Meet Suzie Q and Toby J as they spill the tea on a career which has spanned 20+ years!

In pop culture, many iconic duos have been become household names over the years. Thelma & Louise, Sony & Cher, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, Batman & Robin – however today I am going to introduce to you two performers who have secured their icon status in the pole and aerials community, not just in Australia, but across the globe. With a combined 30+ years in the pole and aerials industry, I was enthralled to sit down with the very cool, and extremely passionate, Suzie Q and Toby J.

Suzie Q and Toby J are doubles pole performers and competitors, acrobats, trapeze artists, adagio entertainers and handstand legends. They are not only incredible at their chosen art form, but they put on a brilliant show! With a strong belief in entertainment and performing a memorable well-rounded routine, Suzie Q and Toby J have inspired the pole and aerial arts community from the moment they stepped on stage together.

Some of their achievements include:

Miss Nude Australia (Suzie Q, however I should have asked Toby if there was something he needed to share...)
Australian Sports Acrobatic Champion 2005 (Toby J)
Miss Pole Dance Australia – 1st Runner Up 2005, 2006, 2008/09 (Suzie Q)
Asia Pacific Pole Championships Pairs Champions 2010
Finalists on Australia’s Got Talent 2011 and 2012
Australian Pole Championships Groups Champions 2013

Represented Australia at International Pole Championships 2013 – 3rd Place and Pole Art Champions
Opened Rising All Stars 2015 with a spectacular lyra show (Click here to watch!)
NSW Pole Champions (Groups) 2017
Australian Pole Championships Groups Champions & Best Performance 2017

I sat down with Suzie Q and Toby J early one Sunday morning, to talk about the early days of pole with Suzie and it’s incredible evolution over the past 20 years, how to tick all the boxes when competing and put on a memorable show, Toby’s alter-ego as ‘The Pole Doctor’ and how important this role is to our industry, as well as running competitions, being an MC and the one we ALL want to know – does Toby J like Vegemite?

Just like we popped Toby’s Zoom cherry on that sunny day, get ready to be dazzled by a whole new perspective on the pole and aerials world from a duo who have been there from its humble beginnings. Hold onto your booty shorts kids – you're in for a treat!

Suzie Q’s Story

Suzie Q started twirling around a pole in 2000, where she began her career as a stripper and showgirl. From collecting Bobbi’s clothing for her at the end of a show (“Just such a talented performer and what she could do on the pole was well above and beyond what anybody in the clubs was doing at that time,” says Suzie), to winning Miss Nude Australia, Suzie Q has an amazing story to tell. And she did, publishing it all in her book ‘The Stripper Next Door’.

‘The Stripper Next Door’ gives a uniquely positive insight into the world of stripping and adult entertainment. So what inspired Suzie Q to release the book in 2018?

“I was a little bit frustrated with people’s knowledge, or more specifically lack thereof, of what it was actually like to work in the stripping industry – what it’s like to be a professional pole dancer,” Suzie Q tells me. “There’s obviously a lot of misconceptions around both those industries, and I think what’s generally portrayed in the mainstream media doesn’t tend to be quite positive, and my experience in both those industries was really positive. I had a fantastic time, I’m so grateful for my time both as a stripper and a pole dancer and so I just wanted to provide an alternate narrative.”

Suzie Q found her time as a professional stripper and pole dancer a really beneficial and overall enjoyable experience, and her book details a world many of us may only sneak a glimpse of during a drunken night out. As she explains, many of the women in this industry weren’t there out of desperation, but by choice.

“I think the majority of women I worked with, [which were thousands!] were choosing to do that career because they wanted to and they enjoyed it. And I know for me performing on stage was my happy place... when I was performing, when I was stripping – that was my thing!” says Suzie. It did however come with its challenges.

“It was really hard when people, you know in my family or close friends, didn’t really get it and kind of weren’t supportive of that choice that I was making for myself,” Suzie tells me. Laughing about all of the RuPaul's Drag Race she has been watching throughout the current isolation restrictions, Suzie explains she has discovered there is similarity in the hurdles they’ve faced. “I think there’s a lot of parallels with what these drag queens are saying, about like ‘this is what I do, this is who I am, this is my absolute joy and my absolute passion’ and unfortunately to choose this, to follow my path that’s right for me, I almost have to sacrifice a little bit of closeness with members of my family,” says Suzie.

