat today, as Bonnie gives us a backstage pass into the highs and lows of her career in the WA comedy and festival scene, and how Famous Sharron was born. She takes us on a personal journey of defining success, and the guts and the glamour that lie beneath this. I'm Sonia Nolan, and welcome to my warm table, a Western Australian independent podcast aimed at building empathy and perspective by welcoming an eclectic and expert range of guests around a warm table of curiosity, acceptance, and positivity. Please take a seat at the table with Bonnie and I and prepare for a very and boring conversation. On a thank you so much for taking some time out of your crazy busy schedule to come and sit around my warm table and just reflect on the year that's been for you.

Bonnie Davies: 2:20

Yeah, it has been a big year. Although I was saying to earlier, I do love attention. So this is a great, perfect setup for me.

Sonia Nolan: 2:26

Well, as I said, I love people who like to talk about themselves, because that's exactly what I want to hear around the warmth table today. So Bonnie, and you've got so much that you can share with us. So I'm I'm really keen to get into some of the glamour and guts of what goes on in

Bonnie Davies: 2:42

your own guts. Right? Where does that go? Yeah, that's actually on point.

Sonia Nolan: 2:49

And when I say guts, I'm meaning like Courage, because the courage that you've got to keep going in the environment that, you know, has been for the last few years with the pandemic and being a creative in Western Australia. That's taken an enormous amount of courage to keep going and just, you know, finding a path through it. Which, which you definitely have.

Bonnie Davies: 3:10

Yeah, that's funny. When you said guts, I thought of the mess of it. And in the miracle, because you know, real guts inside as well, but also were incredible people function in the way I do things lately. Yeah, there's glamour, and there's guts and beer. And I guess it took guts, but also I didn't really feel like they were I mean, there was even a point earlier this year, around June or July, where for a moment, I thought everything was going to come back. So what happened in February is the borders opened and I lost all my work from February till May all over again. It was like 2020, but without job keeper. And it was a real shock to me, I was preparing to lose a month of work. I thought oh, I'll get COVID I have to cancel a bunch of cakes. But the whole of WA just cancelled itself. It just didn't know what to do. And I really had it in that way before. So I totally understand. And I think it was, you know, people needed to do what they needed to do, but it impacted me directly immediately. But in June, July, I thought I'll just we made a plan with my business manager. We made a plan to get through to June and the financial year and then we'll reassess and that plan meant scratching my wage write down so that I could keep my staff employed really like really living very tightly and on the edge and also I did some SEO coaching to bring extra money in to make sure I could keep my staff on board and not fire anyone really went to ground and June was a busy month and then I thought great and then by July will be set for the rest of the year and July. It still hadn't come back it was like a hose spurting Do you let the sprinklers quite watering. It's like oh, it's kind of watering the garden I think I don't know if this is working cuz that was what my career was still like. And I really had a moment I was like, I've been through years of just working towards the next thing, waiting till the vaccine, waiting till this happens, then the board is over and I was just working towards this. And then it got to July and I actually looked up CEO jobs. What's my other options? Because I have to actually start considering how long can I put off my superannuation or buying a house or just living properly? Because I was still not paying myself properly. I'm still not paying myself a full wage. We've got the money coming in now. But I'm just holding off until January when we've got time because it we've been so busy. Yeah. Which is great. Yeah, it's not. It's amazing now abundant, but I need to make still cautious decisions because I could get COVID. Or who knows? I did look at what would it look like if I, if I wasn't doing this anymore? And I only took five minutes, I was looking at other roles. And I was like, oh, no, I can make much more doing Famous Sharron. And I can have much more fun. And I don't want to give up on that yet. But you know, just a bit of a reality check of Oh, can we keep going? Because this is really exhausting. So I don't know if it was guts, but just you know, it was my career. I don't think that is what people fully fathom. And when, you know, there was someone who she would play one of the witches and wicked and she had to become a real estate agent. And if you just imagine walking away who have you listening to this now walking away from the career that you have the networks, the connections, the experience, and just starting fresh somewhere else.

Sonia Nolan: 6:33

It's something completely different.

