Link to the n*de dudes
F*king Adelaide (2017), now streaming on Amazon Prime, is a comedy-drama about a family drawn back to Adelaide when Mom makes an Earth-shattering announcement. There are six 15-minute long episodes. I watched the first, about Eli.
Scene 1: Adelaide, 1999. A boy in drag is singing to his two sisters as they hide in a sheet-draped-over-chairs tent from their yelling, smashing-things parents. He stumbles, but his older sister tells him to just keep singing: "One day you'll get out of here, and you'll be a massive star. I know it."
Scene 2: Sydney now. The adult Eli (Brendan Maclean), wearing a weird headdress, is trying to perform on a broken keyboard. Cut to him kissing his girlfriend in their apartment. He's straight? WTF?
It was a misdirection -- Eli is still trying to perform in a coffee house that looks like an apartment. He is angry because the couple is kissing instead of paying attention.
It probably wasn't a misdirection for Australians. Brendan Maclean is a well-known queer musician, with six EPS, two albums, and a number of songs for tv episodes.
He became infamous in 2017 with the music video for his song "House of Air," which pretends to be a training video about "homosexual encounters" around 1980. Strangely, the performers actually engage in the more unusual acts, which might be gross for some viewers, but just simulate the everyday acts.
Brendan was interviewed in Issue 2 of You Otter Know, a queer zine produced by Harry Clayton-Wright during the COVID lockdown in 2020-21.
He has 14 acting credits listed on the IMDB, including Klipspringer in The Great Gatsby (2013) and How to Make Gravy (2024), "an adaption of Australian music legend Paul Kelly's classic song."
The song is a monologue: a man calls his friend from prison, saying he won't be home to make the gravy for Christmas dinner, so he's giving him the recipe.
After a look at Brendan's backside, we can return to the episode.
"Nope, I'm busy. I've got gigs and a boyfriend and a life. I can't just go running off to Adelaide." 1350 km, a two-three day drive.
The woman in the snogging couple says she used to know a guy from Adelaide. Maybe you know him? That happens when I say I'm from Illinois.
Scene 3: Eli heads to the pub and asks bartender Nathan (Drew Proffitt) to let him perform. "Nope, I pay you to tend bar."
"Ok, then, where are my wages?"
"Oh, I gave them to your boyfriend Peter."
They get into a fight over whether Eli can drink free, and bartender Nathan fires him.
More after the break
