Dealing With The 'Ass Pressure' Of Success

Tessa Waters’ latest show, WOMANz, is about a Latino disco diva who is here to share her message of love, joy, body confidence and, above all, loving yourself. “I’m really fascinated by gender theory and how we conceive ourselves and our bodies and how our own confidence can affect how we relate to people,” she explains.

With a background in physical theatre, Waters has always loved slapstick, growing up on musicals like Singing In The Rain and adoring the comic genius of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. “I’ve always loved and been attracted to performance that is very much body focused. And I love to dance! I am in no way a trained dancer, but I wanted to make a show that I loved and have a great time performing every night and that always includes dance for me.”

In 2012, Waters attended the Ecole Philippe Gaulier in France, studying Clown and Theatre under the tutelage of the great man himself. Waters describes him as a “crazy, French, Yoda-looking character,” who was best remembered for his brilliant insults, and explains a typical day in class as, “You get up, you make him laugh, if you’re shit he bangs a drum, he insults you for five minutes, if you’re good you keep going.” In a French accent, Waters imitates one of his riffs to the class if she had performed badly: “Is this a beautiful actress? Do you want to spend the night with Tessa? Do you want to have champagne and lie with her forever in love-making? Or... do you want to kill her in a bath of acid?” Surprisingly, Waters looks back on this fondly. “They’re my favourite memories, his joy to insult people, and what an amazing effect it has on people.” Perhaps the greatest lesson Waters took from Gaulier was the importance of finding pleasure in the performance. “His theory is that if the performer is having a great time on stage and they’re sharing that with the audience, then the audience is going to have a great time.”

WOMANz won three awards at last year’s Melbourne Fringe Awards, including Outstanding Comedy Show. Waters was naturally excited to receive the nod, but it’s been more than just recognition. “It was a real boost of confidence, but it also put up the pressure! Oh shit, now people are actually looking at me, I can’t just get on stage and wiggle my ass, I will still do that, but I feel like there’s ass pressure now.” Waters will be writing a follow up to WOMANz later this year, premiering it at Melbourne Fringe Festival. “In this business, you can only look a couple of months ahead sometimes. You never know what’s around the corner, which is exciting.”