When one door closes…
Vanessa Larry Mitchell is one very funny chick, who has spent the last few years dancing around the globe with her internationally-acclaimed show Teardrops on my Dildo – and as much as she loves to perform Teardrops, the door is starting to close on that show and it’s time to move on to part two in the Mitchell saga, Lube Me Alone.
As she prepares to perform her last few of the old, Mitchell is very much looking forward to the door opening on the new.
She has one of her final Teardrops performances in Mullum this Friday before heading off on a little tour of Australia and then a big, little international tour, including Dublin, Belfast, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool – and at some point in that time, space and geography, Teardrops will quietly fade out and Lube Me Alone will loudly stomp in. Mitchell will hit the ground running on her return to Oz and she’ll appear in Brunswick Heads near the end of May.
Seven caught up with Vanessa last week to see how she’s letting go.
Are you feeling a little bit split at the moment, having the old and the new tumbling around inside of you?
Yeah – I don’t know why I’m doing this. I love Teardrops so much I don’t want to stop. I’m not a ‘known’ performer still, so there’s loads of areas that I haven’t tapped into. I’ve been touring that show for four years now, and I just love it. I love performing it, and I love the message that’s kind of within it.
I’m taking the old show back over to the UK in April and then I’m going to just start doing the new show to places that I’ve already been before. It’ll work kind of as a sequel.
Are people coming back to see Teardrops that have seen it before?
Yeah, yeah. There was one lady on the weekend that, I think that was her fourth time that she’d seen me, so she saw the new show, and then two nights later, came and saw the old show again that she’d already seen twice – people bring their mates back with them. A lot of women bring their daughters now, I get a lot of daughters and mothers. I think this feels empowering for them.
It doesn’t sound like you’re getting tired of Teardrops?
No. No! I thought I would, but it’s gotten funnier and better, even more punchy than it ever was. It’s still essentially the same show it’s just got more little bits.
You’re not thinking of retiring it at any time soon?
I think in Australia, I will have to – but then, I don’t think it’s going to be put to bed forever. I think it’ll be one of those shows that might make a resurgence, almost like a flashback to that chapter of life. I don’t think the content is going to get old anytime soon.
You know, with Lube Me Alone, when you have your second child, you have that feeling of like, ‘oh no – what if I don’t love this baby as much as my first baby?’ And that’s how I felt. I felt like, I don’t think I can ever write a show that I’m going to love as much as Teardrops. So I was really reluctant to even get started writing on it. And then once I finished writing it and did the trial shows, I loved it, you know, I love it. And it’s going to get better. It almost takes things to a further level than Teardrops does.
Are you having enough fun?
Yeah, I have so much fun on the road.
Teardrops on my Dildo will be performed by Vanessa Larry Mitchell at the Drill Hall Theatre, Mullumbimby on Saturday, May 10 at 7.30pm, get tickets from https://drillhalltheatre.org.au/teardrops-on-my-dildo
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