Bonnie Davies: 6:35

The wage doesn't match. You know what you've been expecting your experience and skills. Sure, they might transfer but it's not what you find. It's not what you even want to be doing. And actually you're really good at your other job just doesn't exist right now. That's quite a big. It's a big thing to walk away from. But yeah, if you do go and see a performer or you see a show, or you see a musician, give them extra love fissures. I mean, I, I was on the edge of bankruptcy, and but I stayed in the game anyway and thought maybe I can work my way back out of this situation. A lot of people lost houses or lost their life's work in that time. So if they're up there doing something now, that's probably taking a lot for them. Everyone's situations are markedly different, though. But I am proud of the lessons that I learned. And I'm really proud of how I handled it. And

Sonia Nolan: 7:30

what are some of the lessons that you learned through it?

Bonnie Davies: 7:32

Oh, I think there's so many trying to do everything. Your capacity. And, and definitely I was very proud of how our team handled everything.

Sonia Nolan: 7:45

So tell me about jello. Because that is and correct me if I'm wrong here. Bonnie, that jealous for Michelle? I know. I might. I might occasionally just just drop that into and I know it's Sharon with two hours late. I've done my thing. Jello is a is an ancient Greek word, which means laughter

Bonnie Davies: 8:07

Yeah. Jellos Yeah. Yeah, we were renaming the company and trying to find something that captured the energy of what we did. And then I found that word and was like, Ah, perfect, perfect. And no one's used it amazing. Because, you know, comedy companies, there's, there's so many and we did more than comedy to which is now you know, we talk about recreate and boring experiences.

Sonia Nolan: 8:31

Do you have any, like stats on why we should laugh more like, is a you know, there isn't any philosophy of laughter and philosophy of fun that you that's your mantra,

Bonnie Davies: 8:43

especially in a corporate setting, when we're doing corporate work, if you can make a whole room laugh. For that moment, the whole room is on the same page. And how often can you say that, that your whole company is on the same page that your whole team is on the same page? If you can't, you can fake laughter but you can tell when people are faking it. Yeah. And if you're naturally making a room laugh, they are connected in that moment. So really, that was the power of it is that you've got everyone on the same page, and they're laughing and they're learning. You know, they are, because you can hear it, you can feel it. I guess the boring stuff. We made up the why made up the word. I'm boring, because I was trying to describe what we did. And it was really about boring things. Like there's boring things in the world. And then we end up unbarring was the word that I created. The reason is because things get boring, especially when we have to do them. Very true. We have to have a meaning or we have to sign this document or we have to have this contract or we have to and suddenly as soon as we have to, they just become boring, because it's like, well, we've got to do it anyway. And we forget why we're even doing them. And so I think really the core of the onboarding philosophy The other approach is just thinking about why are you actually doing it in the first place? And then are you achieving that, and if you're not, let's fix that. And usually, the way you fix it is by is the same way that you make it boring. Because if it's relevant and interesting and funny or engaging, it's no longer boring. And then it's achieving its purpose. That's the kind of approach that we had.

Sonia Nolan: 10:28

And when I met you Sharron, which was about July this year Sharron, I've done it.

Bonnie Davies: 10:34

Call me whatever you want. Never call Sharron Bonnie, call me whatever you like

Sonia Nolan: 10:38

does Sharron get a bit upset when she gets called Bonnie

Bonnie Davies: 10:41

just doesn't make sense shots. I don't know. Talking about it, or people don't know I exist. You know, if you go on any of Famous Sharron's social media or website, I'm not there. And I purposely keep myself out of it. Because people connect to her so strongly, and I love that.

Sonia Nolan: 10:55

Yeah, yeah. We'll talk a little bit about Famous Sharron in a little while. We'll give her she can show. We talk more. Yeah, no doubt. Well, she can just sit for a moment and I want to talk about and Bonnie the work that you were doing through jello was some comedy. Yeah. And and I was that's what I was reflecting on how I met you about July this year at a gathering and part of your I think your whole mantra in life is it's about making things and boring. I love that word. Love that you've even made up a word. Boring. And, and you did make things on boring. You know, you just added this beautiful little warm spark into the conversations at the gathering. And intrigued me immediately think I was thinking who is that woman that is just making everyone feel so comfortable. And really trying to help everyone connect in a really meaningful yet lightweight, you just walk this beautiful path of bringing people together in warmth, but with this this light laughter so I just wanted to reflect that back to you that helped me in this gathering, because I didn't really know many people so it was just lovely to have your own boringness.