However, as Suzie points out, these sacrifices can come with anything we may choose to pursue in life whether it be a career, relationship or lifestyle. “I think it’s really important that people are sharing stories of following their heart and their dream, rather than sacrificing what's right for them because of what other people think,” continues Suzie. “I really think no one is ever doing anyone any favours by doing a job that they don’t love, and that they’re not passionate about, whatever it is!”

Pole Comps– Then vs Now

During her time as a stripper, Suzie Q learned many valuable lessons. Besides knowing the best fake tan to use (it was once every brand piled on like a shimmering bronze orgy, however now she uses the very trusty ‘Pole Physics Gradual Tanner’), to lessons on how to keep your audience captivated for a very long time.

For Miss Nude Australia, Suzie Q had to perform a 15 minute show and have 2 shows prepared for the competition which spanned over a week. “It’s a bit like a beauty pageant, so you’ve got to do a swim wear parade and an evening wear parade, and then [it’s] not like a beauty pageant because you also do a nude parade as well!” she says with a laugh.

The pole world then changed forever with the introduction of the Miss Pole Dance competition. In its early days, Suzie tells me it was initially an audition in front of Bobbi and a panel of judges to gain entry into what we now know as Miss Pole Dance NSW. Then as popularity for the competition increased, the national competition Miss Pole Dance Australia was born in 2005, starting off at the Bourbon & Beefsteak in Kings Cross.

Stemming from the strip clubs and their lengthy feature shows, the Miss Pole Competition stage time was ‘cut down’ to only 7-8 minutes! And here I was wondering how much I could body roll in a 4 minute routine. So how do you stay entertaining for such a long time? “It was good to have like a bit of a gimmick and a bit of story going on because it was a long time to fill with pole and to be entertaining for that whole time,” Suzie reflects, referring to her doll routine performed at Miss Pole Dance in 2007. She also cut up and bedazzled one of her Mum’s old bras for the costume in that performance.

Watch Suzie Q at MPDA 2007

When comparing past pole comps to now, Suzie Q also tells me you had to be a good ‘all-rounder’ as all elements of the show relied solely on you. “I also think pole’s really interesting because it does tend to be a lot of self-direction, so I think when you are a professional performer in some other arenas, there’s a lot more people involved in the product. You know there’s a writer, or a director or a choreographer or a costume designer, or a lighting designer or a music person like a sound person.”

She continues, “I think with pole, you’ve got to be a real all-rounder! You’ve got to be able to perform, able to entertain, able to dance. You need to be flexible; you also need to be strong. You need to be able to do dynamic moves, you need to be able to move slowly. You need to also have been able to put together this whole thing – so choreography skills. Nowadays, there’s more of an industry around people who you can hire to help you create the show, but back in the day you really needed to be this massive all-rounder of you know – ‘do it all!’ kind of thing – it was a lot!” she says.

The tricks were also VERY different back then to what we do on the pole now. Suzie remembers back to a time when a friend had just achieved a knee hold, and that was going to be her winning move at MPDA. “That was like the peak! That was like the pinnacle – you got a knee hold like OMG! This is like out of control, crazy, like what is this!”

It was in these early days when Suzie Q met Toby J, and she introduced him to her wild, whirlwind world of stripping and pole dancing.

Meet Toby J

Toby tells me he had always had a love of entertaining, so the appeal of performing came naturally (besides the fact it came with the gorgeous appeal of Suzie of course!).

“I’ve also been a bit of a performer, not necessarily paid onstage, but in school I was in the musicals and the plays and I like to dress up – Halloween’s my favourite holiday and stuff like that,” says Toby. “So I think you throw all that stuff together, I’ve always been kind of an entertainer. I used to work in tourism as well, at the front of a group of people, so I’ve always been entertaining just not necessarily onstage.”

