Brisbane audiences can catch Queer PowerPoint at the Powerhouse Theatre on 28 October, where artists and wonderfully committed oddballs turn ten-minute presentations into comedy, confession and cultural commentary. The popular Melt event matters because it transforms a familiar office format into something playful, personal and gloriously unpredictable.

Essential Takeaways

  • One night, many obsessions: Presenters have just ten minutes to explore a subject of their choosing.
  • Expect anything: Talks may involve personal stories, strange theories, cultural criticism, memes or niche passions.
  • The format is deliberately familiar: Corporate-style slides and dramatic transitions become part of the joke.
  • Brisbane is the next stop: The show takes place at Powerhouse Theatre on 28 October at 7.30pm.
  • It has genuine staying power: Queer PowerPoint has toured festivals and venues across Australia, building a loyal following.

Ten minutes is all it takes to derail a slideshow

The best presentations usually begin with a simple question. Queer PowerPoint starts there too, then takes a sharp turn into the wonderfully specific, the deeply personal or the completely unhinged.

Each presenter gets ten minutes, a screen and the sort of confidence normally reserved for a boardroom update. According to Brisbane Powerhouse, the event is built around the unpredictable energy of artists and thinkers pursuing their own ideas, with no promise that the audience will see the punchline coming. [2]

That uncertainty is the appeal. One speaker might arrive with a serious piece of cultural analysis, while another brings a theory so niche it sounds invented on the spot. Sometimes the most ridiculous-looking slide turns out to contain the evening's sharpest observation.

Why queer audiences have made the format their own

Queer PowerPoint was created by Xanthe Dobbie, Harriet Gillies and Thom Smyth through Unfunded Empathy. The concept gives presenters space to analyse, confess, joke and obsess without forcing them into a conventional stand-up routine.

The event has become part of the wider Melt programme in Brisbane, a festival known for presenting queer performance, art and ideas in a lively, welcoming setting. Melt's programme announcements have positioned Queer PowerPoint alongside work that celebrates experimentation, identity and community. [3] [4]

There is something particularly satisfying about taking the language of meetings, targets and quarterly reports, then filling it with secret fixations and emotional over-sharing. The blank corporate slide becomes a kind of invitation: go on, explain the thing nobody asked about.

Expect memes, theories and a few spectacular transitions

The visual language is knowingly ordinary. Charts, bullet points, questionable citations and overenthusiastic slide effects all help create the show's comic tension. A star wipe might be entirely unnecessary, but that doesn't mean it won't be used with total conviction.

The format has also travelled well. Listings for Queer PowerPoint at Horizon Festival and HOTA show how the event has moved beyond its original setting, carrying the same basic structure into different venues and audiences. [6] [7]

That portability is useful because the show depends less on scenery than on personality. The presenters provide the atmosphere, while the slides give their ideas a strange little stage of their own. It's part lecture, part variety show and part group chat projected at full size.

What makes a good presentation?

There isn't a practical checklist for choosing the perfect topic, which is probably the point. The strongest talks are likely to begin with something the presenter genuinely cares about, whether that's an obscure pop-culture detail, a personal memory or a theory that has been quietly gathering evidence for years.

For audiences, the best approach is to arrive open-minded and avoid expecting a neat narrative. The event's appeal lies in the switches between comedy and insight, especially when a silly premise suddenly becomes persuasive.

Harriet Gillies' project information describes the format as a space for queer presenters to share ideas through PowerPoint, reinforcing the balance between performance, research and personal enthusiasm. [5] If you're the sort of person who enjoys a passionate explanation of a subject you didn't know existed, this is very much your territory.

Brisbane gets a new home for familiar chaos

Brisbane audiences have already encountered Queer PowerPoint through Melt, but this edition moves into the Powerhouse Theatre at Brisbane Powerhouse. The new setting gives the event room to feel bigger while keeping its intimate, presenter-led spirit.

The Brisbane Powerhouse listing places the performance on 28 October at 7.30pm. [2] It is a handy date to put in the diary if you like live comedy with a little cultural analysis attached, or if you simply want to see what happens when queer imagination meets office software.

The show works because it doesn't treat silliness and intelligence as opposites. A ridiculous transition can lead to a sharp insight, and a serious idea can become much funnier when it's surrounded by bad graphics and excessive enthusiasm. You may never look at bullet points quite the same way again.

It's a small, chaotic reminder that any subject can become fascinating when someone cares about it enough.

Source Reference Map

Story idea inspired by: [1]

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