Melbourne based musical theatre, cabaret and comedy talent and vocal chameleon Stewart Reeve demonstrates his amazing vocal range, his gift for comedy and shares moments of his life in his new one man show Chameleon playing at Gluttony as part of this year’s Adelaide Fringe.  It includes growing up with Rocky Horror, a vocal progression from Bowie through to Marcy Grey as well as the smalltown boy learning to test his wing’s with Annie Lennox mixed in with a dash of Donald Trump and supermarket check-out scams!

AMNPlify: Congratulations of the how well the show is going, you’re getting so many great 4 and 5 star reviews. You must be really pleased?
Stewart: Thank you! Yes its going really well, better than I anticipated given all the circumstances that we were up against.
AMNPlify: Was it scary doing a one man show after not having been able to perform for so long? How did you prepare?
Stewart: I didn’t really think about it to be honest. My prior experience has been in MCing shows and doing a bit of stand-up comedy as well as all the other stuff I do so I wasn’t phased by the thought of being out there by myself. It was more a case of not having been able to test the material that worried me a little bit but I think that there was a part of me that thought “you know what, this is going to be ok and this is going to work” and there just became a point when I was rehearsing it felt comfortable and I was confident that it was going to work. Being out there by myself didn’t worry me too much <laughs> If anything went wrong I don’t have anyone to fall back but me and whilst there were problems early on with backing tracks in tech runs overall it has been very smooth so I’m pretty happy with it so far.
AMNPlify: Well it was flawless last night and you sounded great.
Stewart: Oh thank you
AMNPlify: I think the choice of the material and the way you tie it into your life as well is so strong so you shouldn’t have any worries about the strength of the show it is really cool.  There are quite a few autobiographical moments in the show, was that painful? Was it cathartic? Is it hard to share those emotions with an audience?
Stewart: Look early on….I mean I’ve got a pile of scripts from I can’t even tell you the number of times that I’ve written and re-written the show snd if I showed you the first copy to what it is now it is completely different. I think that there was a mention there where I thought “you know this isn’t a therapy session, this is entertainment” so it becomes about making that process a thing where we go how can I take a moment and package it and re-present it as entertainment to a crowd? So yes going the process was difficult and always the point where I talk about my family was the stopping point for me and it was until the afternoon of the very first show when I locked down exactly what is was that I was going to say.  It was always there but I just how do I change it slightly so I added those sound effects to bring it back in with the theme of the show. There were many ‘moments’ that I’d written and choosing just that one was a result of viewing it from every possible angle that I could.
AMNPlify: The 80’s mash up that you do at the end with Annie Lennoxx and Bronski Beat that was really powerful and just fantastic it worked so well
Stewart: Thank you, that was how I was hoping that it was going to come across because to me it was what this show is about…look so many people have sent to me ‘hey you should do a show with all the different voices’ and I’d always thought that the idea sound a bit naff so I thought how do I reposition that so that it isn’t just me coming out and doing gags and impressions of character after character, you know I’m not going go up there and do ten minutes on Donald Trump or something
AMNPlify: Actually that was cool, it was funny with Trump doing the “great to be in Melbourne” gag and that little snippet was all that it needed because it wasn’t integral to the story but it worked because of the way you worked it into the story.
Stewart: Just another of my useless sounds! <both laugh>
AMNPlify: Hey the useless sounds are really good…I was thinking about it this morning when I was in the supermarket with some avocados <Stewart laughs> I went “I know what to do here beep beep” <mimics sound of check-out scanner>.
Stewart: They’re expensive! Four bucks a go you know? You know what to do there…once you’ve got that sound down you can save a fortune.