It was after meeting Suzie, that Toby realised he could entertain as a career. “When I met Suzie I was actually competing in sports acrobatics and I was paying to train, paying to compete,” says Toby. He continues, “Then she came in...and I ended up helping her out with a show and all of sudden went ‘oh wow! I could almost get paid to do all of the stuff that I’m doing now!’” laughs Toby. “So, you know it was that, but it was also spending time with her.”

So did the man who grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, USA feel intimidated when entering Suzie Q’s sparkling world of stilettos, nudity and pole dance?

“Not really! I guess I kind of roll with it. It’s something that I’ve always been able to do, just throw me in any situation and I kind of roll with it!” says Toby. “I mean I definitely found it interesting, some of the things that I was doing. I remember the very first Sexpo, I was back stage and these girls walk past and they’re chatting to me. I’m sitting on the couch and they’re standing right there naked and I’m staring right into their vaginas and I’m like ‘okay I don’t know where to look right now this is weird!’” he says laughing. “But then the next time, it was just normal you know? I mean I was collecting [Suzie’s] stuff from strip clubs as well. I was the one who would carry her pole in, set it up, collect her clothes at the end of the show, then pack it up and leave for the next one. I guess I never knew where I was going to be, but I’m like ‘well that’s a new one to put on the list!’” Toby reflects with a smile.

Suzie then decided it was time to get Toby up a pole, after becoming inspired by a pole doubles act she had seen. She entered them into their first pole competition as a pair, which gave Suzie three months to collect her heels, find a pumpkin and transform Toby into a magical pole prince! But the pumpkin came at a price – Toby had to shave his legs.

"[Suzie] had to go away so she’s like ‘okay while I’m away just climb up the pole squeeze on with your legs and slide down until it burns your skin and it desensitizes’,” reflects Toby with a cringe. “As I’m sliding down it's like plucking all my hairs out AND burning, and I’m like ‘this is ridiculous why does anybody do this!’. So, I’d just shave patches where it was getting ‘pole-d’ and then all of a sudden I had so many funny patches on my legs that I was like I may as well just shave the whole bloody thing!” he tells me laughing. “Since then I just clip my leg hair down so it doesn’t get yanked out! Like pole’s painful as it is let alone getting waxed while you’re doing it!”

Toby emerged from his three-month pole crash course, with silky smooth legs and an addiction for pole, and the dynamite duo of Suzie Q and Toby J was born!

Career performers & stage life

Pursuing a career of performance and pole, Suzie Q and Toby J established themselves as the go to duo for aerial entertainment. Along with teaching their craft and entering the odd competition, they perform regularly on cruise ships, which involves preparing and performing lengthy 45 minute shows. They are currently working on a second show to have up their sleeve, however as Suzie jokes, the first one took long enough to create! “We joke that it took us 10 years because it’s just different acts that we’ve had over the last 10 years put together in 45 minutes,” she says laughing.

However in the weeks leading up to a big performance or competition, it does take much of their time. “It’s bordering on a full-time job. It’s rehearsing most days, or you know thinking about it and then there’s all the other elements that you’ve got to get together like costuming and music and liaising with clients – there's a lot involved with it,” Suzie tells me.

When asked how many hours a week they might put into a show, Suzie and Toby tell me it depends on the proximity of the performance, and how their bodies are feeling. Yet they like to be incredibly prepared and will start to train a few times a week, months out, so that they can present a well-rehearsed show.

“As the crunch time gets closer, we need to put in more hours so we’re good enough. It’s that ‘don’t practice until you get it right, practice until you can’t get it wrong’,” says Suzie. “It’s also practising so that different things have an opportunity to go wrong, if that makes sense. So, every time you make a mistake...or something goes wrong you’re like ‘whoa I didn’t know that could happen!’. So now that’s something else that we can work around if that happens on stage,” she explains. “You want to try and experience as many failures as possible in rehearsal because there’s always a new way for something to go wrong that you’ll find!”

Having performed on Australia’s Got Talent and now through their regular work on cruise ships, Suzie & Toby are used to entertaining ‘pole muggles’ AKA the general public.

Click to watch the AGT routine

“Honestly, it’s great!” says Suzie, “Because layback – they’re so impressed! It is often the case with the general public, the tricks that aren’t as hard often get the best response. So you do tailor your routines around things that are maybe more ‘specky’ and not as difficult.”