Bonnie Davies: 12:00

That is so lovely. I had no, when you reached out for the podcast. I think you mentioned it on the day I was so honoured. I know what a big deal it is to, to put a podcast together. But that's so lovely. I had no idea. Yeah, and you know, it's interesting. I think that I love people. I really love people and I love the way that we can connect to each other. And I grew up in like a community of have lots of people in my house all the time. But I never thought that was anything special about me. I actually thought it was quite a boring person. When I was a kid. I was reading my old journals recently because I've been digitising them to just get them out of my house. And I thought I don't want to throw them away. But no one else is gonna want these. So I'll digitise them and take photos of them. And yeah, and that really came up as a strong thing when I was a teenager. And actually, I think that's one of the special things about me when I've learned to value now and really famous Sharon is built off connection and engagement and really caring about people.

Sonia Nolan: 13:00

I suspect she's an only child. She's only

Bonnie Davies: 13:05

she's absolutely and it took a while for her to be conceived. So she's very spoiled. Yeah, she's had a great life.

Sonia Nolan: 13:14

I love it. So tell me about your growing up then tell me about your life in Perth, your

Bonnie Davies: 13:19

Perth girl. Yeah. And I, I chose to stay in Perth as well, which was I've made a lot of decisions throughout my life or I've felt like I'm going off off track. I'm not, not intentionally, it's just kind of who I am, actually. And that's another thing I was when I was starting to do stand up, you will have been talking about imposter syndrome before I got into stand up by accident, which is a whole other story. I was I was running festivals. And then I came across comedy and I was trying to help them you know, I was like you need more posters you need to do and I got mad a bit to do stand up and then I just loved it. And it was terrifying. I've never been so terrified in my life. So I thought I should just keep doing this but terrifying. Exciting. I'd never had such a high like skydiving like that. But I loved people and I wasn't depressed or alcoholic or which was really the theme. It's different. Now there's a real range of comedians around but they're really successful ones then, you know, there's lots of articles coming out about alcoholism and depression and I went to Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the my favourite shows were people that had huge mental health problems or hated people or just like, that was the theme. Yeah, right. And I remember I still remember it now walking down the cobbled streets thinking I'm in the wrong industry. I don't think I fit

Sonia Nolan: 14:43

here. I want to be positive and I like people. Yeah.

Bonnie Davies: 14:46

And, and then I thought, well, if I can make that funny, then that'll be my point of difference, ya know? And so then that is what's happened and that is famous Sharon like that she loves people. And she's optimistic, you know, to a, to a delusional point, yeah. But also somehow that kind of works for her. And she's taught me things too, you know, she's taught me to self care. So I used to be able to go to gigs, you know, after working nonstop and trying to run a company. And I was doing lots of things that other people all the time, which I've, that's a big lesson as well learning to not try and fix everyone else's problems. I couldn't do that to her. Because I couldn't rock up to a gig exhausted, and be her because she because she energy, high energy, she's on point, she's, I mean, she, her costumes are terrible, my makeup, I had no skills, but which is, you know, a whole other thing. I felt like, I'm not qualified to do a character, why am I doing this, but I had to rest I had to prepare, I had to give myself space. And then that meant I had to make a whole lot of other decisions about not spending all my energy on other people are not trying to fix everybody else. And you know, which I still think it's one of the lessons COVID taught me is those old demons are all there, those core kind of channels in me, came back really hard, which might link back to, you know, my childhood growing up as my parents are youth workers. So I grew up with lots of kids and people who didn't have a home or were displaced. And back then the agencies that were around were often religious based or very restrictive, in terms of, from what I hear from my parents around, you know, whether you could stay there or not, right? You couldn't be on drugs or alcohol, even if you've just literally just escaped, of course, you probably drinking if you just escaped an abusive home or something horrible. But you weren't allowed to do that you had to kind of come in clean and be sorted out or you had to be not gay, or you had to have all these things to be even cared for. So there was a network of people, my parents were part of it. So there's a bunch of other people doing this. Back then real estate was a bit different. So people had spare rooms and big houses. And so if you had a spare room, you'd take a kid or you'd have kids come and crash on your couch. And there was a network of people doing it. So my parents were in that. Wow. So

Sonia Nolan: 17:09

you always had extra brothers and sisters floating around.

