Emu Pk lad flies high, finds love on the high seas
How his 'nearly Billy' moment led Emu Park's Martin Kay to a world class career and the love of his life
Rockhampton
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AS THE song says, he's been to "cities that never close down, from New York to Rio and Old London Town”.
But for our homegrown, tapdancing talent Martin Kay, he still calls Emu Park home.
Kay is in town between gigs on the Royal Princess cruise liner, and he's brought his own princess with him. The usually unflappable performer admits he got stage fright before asking Chloe Barker's hand in marriage, in front of both their families.
"My family - Mum, Dad, sister Frances, Nan - and a couple of family friends had already booked a holiday on board when, by coincidence, Chloe's family booked the same week,” he said.
"A good friend of mine runs the jewellery shop on board so he organised a custom white diamond ring with a halo of 20 diamonds around the centre.
"Thank God she said yes.”
Kay met the classically trained ballerina from Nottingham in England on board the Ruby where she had begun working a few years before him.
"We're both very positive and driven,” he said.
"We're both really into fitness so we spend a lot of time helping each other out in the gym.”
The loved-up couple's social media feed is filled with happy snaps from sun-drenched, exotic locations around the world.
Kay estimates he's been to more than 40 countries since he embarked on his onboard adventures five years ago.
He's living a dream he first had when he was 13, studying at Yeppoon State High School, and family friends heard about Billy Elliott auditions in Brisbane.
It was the first inkling Kay had he could succeed outside the round of theatre productions and eisteddfods he grew up among.
"My Dad is a really talented performer who started theatre companies in Cloncurry before he started working for the post office in Emu Park,” he said.
"I remember my family driving me seven hours down the highway to attend a Gold Coast showcase with a piano on the back of the trailer.
"But when I got through to top four in Queensland for Billy Elliot, and flew to Sydney for more auditions, I knew this was what I was going to do with my life.”
Kay's 'nearly Billy' moment propelled him to throw himself into his dance studies and school work, which led to an offer to study with the RAW dance program.
"Again, it was my parents' support that got me through; they made it possible for me to commit to my studies and really learn my craft.”
He was chosen, after graduating, to tour with the RAW troupe, working with Creative Generation and at the Woodford Folk Festival. The year after he was offered his first gig at sea, entertaining passengers aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise.
"Thing is, I didn't know I'd signed on for an aerial show until I got to first rehearsal and they said, 'Here's your harness',” Kay said.
He quickly learned the ropes, so to speak, on silks, the spanish web, hand loop, lyra and harness apparatus.
Life on board a cruise ship isn't at all like the TV show Love Boat, according to Kay.
"Our contract stipulates we don't fraternise with the public, although we certainly get to socialise with them,” he said.
"Because we bring so much to the table as performers, we're allowed to hang out with guests in their areas, and we get to enjoy the other onboard entertainment.”
In addition to touring the world's finest sights - Greece, Spain, France, Montenegro, Colombia and the USA to name a few - he has seen the Frankie Valli tour band, Stevie Wonder's backup singers and some "old school” Las Vegas jazz bands play in the ships' stately venues.
It's not all glitz and glamour though - the entire ship's crew has to pitch in when it comes to emergency procedures.
"We're hired as sailors first, entertainers second,” Kay said.
"We have to study evacuation procedures including using fire extinguishers and assigning life boats. If the alarm goes off at three in the morning, we're the first ones out on deck.”
Kay and his fiancee are back in Central Queensland until their next contract begins September 3, when the couple will cross from New York to Fort Lauderdale to prepare for a cruise around the Caymans, Mexico and Costa Rica.
In the meantime, he's in rehearsal for the Village Festival opening act with the RedFoot Cabaret of which he was a founding member.
Audiences at Yeppoon and Emu Park will get to see his madcap character 'Martini' back on the boards, as Kay aims to "give something back” to the community which nurtured his childhood talent.
"They say you can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy,” he said.
"But whenever I tell people from the big smoke I'm from Rockhampton, their first reaction is, 'Oh, your technique must be very good.'
"Kids here in Rockhampton at 13 are performing at a standard way above people in major cities years older than them.”
He cites the likes of Alexis O'Donnell, Brooke Lawrie, Alex Russell and Gretel Jahnke (cast in QPAC's Singing in the Rain), as local talents who are making it big on the bigger stages.
"I think that local businesses and the government have got to put in as much as they can to create opportunities for such insane amounts of talent to stay in Central Queensland and create new opportunities,” he said.
One such example is the power couple Amanda and Travis Hock who formed Lock&Hock Productions and are the creative force behind the Red Foot Cabaret.
”It's incredible to see what they've done from when they started to this year's production,” Kay said.
He's also delighted for Chloe to be spending some time with the Hock kids, Lucy and Patrick, who call Kay Uncle Marty.
”This is my home and it keeps me grounded,” he said.
”And after I took her over to Keppel Island and out to Cooberrie Park, Chloe reckons she'd be happy to settle down here too.”
RedFoot Cabaret
Yeppoon Town Hall
- Friday 2 August 6-9.30pm: RedFoot Cabaret and Diva Up Late Gala Opening:
- Saturday 3 August 6-9.15pm: RedFoot Cabaret Encore
- Saturday 3 August 10pm: Diva Up Late
Emu Park Town Hall
- Friday 9 August: RedFoot Cabaret special
tickets at eventbrite.com.au or via rotaryoncc.org
Originally published as Emu Pk lad flies high, finds love on the high seas
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