The Coming Back Out Salon

Robyn Archer

Robyn Archer AO FAHA is a singer, writer, artistic director and public advocate for the arts.

Winner of the Helpmann Award for Best Cabaret Performer 2013, and named Cabaret Icon at the 2016 Adelaide Cabaret Festival, she currently performs highly acclaimed recitals of French (Que Reste-t’Il), German (Dancing on the Volcano) and American (The Other Great American Songbook) song.

She wrote and directed The Sound of Falling Stars (2017/18) and released her album Classic Cabaret Rarities in 2019. In that same year, she premiered Picaresque, an exhibition of 200 cardboard maquettes from her architectural collection, with performances amongst them, for the 2019 Adelaide Festival, and also premiered Fortunes of Exile with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Nefertiti LaNegra

Nefertiti LaNegra, the Serena Williams of drag, is a big-bone’d, thiccc-thigh’d, non-binary pop/rock/RnB drag artist, singer-songwriter, and vocalist from the cotton fields of Virginia. With a body like Tyson, breadth like Streisand, and resonance like Donny Hathaway – she’s here to show the world that soul songbirds do indeed come in all sizes. Her performance credits include the Apollo Theater (NYC), Sydney Mardi Gras mainstage, the NGV Gala (billed with international act Salt-n-Peppa), Melbourne Fringe Festival, Gaytimes and Pitch Arts music festivals, a sold out season at the Melbourne Cabaret Festival, and various other queer clubs and events. Although they cut their teeth in the southern Black gospel tradition, their music spans across genres from pop to musical theatre to soul. Like their songs, there are no boundaries when it comes to their musical influence and arrangements. Her hopes are to expand people’s ideas of gender, perform her music to as many audiences as possible, and explode people’s expectations of drag queen pop artistry. As they say in the American South, “like cornbread goes with greens”, Nefertiti goes with music and is bringing something new to the table.

Nicolette Forte

As a musician, Nicolette’s debut EP Rescue Me (2012) received national airplay on Triple J, PBS, and Joy FM, following a sold-out launch. She has since performed at major festivals and venues across Australia, including St Kilda Festival (2011, 2012, 2015), Moomba Melbourne (2013), ChillOut Festival Daylesford (2010–2015), Out in the Open Shepparton (2014), and Pako Festa Geelong (2012). Her international performances have taken her to The Bedford (London), Madame Claude (Berlin), and a residency at God’s Own Country Kitchen (Varkala, India). A career highlight came in 2013 when she was invited to perform for Her Majesty Sultanah Haminah Hamidun, the Honorable Queen of Malaysia.

Ash Flanders

Ash Flanders is a multi-award winning playwright and performer from sunny Melbourne. In 2006 he and Declan Greene formed theatre company Sisters Grimm and together wrote over a dozen shows including Summertime in the Garden of Eden (Griffin Theatre), Little Mercy (STC), The Sovereign Wife (MTC), Calpurnia Descending (Malthouse/STC) and Lilith: The Jungle Girl (MTC). As a solo writer/performer Ash created Meme Girls (Malthouse), Special Victim (Feast Festival), Playing to Win (Arts Centre Melbourne), Ash Flanders is NOTHING and End Of. (Griffin Theatre), all directed by Stephen Nicolazzo.

His cabaret-farce SS Metaphor and naturalistic drama This Is Living were both commissioned by Malthouse Theatre. In 2024 he wrote two new works as part of the Athenaeum Group’s playwright-in-residence program, his solo show A Brief Episode (Melbourne Fringe) and the pitch-black comedy Commentary.

JXCKY

Spinning chaos into catharsis, JXCKY blends rock grit and trap flair to soundtrack the beautiful mess of modern identity. The Melbourne-based Chinese-Cambodian queer artist delivers razor-sharp hooks and falsetto-laced vocals with a venomous honesty that cuts through the noise. Every track is a theatrical confession—equal parts anti-pop spectacle and emotional exorcism.

Tina Del Twist

 With a voice as smooth as honey and a comedic wit that could shred brie, Tina has shared her talents across the globe to wild acclaim and applause, garnishing her (among other things) the 2022 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Comics’ Choice Award.

2Joocee

As a First Nations plus size queer, singer, dancer and more, 2Joocee believes that visibility is still very important, even if you are likely to hear them before you see them.

Toni Lalich

Tristan Meecham