Dorian Mode is a multi-award winning musician and writer of laugh-out-loud books: A Cafe in Venice (Penguin) and Mozart Maulers (Penguin) have been bestsellers here and in Europe. These careers have remained separate until Dorian recently competed a doctorate (APA scholarship winner) on ‘Bogans!’ Armed with this unique insight, his talents combine in a hilarious new show ‘Jazz For Bogans’: an exploration of all things ‘bogan’ told through surreal yarns and song.
With songs like ‘Moonlight In The Shire’, ‘Caravanistan’, ‘I’m Too Poor To Be Thin’ and ‘She Said Goodbye In Budgewoi’, you’ll laugh out loud and release the ‘inner Bogan’ within you!
His musical partner Andrew Wilkie plays the vibraphone and has performed and recorded in almost every style of music you could imagine at the highest level: classical with the Symphony orchestras of Queensland and Sydney and he's even performed at Royal Command performances in the Royal Albert Hall.
His musicality and diversity may be shown by listing some of the stars he has performed and toured with: Jose Feliciano, James Morrison, Jimmy Little, Michael Feinstien, Jane Rutter, Gangajang, Jimmy Little and many more.
His talent and experience led to the commission: composing the original and complete score for TAPDOGS, the most successful Australian theatrical export.
Click through to read what the press have said about his unique comic style.
Tickets and a couple of songs from the Adelaide fringe at the fringe festival website : 2013.sydneyfringe.com/event/musical-theatre-cabaret/dorian-mode-jazz-bogans
Made me laugh out loud…
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Moments of delicious irony and recognition…
COURIER MAIL
His perky humour has a way of wrong footing you…
MELBOURNE AGE
There are not many writers around who can make a reader laugh out loud. But Dorian Mode is one. One of Australia’s bright literary stars.
WEEKEND GOLD COAST BULLETIN
You’ll laugh out loud!
SUNDAY AGE
Dorian Mode’s stories of their central-coast bogan lifestyle were absolutely compelling; whilst it was almost impossible to reconcile their visual presentation with tales of their trips to the RSL, the local fishing club, or the bogan economy, the contrast provided an endless supply of humour. Mode talks at length about Bacon Busters magazine (the premier source for pig-shooters, complete with centrefolds), sings an ode to the vodka-swilling Sandy, creates a love song underpinned by the Cronulla roots, and there’s an oddly sweet song of heartbreak between bogan-boy and bogan-girl.
Best of all, though, was the Bogan Song Cycle – comical one- or two-liners made in the spaces afforded by a series of eight-bar jazz breaks.
The music is sublimely smooth, and Mode’s lyrics wry and descriptive – though not without a hint of compassion. The two men are clearly happy with their bogan lifestyles – even if outward looks deceive – and that results in a bizarrely contrasting experience.
And that’s the key word to associate with Boganville – contrast. Bogans and soft jazz blending together to produce a wonderfully entertaining experience… who’d have thunk it?
Festival Freak