Toby adds, “What we do for the general public, is also more performance, more show. So again, less how technical is the trick, how difficult is the trick – I’m not out for points, I’m out to entertain. So, we can get away with that stuff and we do something that is quite feasibly doable and repeatable over and over, but is very impressive to the general public.”

Being regular performers and entertainers, Suzie tells me they also need to tailor their tricks to their bodies. “There is no point pushing my body to breaking point to get some new move because I’m not going to be able to sustain that. Our routines adapt and adjust around our injuries and just things that don’t feel good in our bodies. Those things get taken out because we want longevity – we want our careers to keep going, we want to be performing for a long time,” she explains.

To help sustain their bodies, Suzie Q likes to do TheraBand sessions to stabilise her shoulders and hips, as well as yoga and pilates which she teaches frequently. Toby finds his day-to-day jobs are quite physically demanding which also helps to maintain strength. They do however believe in balance and will sneak the odd glass of wine (Suzie) or bowl of ice-cream (Toby).

“We need to be really careful of each other so I need to keep my body in good condition, and keep my mind in good condition, not just for me, but also for him,” says Suzie.

The chemistry onstage between Suzie Q and Toby J is incomparable and beats anything I could have learned in high school science class. Having been in a relationship almost as long as performing doubles pole, the sparks fly naturally. However, like normal human beings they have their off-days, so how do they manage to flip each other around onstage when they are flipped off?

“I think because we have had arguments and then had to be like ‘oh we’re on stage and we love each other’, it almost helps soothe the argument,” Suzie tells me. “Because you kind of go ‘and look he’s hanging me off one foot... he’s quite good... he’s quite impressive – I love him!’” she says with a chuckle.

Toby adds, “It’s also like it’s a place, like you go onstage – you're at work. So no matter what’s going on in your life, you switch on the stage mode. You have to, otherwise again you’re not bringing what you are meant to be bringing, to that audience.”

Suzie Q & Toby J's winning performance at APC 2017

Ballet? No way!

Not only do they do pole, but you will find them showcasing acro, trapeze, lyra – just about anything you can hang off, Suzie Q and Toby J perform. When asked if there is anything they CAN’T do, in perfect unison they yell “BALLET!” and burst into a laugh.

“We’re not amazing dancers, neither of us have had any dance training, so you’ll notice our routines don’t have a lot of dance breaks in them because we don’t highlight what we can’t do. We highlight what we can do,” says Suzie.

Remembering way back to their first show together (the one Toby first shaved his legs for), they both tell me they decided to work with their strengths in the three months leading up to that competition.

“We figured out what I could do (which was very limited) put that in the routine,” explains Toby. “Filled it in with as much acro as we could because that’s what my background was in, and to make it look good we created a theme of ‘jungle’ which turned in Avatar which could be sloppy and a bit you know rough because that was the character.”

Suzie adds, “Yeah Toby’s never going to be busting out a jade split on stage because it wouldn’t look good! Like there’s no point in doing that, other people will be doing it much better!”

“But give me an iron-X and I can make that look great!” laughs Toby.

“I guess this is my message to people, don’t feel pressured to put in certain moves that maybe don’t look good on you or don’t feel good for your body. Like if something is hurting you and causing damage to your body, there’s a million other things you could do that won’t hurt – you should do one of those!” says Suzie.

Putting on the Perfect Show

Suzie Q and Toby J have watched the pole and aerials world evolve first hand. Along this journey they have been involved with all aspects of pole & aerials competitions – as competitors, judges, organisers and even emceeing, so who better to talk to about what it takes to create a fantastic pole show!

Help I only have 3 minutes on stage!

Pole performance lengths have changed so much over the years, from 7min shows to now as tiny as 2.5min! So, is it harder to entertain the audience, plus squeeze in all the tricks, with such little time to work with?

“Nahh not if you’re an entertainer!” says Suzie. “If you’re an entertainer you can work with anything. You know we’ve done 3min shows, our surf lifesaving show was 3min. I think anything’s possible depending on I guess who you are and what you’re capable of.”

