'Neil Gudsell in Uncooked' poster

This poster advertises Neil Gudsell in Uncooked which took place over 10 nights at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in early 1990. It was directed by activist filmmaker Merata Mita and was a great success. Gudsell played a range of characters from a young skateboarder to a 'flamboyant Maori drag queen' (The Advertiser,  24 Feb 1990) and was supported by his dance company Nga Toa, national aerobics champions from 1986-92.

Adelaide newspaper The Advertiser observed: 'The undisputed king-cum-queen of festivities was New Zealand Neil Gudsell, whose shameless prostitute persona, inflatable pink Cadillac and macho Maori sidekicks won the crowd time and time again.... Outfitted in figure-hugging fluorescent green body-suits, New Zealand actor and third-ranked world aerobics champion Neil Gudsell - in character as a female prostitute from his show Uncooked - and his macho Maori dance company Nga Toa, pouted, flirted and vogued...their way around the Fringe media party' (24 Feb 1990). The Advertiser declared that 'the flamboyant Neil...has emerged as the darling of the 1990 Fringe' (27 Feb 1990).

Gudsell became known as Mika shortly afterwards. Mika is a dancer, actor, fashion designer, singer, entertainer and social entrepreneur. He has worked in film, television, fashion and music, both in New Zealand and overseas, since the 1980s. The Mika Haka Foundation, established by Mika in 2008, is a charitable organisation established to encourage active healthy young New Zealanders with a focus on physical culture and the performing arts.