Muz is an experienced burlesque performer with signature acts that include a fake severed hand and a giant bubble big enough to fit a person inside. She’s been part of the Whitney Biennial (2004), a well-known art exhibition in New York for emerging visual artists in which her showcase involved museum-goers watching a video of Muz’s vagina communicating in 11 different languages. Then there are her titles of Miss Exotic World and Miss Coney Island pageants, as well as her old role as ‘Head Mermaid’ at the now-defunct Coral Room in New York, where she swam in a 34,000-litre tank for customers of the bar. In February, she’ll be in Melbourne to perform Apocastrip Wow! with fiancé and stage-partner Mat Fraser, and it’s quickly becoming clear that from Muz’s perspective, being open intellectually is hardly any different to being naked on stage doing her eccentric live shows.
“Well when I’m on stage, I like to think that there’s a beautiful open dialogue between me and the audience,” Muz says. “As comfortable as people think I am on stage, naked, I am like any other performer, riddled with insecurities. I need to be loved by at least 200 people a night, otherwise I feel valueless.”
But, I hear you say – the vagina! What about this talking vagina, which captivated audiences who attended the Whitney Biennial that year?
“Well Mr Pussy, he’s one of my alter egos. He’s been growing his moustache since Bush was elected into office the second time. He wears hats and he sings songs of freedom, so he has several different looks. He just recently did Redemption Song by Bob Marley, he did that for the tenth anniversary of the Twin Towers falling down. I think we’re going to bring that one to Australia this year. Last year Mr Pussy in [Muz’s show The Freak And The Showgirl] sang Hair…He’s a very patriotic American. He’s really proud of what he can accomplish. I just can’t cut my pubic hair.”
Aside from a vagina with a male alter-ego, Muz’s show attracts crowds. Having 200 people applauding you every night for performing naked has to be an ego boost, she agrees, but then there’s the unexpected caveat of crowd adulation.
“You would think it would just be good for your ego (and it is good for your ego), but then it sort of creates this spiral of, ‘Do they really love me?’” she chuckles.
One of Muz’s enduringly iconic roles is as Head Mermaid for the now-defunct Coral Room bar in New York, where she swam around as a delicate water-nymph for customers of the bar.
“That was one of the best jobs of my life. It was one of the hardest jobs of my life…It’s really kind of organic. The thing is that the more crazy moves you do, the less time you have underwater. So if you want to be under there for a long time, you just go down and hold your breath. But if you want to do something exceptional then you go down and back up. Ironically, when I was swimming at The Coral Room it was only about [170cm] high. The depth of the tank I was swimming in was just a little bit taller than me. Every time I did a flip I could just go up to the top and sneak a breath.”
Muz is passionate about seemingly everything she’s done in the art world, but her fiancé, Mat Fraser, seems the obvious winner in Muz’s estimation. A well-known disability activist and performer, Fraser is over in Ireland as we speak, filming his part in Irish soap opera Fair City. Muz can’t help but get gooey over Fraser. Even she admits that she “always had a wandering eye” before she met Fraser, her newfound I’ve-only-eyes-for-you mode is something that still has her Polish parents thrown.
“It’s sickening, it really is sickening,” Muz says. “It’s like my Mom says, [Muz launches into a heavy Polish accent], ‘Do you really want to get married again?’ I was like, ‘Yes, Mum. Are you going to come to the wedding?’ She’s not convinced. She really likes Mat a lot, but she’s not convinced!” she laughs.
You can tell Muz is always up for a chuckle. It’s an approach appreciated by Australians, who apparently rule the roost when it comes to Muz’s audience preferences.
“Australians are the best,” Muz says. In her shows, “Americans are a little too cool for school, so they don’t really play along very well…English people will make a fool of themselves. Give them half a reason and they will, so that’s no fun…the audience likes to watch one of themselves, to watch one of them volunteer and be shy at first, and then transform, and then there’s a dramatic arc right there. That’s what makes the best audience contestant, someone who has an inherent arc. They want to be wild and free, but they just need a little bit of a push. That’s what the most beautiful thing, and Australians are naturally like that.”
BY SIOBHAN ARGENT
