Australia's favourite television son, Rove McManus, arrives in Canberra tomorrow to perform stand-up for one night only in the glorious Spiegeltent.
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In honour of the cheeky comedian - who had an entire segment called 'What the?' on late night variety show Rove Live in the early 2000s - we've rated Canberra's Top 5 most 'What the' things. We hope Rove catches up on these fast facts before he hits the capital.
1. Canberra does fried chicken better than the colonel.
KFC? Pffffffffftttt. Here in Canberra, we reckon we can do fried chicken better than those folks in the United States’ deep south. So we established our own: Kingsley’s Chicken.
The chips are crinkle cut, you can order fried AND barbecue chicken in one place and the gravy recipe is the stuff of dreams. The Kingsley’s Chicken marketing is also way better than KFC’s, with the genius tagline ‘Unbelievable chicken, awesome chips’ burnt into the memory of every Canberran who survived the 1990s.
2. There’s only one gay nightclub in Canberra.
Sydney’s main street is lined with dark, throbbing, open-all-hours gay clubs and Canberra has … well ... one.
Yep, one.
Head downstairs into the cave-like basement of Baileys Corner and you’ll find Cube nightclub, the place to go if modern doof-doof and shirtless men wrapped around stripper poles is your thang. Seriously, it’s so good down there that the weekend trade is 80 per cent straight people, keen to balance out the stress of public service life with some quality dancing till dawn action.
3. Jackie Chan is from Canberra.
We know, we know. When you think of Canberra you immediately think ‘greatest martial arts stuntsman in the world’.
While we’re prolific in our output of blonde movie starlets - Samara Weaving, Mia Wasikowska - when it comes to Hollywood talent, the all-scissor-kicking, all-singing (yes, he’s operatically trained) Jackie Chan is by far our greatest export.
Jackie moved from Hong Kong to Canberra in 1976 to join his family (dad Charles was then head chef at the Chinese Embassy) and spent many years here, attending Dickson College and working on construction sites. He scored his nickname ‘Jackie’ after a local labourer named Jack took him under his wing and he became known as ‘Little Jack’ and then ‘Jackie’.
4. You can sleep with a lion in Canberra.
Okay not ‘sleep with sleep with’, but if you’re keen to wake up in the early hours of a cold Canberra morning face-to-face with a pride of lions, be our guest. Or, more specifically, the guest of Canberra’s $1000 per-night Jamala Wildlife Lodge, where you can sleep with a single plate of glass between you and several sets of jaws adept at killing prey by piercing the trachea. It’s a stunning hotel - but good luck getting any sleep.
5. The (back of) the Belconnen Owl
Canberra loves its public art - especially this stunning piece in North Canberra. It’s actually an owl from the front but is most often photographed from behind. Can you tell why?