Bonnie Davies: 17:14

I remember someone talking about Oh, isn't it great on holidays, or just walk around in my underwear and do whatever? And I was like, Oh, I would never. I would never. We literally had an open door policy. Like the door was always open. Yeah. which I loved. I loved people. Always someone at the kitchen table and yeah, generosity, and also, like complete lack of boundaries. You know, my parents did give so much and that is wonderful. But there is also a point where they do need to look after themselves. You know, sometimes my mom would work so hard, she'd end up just in bed for a day or two. So yeah, I've learned definitely that I still love that generosity and that compassion and I love my parent. My parents are amazing. But also have learned that it's okay to have boundaries as well. Yeah.

Sonia Nolan: 18:01

Wow. So they're huge lessons growing up, like, background of of care and compassion and loving people and, and absolutely meeting all walks of life as well, by the sound of it.

Bonnie Davies: 18:13

We're all the same. Mum, we have so much more in common. Mum, what do I say? You know, what a lot of kids that used to live with us. They just wanted parents love them. Yeah, my dad used to say, actually, that everybody has an emotional bank balance. So when you're born, you're born with it. And then as you grow older, you know, it gets like a long term deposit, you build it up, and you get interest. And, and he said, a lot of people who don't have the same privileges or opportunities that or families, you know, they sometimes can be born with a negative bank balance. And then maybe the people they're hanging out with, they've got negative balances, too. So how do you even grow an emotional bank balance or capacity? If you've got no one around you to learn from a motor role model? Oh, no. Do you know that's why that people in the community can have such a big impact. We have to borrow from each other to learn, we learn so much from each other. So even sharing knowledge or, or kindness can have a real impact on people and their confidence and what they think they can do.

Sonia Nolan: 19:18

I totally agree. And it's interesting that you know, you talk about community you talk about that sort of grassroots as well. I was you know, doing my my little bit of reflection on you and the sort of things that I wanted to cover in our chat today. And what kept coming up for me was was community the value of community events like you've been involved in, in awesome art and Big Day Out part of Western Australian music wham you've been part of smarter than smoking creative challenge. The bread bull NRA. So all these events that you know really well known for a lot of Western Australians that bring people together in a sense of you know, real spirit of, of community and excitement and fun. You And, and also your love of regional Western Australia and your and that's coming back to me as this community community community grassroots get in there and, and just be part of it and and just show this laughter and love of connection so they're just some of the things that just kept resonating for me as I was learning more about you Vani so, I'd love your reflections on you know the value of community events

Bonnie Davies: 20:28

the reason I stayed in Perth and the reason that I love regional WA and the the reason people and all those things that I think it's a little bit Sharon's, you know, the world is your catwalk, like, look at what you have around you to know we always want to I think in Perth, we have an inferiority complex of that guy must you've got to be from London or New York. And we try and create, you know, fashion walkways that might compete with them. Let's put our walkway in the Pilbara. Like let's put a walkway down on the side of a bridge and have people doing fashion catalogues to do let's do something that's asked. And so community is just an extension of that because that's, that's on my catwalk like this is here and I never felt like Perth was boring. When I was a kid I bought I had a pretty random childhood really, at the time, I didn't know. But also I was with a whole lot of people that used to play guitar and Chad and you know, we would make fun where we went. And I felt like it was such a waste to look at Perth and call it boring and not do anything about it. So I guess that's the fixed side of me. When I was a kid I we created a magazine called square one with awesome festival. Because I used to see little magazines come from Melbourne or Sydney you know, you see all these cool things come from other places. Well, we can make one. Yeah, and awesome festival. They did a really quite magical in a way awesome at the time. The director there said, here's some kids that have some creativity. And he brought us into the office and he said, you can use our office. Which at the time when you're a kid you actually don't have a space to hang out. That isn't your own restaurant. You it's your parents home. Yes. Yeah, it's the public shopping centre. It's someone else's library.

Sonia Nolan: 22:11

How are you then? 1515? Okay, yeah. So

Bonnie Davies: 22:14

for him to just say here's a space in our office where you can come meet and it's your space for a couple hours every week. And you can create whatever you want. And no workshop? No, do you know we didn't it was undirected. Yeah, you so directed facilitate. Yeah, we had no facilitators, which I think is like, quite amazing. Of him. Just to say that just I just go for it. Just do what you want to do. And so we created square one little magazine, I still every now and then I meet people who have a copy. We could only afford to print 1000. So we called them Limited Edition. Yeah, as you do. Yeah. And it was really fun. And I guess that that spawned the rest of my, my career and how I kept doing things as well is that we feel like things are unattainable, or we need a gatekeeper or we have to ask permission. But there's so many things that we can do with the resources that we have. And also people in Perth that are amazing. They're amazing. They're beautiful. And we can celebrate that. There's a event we do every year called beach ball, actually, where a friend and I we made a giant scrabble set just for fun, pretty kind of do make your own fun. Remember, a friend from Sydney said why did Perth people love costume parties? I don't know. I think we just had to make something happen.