Watch the winning APC Surf Lifesaving show

It's not just the time lengths that have changed for comp routines but also the difficulty of tricks. As mentioned earlier, there was a time when a knee hold was evolutionary! Now we have Fonjis, Spatchcocks, BoPs galore, all used in what can be very lengthy combos. How do we know when to draw the line so that we can still be ‘entertaining’ and get the crowd going?

“I think there needs to be a mix,” says Suzie. “Like I don’t think you can have a routine that’s boom boom boom – done! I think that there needs to be highs and lows within your movement as well. We always say (we do more performing than competing now), you’ve gotta give them time to clap!” she says laughing. “Give them time to realise what you’re doing, appreciate how hard it is, and then start to get their hands together! I think with the general public in particular, you just bust out 20 very hard, very fast things – they don’t appreciate it as much.”

Toby adds, “They’d appreciate the 10 moves linked together as one move. So if you broke them down into 10, you’d get 10 applauses rather than one applause for the whole thing. Because they don’t see the difference.”

“But again, big difference between performing verses competing,” says Suzie.

Tick all the boxes

When competing, Suzie and Toby can’t emphasis enough just how much we need to be looking at the criteria of the competition and building our shows to work with it.

“Just like READ IT. Just read it and then read it again!” says Suzie, knowing firsthand what the organisers are feeling as she started Pole Candy many years ago with her business partner, and Toby currently runs the Pole Championship Series in Australia. "If you’re in more of a pole fitness or pole sports kind of comp, and you are really focused on your character, your costume and your props, and there’s no points for those things in the score sheet. The judges can’t make a column and add some points for you! You’re just being scored off these things. So you need to ‘box tick’ and make sure you’re hitting all of those points within the criteria.”

They recommend having a clear idea of what you want out of that particular competition and to always put on a great show!

“I say this to people that I coach as well, like you might win, you might not – you want to be memorable. You want people to come out at the end of that comp and be like ‘oh yeah but remember that girl who did that thing? That was great!’,” Suzie tells me. “But it also depends what you want. I want a career where I’m a performer so I want to have those memorable moments, those memorable shows because that’s what I want to do with my life. If you want to win then you need to dedicate yourself to winning.”

“Through the criteria!” throws in Toby. “But I would also highly recommend dedicating yourself to the thing that brings you the most joy. Very important!” says Suzie with a smile.

You do you!

Always highlight your strengths advise Suzie and Toby, and work with what you’re good at! “I sometimes see people who are like ‘I’m really challenging myself and really stepping out of my comfort zone, and even though I’m a hip-hop dancer, I’m going to do a contemporary piece’,” says Suzie. “That’s like an artistic choice and if your soul needs to do that at that time, great. But if you’re trying to box tick do what you’re best at! Like put your absolute best foot forward,” she advises. “It’s really, it’s a matter of highlighting your strengths but also (and very important) hiding your weaknesses.”

Toby pipes up, “You’ll never see me do ballet on a stage because it’s going to look horrendous!”. (You never know Toby, a Suzie Q and Toby J ‘Swan Lake’ could be a great comedy piece!)

“Also, what if someone else is competing who has spent 10-15 years dedicating their life to studying contemporary dance? They’re going to look a lot better than ‘I just decided to do this and give it a go’,” says Suzie. “Which again – is fine, valid artistic choice! But, will be reflected in the scores.”

Clock the hours

If you want to become an exceptional at what you do, you have to put in the time Suzie Q and Toby J tell me. Using the book ‘Outliers’ by Malcolm Gladwell as a reference, Suzie says the author makes a really good point in that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something.

“I think for me, I became a good performer because I was working in strip clubs,” she says. “I was doing 15min sets and I was doing that 4 or 5 times a night. So over the period of years and years that I was doing stripping, I clocked up a lot of stage hours – a lot of time on stage.”

It’s much harder these days to have that stage time before competing, however Suzie advises not to underestimate just how valuable studio showcases and performance nights can be.

