Katerina Grypma talks to Kahlia Clarke about her involvement in Sisters in SMUT, and the ensemble’s 2021 Adelaide Fringe Show Smut Uncut: An Erotica Extravanganza. Check out Sisters in Smut on Facebook and Instagram too.

Collage: Hey Kahlia! Tell us a bit about yourself and your involvement in Sisters in SMUT.

Kahlia: We all have our talents and hobbies – creative writing, poetry, playing musical instruments, singing – but it wasn’t something we’d really ever tried putting out into the world in any serious way until now. Personally I’ve loved being able to turn my love of singing to a fun new passion, and to discover new skills like poetry-writing and comedic narrative writing. Honestly, it blows me away how much unexplored talent everyone has been hiding away!

Collage: How did this project and the idea for a Fringe show come about?

Kahlia: We’re really just a bunch of regular local gals who came together in early 2020, realised that we didn’t identify at all with the sex we saw in porn and movies and literature, and then when lockdown struck we decided to create the content we wished we could find ourselves. It started just as a fun catch-up over zoom once a week for a few months, writing funny smutty nonsense and reading it to each other, and now somehow nine months later it’s a fringe show!

Collage: What can Fringe-goers expect from a night out at Smut Uncut? What do you hope they take away from the show?

Kahlia: This show is all about bringing that fresh, diverse, taboo-tackling youth perspective to the world of sex.

It’s a night packed full of punchy performances covering everything from self-written and performed songs, spoken word poetry, audience participation, and a ‘choose your own adventure’ rollercoaster literary experience where the audience chooses the direction of the story in real time.

If you don’t leave the show feeling an incredibly laughter-sore stomach, a renewed sense of creative and sexual empowerment, and (inevitably) a little turned on, we’ve done something wrong.

Collage: What have you personally gotten out of being involved in Sisters in SMUT and what lies ahead for the project?

Kahlia: So much! I’ve loved rediscovering creative writing, it’s something I loved so much when I was younger, and it’s the same with my passion for writing and performing music. It’s also been such a great, hilarious opportunity to really talk about sex with my friends in a way that we never have before – in a way that’s usually so taboo in the mainstream.

I think for the future there’s a lot of exciting potential directions we could take this, but definitely we’d like to start a kind of regular event that’s open to input from a broader community, similar to a poetry slam. A safe space where people can share their stories, fictional or not, appreciate other people’s creative works, meet likeminded people and open their mind to new, exciting ideas. We’ve thrown around a lot of ideas though, from national tours to podcasts. Anything could happen!

Collage: Finally, what’s your current favourite euphemism, description or smutty word or phrase?

Kahlia: Oh my goodness there’s so many, haha. One of the sentences I laughed the hardest at when I heard it in one of the writings was “her pussy quivered”. If that isn’t a turn on I don’t know what is! 😉

Smut Uncut: An Erotica Extravaganza is on at the Howling Owl until March 13. Grab tickets on the Fringe website.