Sonia Nolan: 23:29

I don't even know that was that was unique to her.

Bonnie Davies: 23:32

She went to a barbecue and she was like Bonnie, there were 15 people and four of them are on plumpers going on. Not enough people there to warrant on film. But like that's full body paint a whole progressive

Sonia Nolan: 23:45

dinner on a bike wearing a onesie. There's nothing wrong with that. I don't know why people think that's

Bonnie Davies: 23:52

that's great. And I love I love that we're embracing that now. And yes, we made a giant scrabble set. And just for fun. It was a lot more work than we thought when we got there in the end. And then we were playing with that. And then we were adults now because things were about 19 or 20 or something. And I was like yeah, we can. So weird. We can drive ourselves wherever do whatever you want. We could wear ballgowns to the beach, we could have a champagne on the beach, we're good. We're gonna wear ballgames, we're here at swimming in our Borgarnes. And we wanted we could do that. We could do that. And so we were let's do that. Because 30 of us and we got down onto the foreshore at City Beach. And we just kind of choose the sunset and then we paraded into the ocean and it was just joy for like, it was so fun. And I still can't believe how we're onto our 15th 1/14 one now 14 years. So now hundreds of people got it and it's all an organised like there's just literally, my parents put on a barbecue and I play some music with Luke and Wyatt play a little DJ stuff, but it's all Will I provide the 28th of December also, it's coming. Yeah, it's coming up feel free to join if they tell me it was a weird thing we'd say beach ah drive down you see Clancy's look to your right and then go to the furthest car park away. Get there for 6pm Don't be fashionably late because it all happens very quickly. 6pm then the sun goes down around seven we do a big group photo and then we parade into the ocean and that's it. See parade?

Sonia Nolan: 25:26

You don't run like Cold Nips? We

Bonnie Davies: 25:27

kind of do. Run. Yeah. Parade run. We do like a little parade thing. And then yeah, and every year it felt like I've been washed in happiness.

Sonia Nolan: 25:40

Tell me more about regional WA Bani. Because you did this amazing video for Geraldton. Often I loved it. It's just such a great take on Jarrow.

Bonnie Davies: 25:54

Thank you. Yeah, that was really fun. Well, Sharon, actually, we saw someone from tourism wa or tourism WA, a shower. Do a talk about the tears of areas they promote. And there's like the four main tears and that broom and Exmouth and Margaret River, and etc. And then there's the second tier and third tier ELLs, like, oh, that's where Sharon gets all her work. Because the third tier, like there's so much to who was so vast that it's strategic and understand who is and who have to focus their resources, that's quite clever. But then there's all these places that actually have really cool things going on. When we're doing the tourism videos, it's a partnership without the move, they wanted to really showcase the side of each place. So we're doing all the places that people traditionally wouldn't want to visit. So Geraldton Kattaning, Collie, and the next one's Kalgoorlie Boulder, and trying to show the other side. But also honouring the perceptions that people have, you know, Geraldton it's a fuel stop to most people. Yeah, like, why would they have stopped, and then showing them some of the the things that are there. But for me, I think the thing that I've learned even just through doing the videos and just through touring so much through regional who has to chat to the locals, because if you ask someone in a local shop or an independent shop, what is there to do what's happening? There's always so many things that aren't on anything. Like someone's got an opening party or a launch or there's an exhibition or there's something going on, there's a weird market or there's, you know, people have so many DIY things happening in the country. And if you ask the locals, they might even just take you out. Oh absolutely. Sharron was driving along for Bunbury fringe met some people at the pizza store literally eating pizza. And then the next day one of them took her out on a plane flying over. I mean, she's bit famous. So that helps, but

Sonia Nolan: 27:49

you can't really miss it. In fact, it's probably a good time to actually introduce who famous Sharon is because we sort of talked around her and we did say she had to wait. But we've mentioned her a few times now so So how would you describe famous Sharon apart from she's your alter ego.

