About

Jac Bowie has become a name synonymous with classic style and the self made modern business woman. Jac is internationally renown as the leading agent and producer in Burlesque performance, and on the way has ignited massive media interest with her interesting story and personality.

From her days as a “Shirley Temple” look-a-like as a child, Jac has paved an interesting entertainment career, spanning across music, theatre, tv, modelling and film. A personal career talk with Sir Richard Branson in 2005 prompted her to utilise her skills and start a business around one of her passions, Burlesque.

Jac has successfully built an empire around the old fashioned art form of burlesque striptease and performance, producing a number of high profile regular events around the world including Miss Burlesque International, The Burlesque Ball, The Ruby Revue as well as special events & entertainment for high end clients.

Artists she represent include burlesque showgirls to vintage styled magicians to hula hoop and pole performers, and her books extend from Australia to the UK, USA, Germany, Canada and France.

In the process, she has become a poster girl for 1940’s-1950’s stylings, and an advocate for classic glamour, and the revival of the raunch culture and striptease.

As a single mother to two young children, a self made businesswoman – Jac has also, along the way, become an ambassador for empowering women to be glamorous and fabulous and give them the inspiration to follow their own dreams and aspirations.

Wikipedia Version

Jac Bowie (born 3 December 1979) is an Australian burlesque agent, promoter and producer. A former flight attendant of Virgin Blue airlines owned by Sir Richard Branson,^[1] she gained recognition for transforming burlesque, banned in 19th century US, into the burlesque ball, a contemporary Australian event of class and sophistication.^[2]

Bowie staged the first burlesque ball in Sydney in 2006. It is now an annual event, showcasing high-end performers, costumes and props.^[3] The burlesque ball tours in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Past international performers include Julie Atlas Muz, Roxi D Lite, Amber Ray, Peekaboo Pointe, Ophelia Bitz, Lola The Vamp, and Rachel St. James.

Burlesque was banned in 19th century US because of nudity and cheap thrills, but its wider appeal never died, resurfacing in many forms over the years, including in the film Moulin Rouge^[4]. Bowie’s burlesque ball is designed to entertain, and not to offend^[5].

Over the years, burlesque underwent a renaissance in Australia.^[6] The Jac Bowie PR and Events is a burlesque, vaudeville and vintage agency^[7] that staged the burlesque ball on a grand scale.^[8] Viva Valentine who entertains and titillates in equal measure^[9], has emerged as Australia’s answer to Dita Von Teese, ‘the world’s most fashionable woman’ who revived burlesque in the US.^[10]

Bowie is director of the International Vaudeville and Vintage Agency.^[11] Her business revolves around four key events: The Burlesque Ball, The Ruby Revue, Bijou Cabaret and Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School.^[12] The other business elements encompass event and artist management for burlesque performers and a school for burlesque and cabaret performers.

Every month, Bowie also produces The Ruby Revue, a burlesque event featuring magic, comedy, music and striptease in Sydney and Melbourne. Voted Sydney’s No.1 burlesque show, it is dubbed ‘naughty enough to get the crowd rowdy, but classy enough to bring the granny.’^[13]

Bowie is branch director of Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School (owned by illustrator Molly Crabapple) in Sydney.

The School has traditional life-drawing class, except the models are burlesque dancers, carnies and fetish models. The concept began in New York and has spread to 30 cities around the world, and the one in Sydney is the biggest and the best. At the school, ‘cabaret meets art.’^[14]

Emerging as a style icon with her signature 40s movie star styling, Bowie regularly appears at A-list events and in the media, like friend Dita Von Teese.

Early days

Born Jacqueline Eleanor Carmichael, Jac Bowie was a child actor from age 8. Since 1987, Bowie has appeared in television, theatre and short films. The Australian TV shows include Home & Away, Heartbreak High, GP, and the television commercials include Wonderland Sydney with Johnny Young and Pat Cash.

At age 14, Bowie was a drama student at the prestigious Newtown High School of The Performing Arts. At the school, she took on her first role as Assistant Director.^[15] She has also been a singer / model. She starred in the Tropfest film “The Unsound.”

In 2005, Bowie sang vocals for the single ‘Where Did You Come From” which achieved airplay on FBi Radio and several films. The song was produced by Michael Pearson Adams of Shakaya fame. She also was the face of Sarah Jane Boutique in Sydney for many years.

Bowie freelanced in events and production for over 2 years^[16] after previous career choices as flight attendant with Virgin Blue, as drama teacher, and in cosmetic sales and management, hospitality management, and cruise ship work. She was also the NSW State Manager for an international promotions & marketing agency.^[17] But in 2004 she started thinking about running a business based around burlesque—a performance art form that includes song, dance, comedy and acts of daring, with lush costumes, dramatic music and lighting, and a saucy and satirical edge.^[18]

Bowie decided to create her own dream job—instead of facing the difficulties of working 9 to 5 and being a full-time mum. “I borrowed some money from my parents to get the burlesque ball off the ground, which covered my venue costs and my photo shoot; that’s about it,” says Bowie. “I couldn’t afford to do flyers or anything like that, so nearly everyone who came to the event heard about it through MySpace.”^[19]

Aside from organizing burlesque events, Bowie stages A-list events and productions. “I also do publicity and find gigs for burlesque performers,” Bowie says.^[20] “I work occasionally as a fashion / film makeup artist & stylist.”^[21]

Personal life

Bowie is the mother of two children, Kai Alexander Bowie and Alizienne Grace Wright. In 2010 she separated from husband Jon Wright. She lives with her two children in Melbourne. She has two younger sisters—model and socialite Monique Swart, and Annaliese Swart.