Whenever someone’s spruiking a book or show, they get lined up to do a ’20 questions’ ‘day in the life of…’ type piece of filler. Subtly, one works one’s mealticket into the answers about favourite foods, first pet’s name, etc.

How not to do it was exemplified by cabaret singer Melissa Madder Gray, aka ‘Meow Meow’ in the Sunday Age’s “My Week” last week. Gray is doing three evenings of Australian postmodernist interpretation of German high modernist art songs by Schoenberg, Schumann et al (form an orderly queue).

Her answers to:

What are you reading? “Notes on Schoenburg, Schumann et al for my upcoming show…”

Last theatre show attended? “Last week performing at the Hippodrome London with La Clique”

Last film I saw was… “The inflight movies on flight from London while learning texts by Goethe and Heine for my show, with songs by Sch-” etc.

Yeah Mel, we get it. You’ve got a show. No class, but a show