Bonnie Davies: 28:04

So she's She's very famous for nothing at all. Doesn't mean that she's not got talent, but none of it's that useful.

Sonia Nolan: 28:13

I disagree.

Bonnie Davies: 28:16

she's funny, she's famous and she's fabulous. They're the three words that I think of

Sonia Nolan: 28:20

Frank she's quite extravagant, isn't she? She's

Bonnie Davies: 28:22

very glamorous. She's

Sonia Nolan: 28:23

very glamorous

Bonnie Davies: 28:24

glamour and guts. I'm the girl. She's the girl. Wow. That's a realisation that's true.

Sonia Nolan: 28:31

She's a little bit dimed now.

Bonnie Davies: 28:32

Oh, absolutely. Dame Edna without the talent. Yeah. She's been compared to diamond from the outside, I think because of the big frogs, the glasses and the hair and everything. Which has always been an honour. For me. I'm like, wow, that's an Australian icon. Sorry. Yeah. And so when people say that she's Oh, yes, but without the talent.

Sonia Nolan: 28:55

And she is this this larger than life character who who just brings joy and energy and volume

Bonnie Davies: 29:02

much to wherever you are.

Sonia Nolan: 29:04

So how was famous Sharon born because I believe she turns 10 this year?

Bonnie Davies: 29:09

Yes. She's, yeah, she's officially 42 But 10 years of being famous. She was an accident. So I was doing stand up as me and I'll try and give you like a short ish version. But essentially I'd done okay as me not I'm surrounded by much more successful people all the time to take a step

Sonia Nolan: 29:27

back because again, in my little, you know, sort of stalking Have you Barney 2011 was a really big year for you from what I can get. Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Yeah. You won the Best Comedy Show. comedy show. Yeah, at Fringe world in that same year. And you also create a family Sharon in 2012. A year later. You also had a YouTube video that went viral in 2011, which was about breaking up with Google. Oh, no, I didn't go viral. Well, it was it was should

Bonnie Davies: 29:59

have been a Faster edit. I should have edited that. Myself. That was a good lesson that

Sonia Nolan: 30:04

guy but that was about breaking up with Google. It was hilarious. Because really research I do my research,

Bonnie Davies: 30:12

I've never know how to find them. You just you just

Sonia Nolan: 30:16

go jayvees Obviously, myself, but um, the breaking up with Google, it just still resonates today, because in that video, you talk about the fact that you know, you're following me and you know everything about me, You've got my number, but I don't have your phone number. It's all still so tip topical today in 2022.

Bonnie Davies: 30:39

Amazing, actually, you're ahead

Sonia Nolan: 30:41

of your time. Who knew? But um, so I just wanted to take that little vignette moment to just say that while yes, famous Sharon, you know, it has certainly taken off. But you know, she's got some pretty strong shoulders outstanding.

Bonnie Davies: 30:56

Really clear. Yeah, she did benefit. I mean, I guess I did, I won that award, but I didn't. I think awards are fickle. Like they're very useful. And that was useful for me. But also, you know, what your work is and what you want it to be. And the award was for a show that was about my family and growing up. Because when I was writing, and I was like, oh, what should I wrap my second show about? I know, I'll, the first one was called laughter your money back, because I just thought I won't be able to come and know that if they don't laugh, they can have their money back. Yeah, you know, no, they don't know who I am. That's how I'm gonna roll. And that was really fun show, it was all my best stuff. So that's quite good. You know, it takes a while to find the good jokes. The second job was like, wow, where do I start? What do I write about and thought write about what you know. All right, about my family, you know, all the bank robberies, and all the things like all the the funny stories that we had there or funny. And then as I was writing it, I got halfway already booked, you know, booked to the slot at fringe and already had the promo rolling out and was finishing it and realise, oh, that's only part of the story. Because the other part is all the people that died, and all the sadness and all the hard stuff. So then the show had to be more about that, which was a real shock for me and made it much harder to finish. And, in fact, I don't really felt I don't really feel like I'd finished it until a year later, because I spent a year touring it, and then pulling it out and making it better and better. And finally got there. So it was a powerful show. It was funny, and it was heartfelt. And I think that's probably why it won. The award is it was uniquely me that one called I'm home life. What do you want? Yeah. So because you know, a lot of people were on drugs or on different things around me. And I think somewhat I remember someone asking me, What are you on?