AMNPlify: Back to the 80s mash up was there a little bit of Depeche Mode snuck in there too? It was arranged really well, the track just built and built and worked perfectly together.
Stewart:  Yes. “Enjoy the Silence”. I’ve always, always wanted to put that into a show and I thought I could work it into the part of the story about the telephone but it got to a point where I thought that this is becoming a little bit indulgent and it needed to come out but I just happened to find the right moment in the midst of the Annie Lennoxx and Bronski Beat where I remix “Little Bird” back into Bronski Beat where I could slip “Enjoy the Silence” into that space.
AMNPlify: Of all your voices which one is your favourite? I came out of the show attempting a really bad Marcy Grey and I could hear someone in the row behind me saying that the Mick Hucknell sounded just like him.
Stewart: Oh that is a really good question. It depends upon my mood. The ones I enjoy the most crowd reaction wise are Tones and I and Marcy Grey. It is really hard to pick my favourite, I guess it is like picking a favourite child.
AMNplify: OK then which one was the hardest voice to get right?
Stewart: Because it has been such a long time between gigs with COVID and everything I hard to keep reminding myself that I have to treat my voice as a muscle that has to be worked in and I need that time to get back so I think the one I’m finding the most challenging is Annie Lennox but that will come back with time.
AMNplify: The range in all those different artists that your voice has to do is incredible really.
Stewart: There is a lot that your voice has to do but there is a lot that your mind has to do also. I learnt early on with singing that the ability was always there but it was the mindset that was stopping it. So once you get to a point where you I like to say a place where you care enough not to care and you can let go then you can let go then it falls into place and everything else starts to follow. It is when you really start to think about it that pretty much it all stops working or that what I find.
AMNplify: I think that is a really good philosophy I think that it works with a lot of things in that if you over think something to much or if you try to make everything perfect then it doesn’t quiet work it has to be as much about belief in the heart as in the in the head
Stewart: Yeah of course, for me it is whenever I start to think about what’s going on then things start to close up and tight and whatever but if I let it all go and trust that it’s there then its fine and that’s actually when it’s at its best.
AMNplify: Is there an artist that you’d really like to do but you can’t get it right or haven’t quite managed yet? Or one that you might be planning to do in the future?
Stewart: I always find that it is the most unique voices that work the best. There are plenty of singers that I wish I had their tone or range or could belt a note but I don’t try and seek out the voices, they just pop up I mean I only discovered Tones and I in December and thought I could do that and it just came naturally so I think it is just a case of thinking that I resonate with it and give it a crack.
AMNplify: How good has the Fringe been going for you in generally and how good is it to be back performing?
Stewart: It’s great, really great. It was certainly a challenge…getting here at the last moment to avoid the boarder closure I got a call at 4 and jumped on a plane at 9 at night and went through the quarantine. Just the year that it has been and pushing through all that shit seems like it was worth it to get to this point where I’m standing on stage and thinking it’s been 12 months! The vibe has been great, the minute that I walk on stage and people start to applaud I never expected to hear that again it means that people are there and they’re with from the start. Everyone has been starved of live entertainment and they are hungry to get out see some entertainment. They want to get out and be in the same space and breathe the same COVID safe air.

AMNplify: We haven’t had the same sort of restrictions in South Australia as you went through in Victoria but even so people are super keen to get out and be entertained.
Stewart: It was ridiculous yeah just quiet, so quiet for so long.
AMNplify: Yeah the Fringe was really lucky last year. I think that the week after it finished they started bringing in restrictions limiting numbers and very quickly after that closed everything down. Was it hard that you can’t get out and work and particularly as an entertainer you must sort of thrive on the um I don’t want to say adoration but the vibe you get from stepping out onto a stage?
Stewart: <laughing> validate me somebody validate me! <both laughing> yeah it was bizarre, I honestly thought at some point there that maybe last year was the year but you know that we are still not back to normal with the state of the world and it is a long way off but we are very, very lucky to be able to do what we are able to do in Australia. I think of those moments last year in Melbourne when I was walking down the street to go to the shop and it was so quiet, nobody speaking to each other no one making much noise and for everything to be alive again even after the show last night I just sat there and watched all the people going about Gluttony was just fantastic and I never thought that it was going to get back to this point. I was her last year when it was all starting to fall apart and I remember the airport was empty and then getting on a plane and there was a lady in a full hazmat suit and mask and we were really unsure of what was about to happen.
AMNplify: You’re not doing “Rebel” (An evocative tribute to David Bowie where Stewart is various David Bowie personas and backed by a live glam band and a fantastic group of world class circus acts) this year but I see you’re hoping to do it at SALTFEST at Port Lincoln?
Stewart: Yeah SLATFEST. There are a lot of gigs that got cancelled last year and are still trying to get re-organised I mean we got a cancellation yesterday for a festival in Melbourne that have just had to move their dates again so it’s still a shifting platform so at this point yes but everything is on standby and you just have to be flexible with dates this year.
AMNplify: I guess it must be hard to rehearse that show and to be flexible because there is so much physical circus going on around the songs and so many in the cast you can’t just go ‘hey there is festival is on this weekend, can you come?’ er no
Stewart: It has been a very long time since we’ve been a part of that show and we’d just got the ball rolling on it.  It would be great to be able to get the gang back together and start doing some rehearsals and get it ready for SALT festival.
AMNplify: Speaking of Bowie who was the singer that you used as the lead into Bowie’s voice who was that?
Stewart: Anthony Newley. He was an English actor and singer and he does a song…I think it is called “Who can I turn to” it’s a black and white clip if you find it on YouTube but he has this wonderful voice and it is really similar to Bowie’s sound.
AMNplify: That was really clever how you did that section of the show where you just led us through how one voice led to another voice and how the one voice is embedded in another voice and how when you got to Maroon 5 you just had to describe him as ‘that guy from Maroon 5” because no one knows his name.
Stewart: I know right no one knows his name but his voice is iconic and we know what he’s a part of but even I still don’t know his name. I know his was a judge on the Voice.
AMNplify: Thanks so much for your time. I hope that the rest of the season continues to go well and good luck with getting Rebel back up and running again.
Stewart: Thank you