A few weeks back, while interrogating the film director Vaughan Blakey about an unfavourable review by the New York Times for his and Nick Pollet’s stop-motion epic The Greatest Surf Movie in the Universe, he paused for amount and teasingly swerved into a far more exciting topic: a new surf-musical, made by Jaleesa Vincent for Billabong Women, and starring the surf stars Mark Occhilupo and Creed McTaggart.
“Soooo insanely jelly of Jelly’s surf musical, man!” said Vaughan,.
Jelly is Jaleesa Vincent, a long-limbed blonde goofy footer who is twenty-six and lives in a little town south of Coffs Harbour on Australia’s north coast.
If you’ve dived into Australia’s alternative surf scene, best exemplified by the wildly under appreciated Surfing World movie Scary Good, you’ll be acutely aware of the I Ching of Jaleesa Vincent.
She surfs, she dances, performs in a band called Cupid and the Stupids and does it all with a rare self-awareness – never ever takes herself seriously – that makes her one of the most marketable women in surfing.
The kid grew up in thrall of musicals like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Grease and, late last year, figured she, and with the help of her partner Luka Raubenheimer, could combining her loves, surfing, music, dancing, songwriting into one fabulous package.
The idea for the surf musical Juju the Surf Musical came in December and by February this year Billabong agreed to fund it.
“The story line is,” says Jaleesa, “this receptionist called Juju (Jaleesa) who has a very unreasonable boss called Mark (Occhilupo), and she can’t stand working there anymore so she quits her job to go surfing.
“And then the unexpected twist happens. She’s taken to a world between worlds where she meets Creed of Darkness (Creed McTaggart). They go surfing together and he’s so impressed by a barrel Juju its he gives her a white tooth from his mouth. The tooth takes her to a new realm where she meets the Queen of Lights (Josie Pendergast) and they go surfing in heavenly harmony in this beautiful world.
“The Queen of Lights sees the white tooth and pulls a black hair off her head and weaves it through the tooth. Once the necklace is placed on Juju, she comes back to life in the real world.”
The thirty-minute musical, says Jaleesa, plays on the ol yin and yang philosophy, light and dark forces, male and female, life and death, sign and moon.
Originally, it was gonna be a straight up quit-my-job-and-go-surfing musical but Jaleesa felt that was too mundane and wanted to hit a Lord of the Rings vibe.
Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking: what the fuck?
To which I reply, loosen up the belt, live a little, bust into song.
Jaleesa Vincent belongs in that rapidly atrophying side of surf culture for whom surfing is a game to be played and laughed at and which includes Dane Reynolds, Vaughan Blakey, Noa Deane and Mason Ho.
She fights the good fight. A sunny Winston Churchill in a gathering cloud storm of Baby Stalins.
Juju the Surf Musical premieres in Byron, October 9, Noosa, October 11, Sydney, October 12 and Melbourne , October 18.
Ain’t no trailer yet, film is being colour graded so here’s a little hit of a song from the film called Wild Fire and performed by Ms Jaleesa Vincent.
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