Ego Jacket

Ego Jacket: More songs. More honesty. No more shame.

In 2015, at the age of 26, Phillip Lee Curtis had achieved his life goals. He had lost 60 kilos, had a subsequent tummy tuck and had come out to his friends and family as gay.

Celebrating these personal achievements, Curtis put on a one-man show – ‘and why do I care?’ – taking the audience on a cabaret-style musical journey through his experiences of dealing with depression, eating disorders and identity, all the while hinting at the question, “So, what next?”.

So, what next?

“I had to have a think about what to do next…other things I wanted to achieve in my life and start putting those things into motion,” he says. “I felt like I’d closed a chapter and still needed to do what most twenty-somethings have to do – figure life out!”

Now 28, Curtis has made the switch from full time employment in graphic design to contract work, giving him the flexibility he needs for his performing arts ventures. He’s played a number of one-off performances for variety shows and piano bars, as well as launched a podcast, Fanatic, that interviews other performers to discuss career, inspiration and mental health.

But, just because you say you’re fine, doesn’t mean you actually are.

“I had a few ups and downs, I realised that overcoming struggles and putting on shows about them doesn’t necessarily mean everything is peachy. A few old issues came back, my weight continued to fluctuate … It was tough having to admit that I was actually still struggling, then taking the steps to remedy things.”

The reality that mental health problems and internal struggles don’t just disappear, but actually need ongoing self-management is a key theme in his new show, Ego Jacket.

Inspired by witnessing Natalie Bassingthwaighte offstage chatting and laughing with her bandmates before entering the stage with the Rogue Traders only to transform into performance mode within the blink of an eye, Curtis thought “I do that too!”.

“I’m not the same person on stage that I am off stage,” he says.

The term ego jacket already in his head after hearing it in a Kylie interview, Curtis decided that whatever his next show would be, it needed to be one where he felt more at ease, doing what he loved, wearing his ego jacket.

Ego Jacket is an audio-visual spectacular, heavily influenced by big rock/pop shows from the likes of Lady Gaga, Kylie and Pink, but of course, with his own experiences front and centre.

“I wrote several versions, but it was not until my friend told me I needed to put more of my own experiences into it that it started to take shape,” Curtis says.

“I thought people would be sick of my talking about myself, but at the end of the day what I had to say was more relatable and interesting than anything I could make up.”

“For me having to sit people down to talk about personal issues is very draining, so by expressing these thoughts and feelings through art I can give them a better understanding of who I am, without having to have one-on-one conversations with everyone.”

A show that explores anxiety, self-sabotage and the deep internal void. Sounds a bit heavy? Don’t worry, with every hard-hitting truth and soul-baring display, there’s a Tina Arena ballad waiting to lift you back up.

“I wanted to create something dark and honest, while still giving the audience a fun and entertaining ride,” he says.

Promising to be thought-provoking, energetic and just a tad narcissistic (his words), Phillip Lee Curtis’ Ego Jacket is playing at the MC Showroom in Prahran from 31 January – 4 February.

Ego Jacket 
MC Showroom, Level 1/48 Clifton St, Prahran
Wednesday, 31 January to Sunday, 4 February 2018
midsumma.org.au/program/ego18