Final curtain for queer show

AFTER seven years of beaming onto Victorian screens, a television pillar of the region’s queer community will be laid to rest.

Later this evening, Deb Lord will don their iconic moustache and glasses as Lance DeBoyle for the final broadcast of local LGBTIQA+ variety show LaNCE TV.

Lord said the show’s conclusion is down to a lack of funding, new sponsorships, and a decline in volunteers.

“Financial sustainability isn’t afforded to us moving forward. It costs us about $1700 a quarter to put the show on air,” they said.

“In previous years, we’ve been able to get jobs like with ChillOut to fund the show into 2024, and this year we didn’t get any jobs. It’s a business decision.

“We also ran a series of come and try events to get our community involved. People attended but nobody came back. We need hands on deck to keep things rolling.”

Since September last year until mid-2024, the production was maintained with three volunteers, the majority of whom are no longer able to contribute.

Lord said 10 people would have been ideal to make the broadcast more viable.

“For a long time in my shed, I was able to host it and do the button pushing because it was such a small space,” they said.

“Now we’re [in the Arts Incubator] we’ve got a control room separate from the main area so we really need someone on here driving it. There’s never been anyone on audio either.”

The show’s namesake organisation has grown from humble beginnings, initially broadcast to Facebook Live out of Lord’s Ballarat shed after having moved to the region from Daylesford.

From there, the organisation became incorporated in 2019 and gained charity status late last year.

Throughout its time on the air, the show won two Antenna Awards and was named LGBTIQA+ Artist of the Year at the 2022 GLOBE Victoria Community Awards where it was the first regional recipient in 16 years.

Despite the accolades, Lord said the show’s legacy is three-fold.

“We held space for the LGTBIQA+ communities locally and around Australia including with international guests,” they said.

“It provided a sincere platform. You look at mainstream television and it’s slick and strained to be perfect. We were always imperfect and I embraced that because it made it real.

“We also held space for a lot of regional artists who weren’t necessarily part of the LGTBIQA+ community but were good allies.

“On Channel 31, we were also one of the few television programs to run a Welcome to Country at the top of it with my dear friend Dr Deanne Gilson who would do a pre-record for us once a year.”

Lord said saying goodbye to LaNCE TV will allow them to put their energies into the Festival of Australian Queer Theatre, which debuted this year.

The show’s final episode will feature an extended runtime and special guests, and will air live tonight from 9pm.

“It’ll be a retrospective show with a live studio audience and our two wonderful volunteers hoping to do some documenting of whatever happens,” Lord said.

“It hit me the other week when I was editing last week’s show, of segments we’d done all year, that this was the last time I’d be doing this.

“I did get a bit teary.”

Tonight’s episode will be viewable via Channel 31, the LaNCE TV Ballarat Facebook page, or the CTV+ app.