BIOGRAPHY
“A BRILLIANT BLEND OF SASS, SATIRE AND PATHOS, DELIVERED WITH AN ELECTRIFYING VOICE THAT CAN STRIP PAINT OFF THE WALLS OR RETREAT INTO HAUNTING VULNERABILITY”
The Age
Rock comedy singer, writer and director Geraldine Quinn has been performing her award-winning original pop/rock cabaret all around the world for almost two decades.
Since winning Victoria’s Green Room Award for Best Emerging Cabaret Artiste in 2006, Quinn has continued to draw recognition and plaudits in Australia and New Zealand. Winning the Short and Sweet Cabaret competition in 2009, she went on to be highly commended for Best Cabaret at Melbourne Fringe, and was nominated for a Golden Gibbo Award at Melbourne International Comedy Festival and three Green Room Awards for her 2010 show Shut Up and Sing.
In 2011, she created The Last Gig In Melbourne, a unique suite of original songs inspired by the local live music scene (reprised in 2012). The same year, You’re the Voice: Songs for the Ordinary by an Anthemaniac (Moosehead Award recipient, directed by Casey Bennetto) won the Golden Gibbo Award for Best Local Independent Production in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Quinn has appeared on ABC TV’s Spicks and Specks, Adam Hills Tonight, Upper Middle Bogan, True Story and Rockwiz. She has been a cabaret judge for Short + Sweet, Melbourne Fringe and the Green Room Awards. In 2013, Stranger debuted in Melbourne Comedy Festival, and she took You’re the Voice to Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, regional Victoria, New Zealand and Adelaide Fringe (where it was nominated for Best Cabaret).
Her covers show Sunglasses at Night: The 80s Apocalypse Sing Along Cabaret continues to sell out around Australia.
In 2014 she formed Quinn & de Grussa with Perth musician Michael de Grussa. Their debut production All Out of Pride: An Evening of Songs You’re Ashamed to Love sold out in Melbourne and Perth, was nominated for Best Cabaret in the Green Room Awards and came 2nd runner up for Best Cabaret in Fringe World (WA). Quinn’s 2nd Moosehead Award supported show MDMA: Modern Day Maiden Aunt debuted in 2014 MICF and toured to New Zealand Fringe where it won the award for Best Cabaret. In April 2015, after four career nominations in the category, Quinn took home the Green Room Award for Best Cabaret Artiste for MDMA and All Out of Pride.
She was invited to sing at the launch of the David Bowie Is… exhibition in Melbourne in 2015, and later that year launched her cabaret podcast Bang On The Strillers. In 2016 she produced her ten-year anniversary show Could You Repeat That? at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and created a new rock cabaret Fox Poncing for the Melbourne Cabaret Festival. With her epic rock covers band Spandex Ballet, Quinn has hosted the MICF all-female line-up Upfront Gala since 2014, and performed twice as house band for the annual Moosehead Gala. Spandex Ballet has been a popular event at MICF’s Festival Club for nine years. She was Cabaret Panel Chair for the Victorian Green Room Awards 2016-2018 and released her sixth independent album Fox Poncing in 2017. Later that year, Quinn co-starred with Tony Martin in his and Sarina Rowell’s sit-com Childproof, which was recorded live during Melbourne Fringe Festival and won Best Comedy Podcast in the 2017 Australian Podcast Awards.
She’s been co-host of Casey Bennetto’s A Swingin’ Bella Christmas since 2014, performing alongside guests including Paul Kelly, Deborah Conway, Tim Rogers, Rebecca Barnard and Eddie Perfect. She most recently was MC for Circus Oz’s 1980s–inspired show NEON (2018 – 2020). After 17 years of performing in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, her 2022 original cabaret BROAD was nominated for both the Golden Gibbo (her third nomination) and Most Outstanding Show.