“They are so important because it is just clocking up that stage experience. And it’s just experience, it’s just time. Time on stage in front of people. And also, time troubleshooting. Like I have never had a show go completely to plan, ever. Something has always gone wrong. And you get used to coping, hiding it, disguising it, and continuing on,” says Suzie.

Toby continues, “It’s that comfort of being in front of a group of people. Call it nerves, call it whatever you want to, but it’s just being comfortable being that centre of attention up there. A lot of people aren’t used to that. Making look like you’re completely comfortable up there and like nothing’s going wrong. That’s a skill!”

"I’ve started doing the wrong routine on Toby and he’s like what are you doing?!” laughs Suzie. “Or like on the ship, lots of things go wrong, because the ship is moving all the time! I’m sort of like a little crab chasing Toby across the stage sometimes. There’s always stuff that goes wrong and it’s that experience to be able to troubleshoot.”

These days they are up to...

The Pole Doctor

Toby became formally known as ‘The Pole Doctor’ about 4-5 years ago, however he tells me it really started the moment he met Suzie Q. Toby would help her students set up their home XPoles, or would get calls from the clubs late at night from girls who were having trouble setting up their stage poles. He also helped Suzie build her pole studios back in the day.

“People just knew that I was a guy that did pole, that knew pole, and I became the go to guy when things needed doing,” says Toby. He tells me he was tagged in a Facebook post one particular day by a girl crying out for a ‘pole doctor’. “From that particular day is when The Pole Doctor actually came into being. Now I do most of the servicing and maintenance set ups for most studios around Australia, but now with isolation time I’m installing them in people’s homes.”

Toby has been a VERY busy bee during the current isolation times, sometimes installing up to 7 poles a day! He also does video chats for people living interstate who might need assistance. I personally called Toby when I started noticing a pressure crack appearing in my ceiling from my pole. The Pole Doctor was brilliant in talking me through how to adjust my home pole so it wasn’t too tight, however this doctor may need to rush his kitchen cupboard to the E.R as he broke it while using it to demonstrate... Talk about dedication!

Toby also deals in a lot of old XPole parts and assists when studios or students need their poles cut down or resized, for Pussycat Poles. “I meet up with the guys at Xpole every year if we go to the UK. I’ve just kind of kept on top of all that’s going on with their products because I am in the studios, I am servicing their poles. I let them know if I’m seeing any problems with product, so that they can go back and fix it and make it a better product later,” explains Toby.

Just like you would service your car, Toby services studio poles on top of helping studio owners with their enquiries about rigging and safe installation. His knowledge behind the installation of poles is unique and extremely specialised, being a pole and aerials performer himself.

So what are the most common problems The Pole Doctor is seeing with our home pole installations?

“Over-tightening. People tightening too much and bending the poles or bowing the poles or damaging their ceilings,” says Toby. “The other thing, particularly with XPole, is not lining the three grub screws on the bottom up with the line or the flat parts on the adjuster.” He continues, “What they do then, is they put the screws in and they damage the threads inside and it won’t adjust up and down anymore. Those are probably the two most common user errors I see.”

Suzie also chirps in that we are not re-tightening or checking our poles once they are up. Toby agrees, “People forget that buildings expand and contract in hot and cold, and humid and dry, and just because it’s been put up and it feels safe today, doesn’t mean it’s going to be that tomorrow,” he says. “It is a constant thing that people need to check unless they’re screwed into the ceiling, a [pressure mounted] pole can fall down.”

It’s not just poles that Toby J deals with. This MacGyver can whip up just about anything! He manufactures circus equipment from trapezes, handstand and hand balancing bars, spirals, and even more custom things, like an elephant head for aerials (seriously!) or a martini glass for showgirls.

“And I’m a rigger,” adds Toby. “So I guess all sides of circus and performance is kind of what I’ve gotten into. I can hang us in the air, I can make the equipment that we hang and perform [from] so that we’re pretty much self-sufficient! Like [Suzie] is really good with choreography and concept. So as a team together, we pretty much cover all the aspects of what we need to do to make ourselves a show!”