Sonia Nolan: 32:48

A great title.

Bonnie Davies: 32:50

And I was I think people often think I'm a like a born again, Christian, because I'm quite optimistic or having me my dad is a minister, but none of us are religious.

Sonia Nolan: 33:00

So I'm high on life. What are you on? Well, yeah, that was a show that

Bonnie Davies: 33:04

range. And so then I was conflicted, because I'd kind of created not a stand up Stand Up Show. So I hadn't really lent into the storytelling of it. But I hadn't really linked into the stand up side of it. So I felt very in between, yeah, I got convinced by other people to take it to Edinburgh, because you've got to keep you know, could win more awards, and then made good money off the season at Fringe. So I did. I've been to Edinburgh twice before as an open marker. But it was the wrong decision for me. I didn't want I took too many things on, I was still really relatively new. Yeah, it just was a lot. And I lost a lot of money and came back kind of financially and emotionally ruin. And I just thought, That's not success. Like I know from the outside that looks like success, because I did a tour and I had a great time.

Sonia Nolan: 33:53

I think it's so interesting how you say it, and what is success? Because I think that's something that a lot of us all struggle with, because there is the external understanding of what success looks like for other people. But what does it feel like for you as a human what successes I've redefined that 100 times over in my life? Yeah. And I know, I'll continue to Yes, it is something that should be actually a personal definition. And nobody else has got the right to tell you what success actually should be.

Bonnie Davies: 34:25

No, and they're not living it or feeling it now. When you're successful. You feel it. And when you're unsuccessful, you feel it in time they talk about how important failure is, but no one talks about how painful it is. Because Absolutely, it's important and you learn so much, but wow, it hurts. So I think the self care or the ways that you can handle failure is a part of that conversation that I don't hear much as that how do you Who do you call, like, who do you know, when you feel like you're about to fail or you are failing? Like how do you how do you reconcile it, how do you process it and then how do you go hold yourself up again. What are those things? Because that's a part of learning and growing. And it happens and God it hurts.

Sonia Nolan: 35:07

And there are moments in time where it just feels I call it the great unravelling, where everything just seems to unravel at the same time. Yeah. And you just seem to be spiralling down into something that you're not sure where and you don't know who your safe people are, yeah,

Bonnie Davies: 35:21

have real things really cycle. I think that's why, like, I'm having a really amazing time. And also, I've had a lot of success in the last couple of months, a lot of things great things are happening rapidly. And often. Even when it was hard during COVID I'm getting lots of huge, successful things happening. I was talking to a friend the other day, and she's had a really good run with a project she's doing getting a claim and all sorts of things. She's like, you have just got to make sure it doesn't get to my head, you know, just kind of talking about that. Like, how do I manage my ego and how do I or whatever. And I was like, Wow, I'm like so beyond that in so many ways, and I don't try to manage my ego anymore because I know the world will. It's made up. That's an extra level of imposter when you like, famous Sharon. We haven't even gotten to her story, but I made her up for a gig that was not everyone else had left Perth. So there was no one else left to do this gig. So I said I'll do the gig a month out. And then they were doing a Hollywood gala big martini glasses, Marilyn Monroe impersonators, and I was like, Do you want me to do a character because I think I'm pretty casual. Like we didn't know you did characters and I said no, I don't but I will. So you know, how did famous Sharon start I made her up. She was a talent agent like In fact, I didn't even make her up the producer. He she said or what kind of character said she has to be Australian. Because I'm sick of people doing just being from anywhere except Perth. It's like I want her to be from Morley Galleria like she is a queen and Morley Galleria. Awesome. And she's from WA she's Suburban. She's not bogan there's a little bit of bogan and all of us but she's she's Suburban. And you know, she's, and proud proud of it. And she's the queen of it. Like she's all over it. And, and then so and she has to change outfits all the time. That was the two things that will make her a talent agent of that perfect. So for the first six months, she was a talent agent from Morley Galleria. And she wasn't really a thing. But you know, I made her up. She's pretend.

