Louie Spence is the epitome of camp. He’s got the lisp, the sashay, the ability to spin on cue… plus he can backflip and put his legs behind his head.
Spence is the living, breathing, high-kicking funny bone of Pineapple Dance Studios, a hit television show being dubbed as ‘car-crash reality TV’, currently screening on Fox 8.
It tells the story of London’s biggest dance studio, the place where Madonna filmed her legendary Hung Up video, the place where all the West End musicals are auditioned.
‘Pineapple is the biggest and most well known dance studio in all of Europe,’ explained series director Mikey Trotter on the phone from Sydney, in Australia to induce a little Pineapple fever.
‘The thing about Pineapple is that it’s right in the middle of SoHo and is this huge space in some of the most expensive real estate in London, so it’s near all the West End shows, all the tubes.
‘It’s so easy for everyone to get to and that’s why it has the crème de la crème of dancers.’
Louie Spence is Pineapple’s Artistic Director and the rumour goes that 30 minutes into filming, Spence whipped out a series of unbelievable backflips, at which point Trotter knew he was on to a winner.
‘One of my best friends was sort of the girl who discovered Pineapple and she showed me a tape of Louie in the very early development stage and I watched the tape and I just died.
‘It was the same way when people watched Louie on telly for the first time: he’s just dynamite.
‘I’ve worked in television as a director for years and I’ve never come across anyone with a personality like that. I just had to work on the show. I knew it was going to be such a hit.’
In fact, it’s been a massive hit in England and is proving to be the same here in Australia. So much they’re contemplating a second series.
But Spence isn’t the only zany character in the show. In fact there’s equally as mad Andy Stone, a self-confessed ‘triple threat’ who can sing, dance and act.
He’s the lead singer of a band called Starman. He’s consumed by ego, driven by blonde ambition, but underneath his arrogance and his fantastic proclamations is the tiniest glimmer of a fragile soul.
After all, he’s been trying to break into showbiz for 15 years… a process he himself acknowledges at one point that should only take 10 years.
Stone is so sure of himself it’s impossible to take him seriously, leading many to quiz whether he’s actually a real person or possibly a character actor.
‘He’s so for real,’ Trotter assured, having been asked that question a hundred times.
‘When I first saw the tape that was the first question I asked – are these people real or have they been given scripts to read? But they’re all for real.
‘I love Andrew Stone. He’s one of the kindest most sweetest people and all he wants is to be famous and all he’s ever wanted is for people to listen to his music.
‘He’s exactly the person you see on the telly. He’s just someone who wants to make it.’
In fact, you can almost smell Stone’s desperation through the TV screen, much in the same way another Pineapple fritter Tricia Walsh Smith – known for her heavily Botoxed brow and scathing YouTube videos of her divorce – is hungry for fame and recognition.
Pineapple Dance Studios seemingly has its own centre of gravity, drawing in dreamers and hopers and people who want to see their names up in lights, acting as a catalyst to stardom for only a few.
‘The thing that I loved about Pineapple is that later in the series you start to appreciate what a terrible, hideous, hard world this world of showbiz can be,’ Trotter confided.
‘It’s all sparkles on the outside but it’s a hard place to be when you have an ego.’
Ego being the operative word… and prerequisite.
Pineapple Dance Studios airs Mondays at 6.30pm on FOX8 and 8.30pm on FOX8+2
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
