The Very Glamourous And Fabulous Alright, Hey!

WORDS BY
Jacqui James

ALRIGHT, HEY! IS what Australia desperately needs right now – A big dash of happiness, glamour and a wicked sense of humour, entwined with important messaging like accepting and loving yourself for the real you.

Matt aka Alright, Hey! has had millions of views aimed at politicians to fast food chains on TikTok and YouTube. Now he’s about to hit the stage at Adelaide Fringe Festival in March to tell his delicious stories like “almost kicking a child in the face” at Ikea and driving with one of my favourite past interviewees Christian Hull through Red Rooster.

While researching Alright, Hey! for this feature, I knew Matt will deliver, and he didn’t disappoint. So thank you Matt for being fun!

G’day, Matt! How are you? It’s a real pleasure to interview someone who’s just oozing with happiness and who’s up for anything. People have become ridiculously serious, would you agree?

Hi! Thanks for having me.

Absolutely. I think it’s time everyone loosened up a little bit. Life’s too short to be a Karen!

My introduction to you was your fantastic video for Ridin’ ScoMo. Hehe. I bow to you! Did you get any feedback from ScoMo or even anyone from Canberra?

I didn’t hear a thing! But I definitely didn’t expect to. Funnily enough, whilst filming the video at Parliament House we did cause a security scare. So maybe ScoMo was salty about that and chose not to acknowledge it. Who knows!

Describe yourself as a five-year-old. Were you putting shows on for your family or did your extravert-self develop later?

Oh, definitely {I’ve been} an extravert since birth. I like to say I came out of the womb wearing a pair of heels. I was putting on shows as early as I could. If it wasn’t a show, it was me hosting wheel of fortune or playing trivia or making my family sit down while I did a monologue. Although they moaned and groaned every time, they kept buying me things for Christmas to help the production. Think smoke machines, disco balls. Lights. They must have loved it deep down.

Your dresses (or frocks if we want to be posh) are just gorgeous and you always look gorgeous in them! Where do you see these frocks?

Oh, darling, it takes years and years of hard work to find my frocks. You just need to know where to look. For a lot of big events and live shows, I actually get the dresses custom-made by Felicity Frockaccino – a Sydney drag queen. She just knows how to make something that works for my body and it’s really amazing quality. Other times it’s just about finding the deepest darkest places on the internet to get a dress in my size. I could never just walk into a store and pick one up. The struggle is real!

One of my sisters hates ANYTHING PASTA, so watching the video of you tasting frozen (why would you torture yourself with FROZEN in the first place?) vegetarian lasagna cracked me up because my sister has the same reaction to tasting anything pasta. Have you had many sympathisers?

Definitely! It’s actually surprising because I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like lasagna, so to bond with so many like-minded lasagna-haters has been huge for me. I’m so blessed that the internet can help me find my community.

Your Cloud Sync story is just…yep….funny! It also portrays you as someone who’s very close to your family. How has your family’s support helped you be you throughout your life as a comedian?

Yes! I definitely have a supportive family. They always come from far and wide to see my shows which is really exciting for me.

My Dad and my step Mum even used to help me create outfits for red carpets and events when I was younger. I didn’t have much money so buying nice things or getting things made just wasn’t an option for us, so I’d go to Spotlight, Bunnings, Lincraft, wherever I could get my hands on some spikes, chains, diamonds, etc! And we would clear the dinner table after we’d eaten, replace it with a sewing machine, a hot glue gun and some glitter and get to work!

You’re doing the Adelaide Fringe Festival in March. No doubt you’re excited about getting in front of crowds again. What can people expect from your shows?

Yes! And I’m very excited to be debuting my new show in Adelaide. This is Fat and Fabulous – a storytelling show with a nod to my body and how I get through life loving it. You CAN be fat AND fabulous. People can expect many stories from my life about how being fat has got me into many sticky situations, and how it’s gotten me out of a few as well!

You can purchase your tickets to Alright, Hey!’s new show Fat And Fabulous show at Adelaide Fringe Festival by visiting https://moretalent.com.au/tours/fat-and-fabulous/

ADELAIDE FRINGE FESTIVAL