Five Questions with Margot Morales Tanjutco of 'Vanity Fair Enough'
Margot Morales Tanjutco is a performer, writer, and creative director.
She is currently performing ‘Vanity Fair Enough’, in the Mapping Melbourne Festival 2019. Nominated for the Golden Gibbo at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival and featuring bangers like ‘Exploitation Pops’, Vanity Fair Enough can be described as a satire so deep it turns sincere…or does it?
The bass will drop even if the global average temperature won’t! Vanity Fair Enough is a solo hour of original songs, sketch, and standup about sexy capitalism. Accompanied only by electropop tracks, an electric guitar, and her own ego – impending doom never looked so good.
How did you come up with the concept of Vanity Fair Enough?
I went on a 16-month long shopping spree fuelled by all sorts of anxieties - then wrote a show to justify it. But also I felt this itch to write about consumerism and how it affects my behaviour and perception of myself.
I love fashion and personal branding - as subjects to study and ideals to embody. I know those brands only want to sell me things but I enjoy buying their ideas. DOOMED. I know. There’s heaps of things to interrogate - myself most of all. Thus, Vanity Fair Enough was born.
I became more comfortable with who I am because of social media. I used to be so anxious and terrified of what people thought of me so a couple of years ago I imagined the type of person I wanted to be and shopped/photographed/Instagrammed my way there. That’s my little origin story.
What can the crowd expect?
A one-woman rave with the capitalist apocalypse as her dance floor. Vanity Fair Enough is an hour of original songs, sketch, and standup about shopping and capitalism. Lots of bangers and even more silliness. I want us all to have a good time! The show has evolved a bit since its first season at Comedy Festival. In my mind I refer to it as the Hot Girl Summer Edition of Vanity Fair Enough mostly because both the earth and myself are hotter now.
Talk to us about ‘Exploitation Pops’, a truly dazzling crowd favourite! I wanted to write about how we’re all complicit in capitalism - in a fun way! Vanity Fair Enough uses a lot of different music genres because genre is part of the commentary I want to make. I chose the bubblegum pop genre because it’s catchy, easy to sing along to, and appeals to the masses…much like structural exploitation. We don’t have to think about it. It’s built into our world and we’re stuck singing along to it even if we don’t want to. Also I feel like if I wanna go around talking about exploitation, I better make it fun so the audience can bear to listen to it.
Weirdly, the more I do it, the more self-conscious I’ve become of its heaviness. Maybe because I wrote this song pretty quickly and the further I get from my initial excitement, the more I’m like fuck I’m talking about exploitation. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because the world keeps getting worse so the song is more horrifying.
The track was produced by the truly incredible James Gales (Lighthouser) who not only gets what I’m trying to do but makes it even better. As references, we used Carly Rae Jepsen, 90s Britney Spears, and *NSYNC. We are pop tragics.
Why bring pop, comedy and social justice together, within the context of an Asian-Australian festival?
I can only offer what I know how to do and, right now, comedy is how I best sort through the world. Let’s bop along to some funny songs for an hour…maybe see the world in a different light. We can’t solve it all but we can keep questioning power, the status quo, and ourselves. Vanity Fair Enough is my way of doing that.
I’m also especially excited about Mapping Melbourne unifying Asian and Asian-Australian artists regardless of form. We get to see all sorts of work that we may not otherwise get a chance to because they’ve curated this program with an entry point for everyone. You don’t have to be a Comedy Person or a Dance Person or an Art Person. We can just be people taking the world as it comes and trying to create something that feels truthful.
The festival is truly a bright beam of light shining into a prism and I love being one of the many brilliant colours shooting out the other side.
I really hope people can come to Vanity and enjoy themselves because in this economy… we just gotta laugh sometimes.
What’s next for Margot?
In a few weeks, I’ll be starting rehearsals as Associate Director for Benjamin Law’s upcoming play Torch The Place with Melbourne Theatre Company. Next year I’ve also got my play reading as a finalist for Midsumma’s Queer Playwriting Award and then touring with the Spice Night comedy showcase for Mardi Gras (in an all-queer Asian lineup).