Who This?

Hello, I'm comedian and Hedonism Muse Lisa-Skye. I've been a self-managed artist and producer for 12 years, touring interstate and internationally. 

Look at me go! 

What This?

In 2017, I noticed a theme among people who came to my shows - they'd tell me they loved seeing my shows every year at festivals, but didn't want to 'risk' going to other shows, for fear of being the punchline of jokes. They weren't just scared of hearing tired old material bashing who they are (fat jokes, sexworker jokes, racist jokes...) but a few of them were hesitant about audience participation, even when the artist had the best intentions.

And I thought, stuff that - everyone should feel safe to enjoy seeing live performance. 

My favourite thing is showing cool stuff to cool people, and promoting good work from performers with an ethos based in kindness and diversity. So at last year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival, I created the first Safety House Guide. 

I self-funded this free magazine that listed acts of all identities, who are dedicated to making good, inclusive art. It featured more in-depth info that the official guides aren’t able to: more information about access, and notes like whether the show has audience participation - and if so how much.

The traffic light system: Not just for BDSM anymore! 

It also featured fun things like: 

Articles from performers, hilarious write ups and mini-essays

Fun activities and quizzes 

Sponsors who were in or adjacent to our communities, and stood for safety in our communities 

A Sex Worker directory featuing workers who will see diverse clientele, and tips on how to be a good client! 

(Note: due to South Australian laws, this feature is sadly only in the Melbourne guide).

Nice, optimistic and empowering quotes peppered throughout

And even letters to potential audience members! 

Where This? 

We're doing two guides in 2019, for Adelaide Fringe and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. We plan to expand to more festivals each year, in Australia and around the world. 

Why This?

The guide is for everyone, from trans lesbians who don't want to hear lady gays wangbash, to straight white guys who hate when comedians ask them what they do for a job, to recovering alcoholics with fibromyalgia who need to know there are fewer than 8 steps to the venue and don’t wanna hear about fun times binge drinking. 

It includes a hugely diverse range of acts, whose only common ground is that they care about inclusivity and punching up.

We don’t censor work – a lot of it is edgy, dark or super out there. And a lot of it is sweet, silly or whimsical. We cover all forms and styles of performance. We just want to empower audiences to make the right decisions for them, about which shows they see.

Some examples of guide entries from last year - this year's guides are going to be even slicker, and feature more information!

Nothing like this exists in the Australian Arts Festival landscape, we have something really special here. So we want to make the guide bigger and better, moving towards incorporating more festivals here and internationally, having cool things like aps and workshops for performers who are interested in keeping their work inclusive but don’t know where to start.

We don’t know what we don’t know. 

For example, Tabitha here doesn’t know she’s shilling a festival guide

How This? (The Challenges) 

The first Safety House Guide was a self-funded solo endeavour that made me get a stress-induced respiratory infection (no really). So, to keep the project ongoing, sustainable and thriving, this year I have a small but mighty team helping me to make the guide wonderful. And I'd like to pay them for their considerable time and hard work. Look at these champions! 

Fun fact: I'm standing on a lot of books here, because I'm a weird raver-looking Danny DeVito among beautiful swan-people. 

I know from the MICF 2018 Guide that there's a tremendous amount of work in producing this sexy, chunky little beast. Editing, printing, distributing, not to mention finding and vetting artists to be included. Design is a big thing too, considering we need to share a LOT of info about a lot of shows. Aside from employing this small but very capable staff to help with all this, our designer is putting the finishing touches on the Adelaide guide, and starting work on the Melbourne one. 

The time-cost of making and developing the rewards is significant, too, and we have to pay people for their time in helping mail guides, and produce things like badges, swag bags and special secret shows.  

We have the artists. We have the staff. We have the process. Now we just need the money! The costs are significant, so while we're ready to continue doing the hard work in getting it done, we need your financial support to make it a beautiful reality. 

When This? 

The guides will be out just before each festival, with Adelaide’s in mid-February and Melbourne’s in March, the latter complete with a fancy launch.

Your rewards will come out based on when you need them: Guides will be sent before each festivals’ openings, same with badges, which we’re in the process of designing!

I cannot overstate how much this is the first draft mock-up of the badges. I cannot overstate that. 

Like I said, my favourite thing is showing cool stuff to cool people, and I can't wait to show you this year’s Safety House Guide.

Thanks for supporting the Safety House Guide: Safe, but never tame.

Editor-in-Chief, Lisa-Skye (right) with Doctor Shadow, her spiritual advisor and Mister Daughter Ladyson.

The Pie

Design, printing and distribution (Melbourne) 43%

Design, printing and distribution (Adelaide) 30%

Pozible and credit card fees 4%

Web hosting, logo design and reward costs 6%

Staff payments 17%

This campaign will cover our immediate costs

Our original budget to make both guides was $47,000, and while we've managed to cut some corners here and there, we're committed to a quality useable end result. To make sure this campaign is a success, and with kind help from Pozible, we reduced our base goal to $25,000, to ensure we cover our immediate costs - but even though we've reached that goal, we still need to get close to our original budget. The further we get, the less fundraising we'll have to do elsewhere to make this happen! So don't give up until the campaign is over.

Here are a few milestones we've love to reach:

$25,500 - this extra $500 pays for distribution of the guide in Melbourne!

$30,000 - this extra $7,500 goes toward paying the hard-working Safety House Guide team something for the hundreds of collective hours they've put in making this happen.

$47,000 - this extra $17,000 pays for the printing and design costs of the Melbourne Comedy Festival guide.

Whatever we don't raise in the campaign, we'll still need this money - so keep an eye out for more ways you can help out in future.