Performance artists, freak puppets: The strange battle to revive our nights out

Sydney Morning Herald

13-06-2025

This story is part of the June 14 edition of Good Weekend. See all 14 stories.
Not since Melbourne's boy from Sunshine, the late Leigh Bowery, stormed London's '80s club scene in a floral gimp mask, matching ball gown and jaunty, spiked Pickelhelm, has a night out been quite so eye-popping. A new generation of 'Club Kids' is defying the demise of Australian nightlife. Millennials, Gen Zs and a couple of Xers are flocking to avant-garde-themed club nights, from the risqué Heaps Gay parties in Sydney to the mayhem of Melbourne's subversive, grotesque Golden Scissor Puppets.
Sydney filmmaker and club promoter Dan Neeson, who started out as a tea boy on a Kylie Minogue video, is the son (and spitting image) of Aussie rock legend Doc Neeson of The Angels. Neeson and his partner, fashion designer Alvi Chung, are behind the club-night Wings, which combines performance art (including naked acrobats), music and fashion. Last month, they held a counter-offensive to 'corporatised' Australian Fashion Week at millionaire-publican Diane Maloney's lavishly refurbished, art-deco Plaza Hotel in the heart of Sydney. It was a hit.
Models for Ella Jackson's label, Catholic Guilt – a favourite of US starlet Julia Fox – wore chainmail couture, which inspired seasoned socialite and Real Housewives of Sydney alumni, Terry Biviano, to rush backstage to get one. She wore the 15-kilogram gown to the swanky Silver Party fundraiser at Justin Hemmes' Hermitage estate a few days later. Afterwards, Minichiello used pliers to get her out of the creation, which took 700 hours to make.
'Rave, runway, ritual: we're the antithesis of the big, corporate-owned, soulless beer barns that have taken over our cities,' says Neeson, who credits his late father for inspiring him 'to think big' and calls Maloney his 'fairy godmother' for her generosity with the venue. Neeson and Chung are planning a Melbourne Wings launch, but they'll meet competition from the likes of locals Will and Garrett Huxley's high-camp duo act, The Huxleys, as well as newcomer Opal Crafter, founder of Golden Scissor Puppets and creator of the life-size puppet, Igor.
Crafter's troupe of 50 'freak' puppets create chaos as the giant, not-so-cuddly creatures glide across stages, interrupting performances and taking over dance floors. Crafter says it's all intended to 'make people smile'. 'We're from a generation of AI perfection,' Crafter says, citing Leigh Bowery as a creative inspiration. 'We create a space for the imperfect, for the hand-made, and celebrate everything that's human in all its wonderful, weird variations.'