Sonia Nolan: 37:29

And Sharon being the quintessential Australian name. Is that where you went? Yeah,

Bonnie Davies: 37:34

does just felt right. She has I spelt it wrong the first time and Sharon was gonna fix that. I'll fix that. Yeah. And it wasn't until so I did the Edinburgh Fringe, and just was exhausted. I've done Sharon once. But the reaction was just incredible. Like people really got it, they were yelling for her throughout the show. I just never had a reaction like that before. And it felt good. So lucky. I took her to Sydney a few years ago. And you know, she found her she video bombed sunrise. The background is sunrise and went to Priscilla Queen of the Desert that opening night and they ended up bringing her up on stage. And if people wanted photos with her afterwards, I was like, Oh, wow, this works in any city. This character works anywhere. Then obviously, I flew home. So you know, it's interesting that just the different networks, she might have been on TV sooner or you know, all those kinds of things. But also, I've been able to work her through and work myself through a lot more. But you know, because she's a multi dimensional character, not just on screen, that means that my decisions are things that she has to live. So it makes it a little bit more complicated, and simple, but it's just a bit more it has to be really solid, because she has to stand up in every dimension if she can't break character, and people hang out with her quite a lot or they really get to know her. So it was just a bit more for me to kind of consider so there was a reason I wasn't as confident on camera, which I've fixed now, as you would see. I love it. Whenever you go back through I've left a lot of the old shit up. So if you want to scroll back, there's some really bad videos of amateur voices different everything's really

Sonia Nolan: 39:10

but that's great to see the evolution I

Bonnie Davies: 39:12

left it up on purpose because I think that if someone else is wanting to do something like that, then they should see how it started like yeah, and and also it doesn't matter because behind me now do you know so she's gonna keep rolling forward? I really do feel like who really lift her and back her which is so special like that will never not be no one else can take that. That's pretty amazing. So it's been a longer road but it feels very fruitful right now.

Sonia Nolan: 39:39

I just feel that famous Sharon's probably going to be around for a really long time. I think you've done so much which is mostly plastic and that to me, never. She's never going doesn't even biodegrade or anything. You've done so much work on her with her. You You know who she is. In the sense of like you've said, you know that connection with people and she, you want her to live her values. You want her to be this iconic person that I want.

Bonnie Davies: 40:11

But I still want her to go to Morley Galleria. Yeah. I love that idea that she'll be internationally famous but still turn up at a cafe in Perth. Do you know... I love that that would be a thing.

Sonia Nolan: 40:23

Yeah. What's your ambition with Sharron or what's Sharron's ambition? Like? Who cares what you think Bonnie? What does Sharron want?

Bonnie Davies: 40:29

always think she's more famous than she is. And she always just wants to be more famous, which is, you know, insatiable. Yeah. And and she always idolises the, the what fame and successes, and probably Miss Rita. Do you know she thinks Pavarotti are great, they watch your kids for you, they send you photos, amazing. To just doesn't Quiet Kind of commits to it so wholeheartedly that it's challenging. I'm still figuring her out in a lot of ways, because I'm in her all the time. Really success for me, it's so interesting, because before COVID, you know, jello was growing, Sharon was growing. We had you know, these next, this is going to be the next big project then we're going to do this tour and then we're gonna go over here and then we're gonna go to LA and Ellen's couch was the goal and then you know, get on Ellen's couch and then do all those big things. And now, for me, obviously famous shout, I want to make her a superstar. I love that. But I also just am so happy to just be working. So she's just happy to be here if I can earn the money and also have the creativity and and be able to make people feel like if people feel overjoyed, being around her or or if she can celebrate people. What a joy. Exactly. That's correct. That is actually really enough. It's bigger than me or anyone. And that's the magic of it.

Sonia Nolan: 41:58

You've been listening to my warm table with Sonia Nolan, in Italian a tavola calda is a warm and welcoming table where you can share big ideas, friendship, laughter and life. So much happens around the kitchen table, and I wanted to amplify it here in this podcast. My aim is to feed your mind and soul through smart conversations with heart. No topic is off limits, but good table manners rule. I hope you'll join us each week as we set the table for my extraordinary guests who will let you feast on a deep knowledge, life experiences and wise insights. Let's keep the conversation flowing. Please subscribe to the my warm table podcast and share it with your friends and networks. Perhaps if they're new to podcasting, take a moment to show them how to download and subscribe so they don't miss an episode either. I'd also love you to join our community on Facebook. You'll find the group at my warm table podcast. Your support is very much appreciated. So that together we can eat, think and be merry