Gen X: ‘We’ve got the skills but none of the luxuries’

On the cusp of turning 50 and with a surprise career turn in the works, Myf Warhurst reflects on “the forgotten generation” she’s come to symbolise.

Myf Warhurst. Picture: Pierre Toussaint

With a career spanning Triple J, Spicks and Specks and Bluey, Myf Warhurst — the voice synonymous with Gen X — is finally venturing in to musical theatre as narrator in rock ‘n’ roll musical The Rocky Horror Show.

What’s it been like transitioning from team wrangler on Spicks and Speck to narrating this new musical?I’ve done a lot of stage work before — we took Spicks and Specks on the road and performed in front of thousands of people on big stages — but this is different. These folk are not unruly at all, as opposed to guests on Spicks and Specks, who are quite unruly but very funny. This is musical theatre. My job as a narrator is quite a formal role, but, having very little experience in putting on a proper scripted theatre show, initially I was like “What have I done (laughs)”? But the cast are the best in the business. They’ve been so supportive. Now I’m starting to feel really comfortable.

Is there anything you and Jason Donovan are nutting out in rehearsals at the moment?
Jason has been amazing. He’s a legend of music theatre in the UK and watching him work I’ve learned so much. We’re getting along famously, which I’ve got to say makes 15-year-old me, back in the country, very, very happy (laughs). Forty-nine-year-old me is like “oh no, I’m cool”. But 15-year-old me is losing her mind.

In your memoir, released last year, you talk about the anthems for different parts of your life. What will be spinning as you turn 50 this year?
It’ll be this music. I always knew the music of Rocky Horror was pretty incredible. We grew up doing the Time Warp at school — and the Nutbush. I think Australia is the only country in the world that does the Nutbush because we all learned it at school. I don’t know what was going on with the curriculum at the time but I’m very thankful for it! The show has this really beautiful message to be who you want to be. And I think that’s very much the energy I’m going to take with me. This is a huge opportunity for me to try something new at this age when I thought maybe there wasn’t much room for trying new things.

The sound of your laugh is synonymous with the voice of Gen X, since you spent many years as a presenter on Triple J. How have things turned out for your generation?
I think we’re definitely the forgotten generation in so many ways. We were pre-“digital natives”, we didn’t grow up with technology. We were learning as it was developing, so we have great loves for things that seem a bit redundant. Gen X quietly go about our business and we get stuff done, probably because our parents just let us do that when we were growing up. But a lot of the things we were trying to do in the 90s in terms of equal rights, feminism, gender bias and sexuality [are concerns] again. We were a good generation and there was a lot of change. There was a lot of musical change, creative change, global change, technological change. We’ve got the skills but we haven’t got the luxuries of the Boomers.

In terms of Gen Zers, who include 20-somethings, is there anything about them that you find peculiar or that stumps you?
No! I’ve got to say I am surrounded by them now in this theatre production and I am blown away. The young folk cop a lot of flack for the way they approach things – allegedly, according to older people. They’re so much smarter and worldly than we ever were at that age because, I think, of the internet and travel and all of those things that are very second nature. They have language for things that we didn’t even understand were bad. They know how to call things out. They’re amazing and I think they’re going to kill it in terms of changing the world.

In lockdown you trained to be a foster carer and were concentrating on emergency care. How has that experience evolved?
I bought a house [in Melbourne] that required some renovations so I haven’t been able to do any care lately, and now obviously I’m living in Sydney. I didn’t have a guest bathroom so I couldn’t have any kids stay but that will change next year when I’m back in my usual routine. I figured in lockdown it was something I could do to help, because I was trudging around in a little house on my own and I had a crazy sort of animal family [two cats called Merv and Steve and a dog called Vyvyan after the Young Ones] and a spare room. When you do it, you realise how much these kids just need help in that moment. I worked out pretty quickly that my job is just to make them feel safe and secure. I’m like a fun aunt for a weekend.

Rocky Horror Show is in Sydney (February 14-April 1); Adelaide (from April 13); and Melbourne (from May 18).