Pole Championship Series

The Pole Championship Series (PCS) which is held as part of the Arnold Sports Festival started in the USA about 7-8 years ago. PCS organisers contacted Toby who now runs the Australian portion of the competition. Initially, it was a challenge keeping the stage full over the 3 day festival, however 4 years on, PCS runs longer days than the actual festival does! It has become so popular, they decided to restrict the performance length to 2.5min so that they could accept as many people as they could into the competition.

“PCS wanted it to be a competition where anybody could have an opportunity to get on a big stage, lighting, videos, photos, the whole lot and have an opportunity to perform,” says Toby.

If you are an invited athlete and win the final in Australia, you may also get the chance to compete in the US at the international final Toby explains to me. What an incredible opportunity!

PCS is different to other comps, as Toby explains, it’s not just the automatic entry as a competitor, but it’s affordable for the whole family to come to the Arnold Sports Festival and watch you compete. Being a part of the wider festival also means there is always a large crowd around, with some feedback being that it’s nice have ‘muggles’ in the crowd rather than just being critiqued by other pole dancers.

Suzie adds that she loves the diversity of PCS competitors, not just the different ages and categories available for them to compete in but because of the family friendly feel of the comp. “It’s just really nice that there’s this family thing going on which I really like. We do have multiple mother-daughter doubles teams competing which I think it’s one of the only comps that really allows for that which is cool!” says Suzie.

As the number of kids taking pole classes is growing, PCS also has a junior's category meaning these youngsters can bend, flip and fly around the competition poles putting us all to shame.

“The numbers for the juniors have just started going crazy the last couple of years, there’s so many coming in now and the talent of these little kids as well! Like it’s insane!” says Toby. “But you think about it...how many mothers out there are doing pole and have poles in their homes? Their kids are playing on these poles all the time. They’re naturally getting good just playing at home...These kids are going to be phenomenal!”

Suzie Q the MC

Through her shining career in the pole industry, Suzie Q has become a sought-out MC for pole related events and competitions. Her bubbly chit-chat and witty humour, makes Suzie an obvious choice when searching for a MC. While it was daunting to her at first, she took to it like a sparkly duck to water!

“When I first started, I was like ‘can’t I just get naked on stage?! Take this microphone back!’” she says laughing. “I think it’s one of the things though that you get used to it, you get more comfortable with it and again it’s doing what I love, it’s getting to share the stories of these pole dancers with the audience and getting to share their background and a bit of what’s going on – I love it!”

Suzie continues, “I also think there’s a big difference between MCs who know pole but also I’ve been there! I’ve been in the wings with my Dry Hands and I call it my ‘security blanket’ (you know like my metho cloth) - I’ve been there! I understand what they’re going through. I think I can bring a different level of understanding and sensitivity to what’s going on, because I’ve been there! Many times!”

Teaching Pole, Circus and Yoga

As well as performing and teaching pole and emceeing industry events, Suzie Q teaches yoga and meditation, after discovering a passion for its teachings and lifestyle.

“I’m teaching for Sydney Pole a few days a week,” says Suzie. “Just teaching a lot of yoga, meditation, some exotic dance online, but yeah I’m teaching from the lounge room a lot! Which I gotta say – I love the commute hey!” she jokes.

The current isolation restrictions haven’t stopped Suzie Q sharing her passion with the world. “Toby & I were meant to be moving to Scotland like now, to go work on some ships over there and also help work at a circus school and help run the Scottish Circus Festival,” she explains. “Obviously, those plans have changed but 3 times a week I’m now teaching online for the Scottish school! So I’m still working for them, it still worked out so that’s really nice!"

What’s next for this dream team?

As you have probably learned by now, Suzie Q and Toby J always have something interesting happening just around the corner. So what’s next this pair of performers? “We haven’t had a house, a home, for about 5 years so I think we are looking at getting a home again somewhere near Sydney,” Suzie tells me. How are they spending their down-time at the moment?

“I like watching movies,” says Toby. “I love movies. I’ll have a whole day and I’ll just binge watch for like a whole day sometimes. Actually, right now we’re spending time on [Suzie’s] dad’s farm and I grew up on a farm so I’m actually really enjoying being back doing farm stuff!”

Suzie on the other hand... “I just drink a lot of tea and watch Buffy and RuPaul!” she laughs, as Toby tells me tea runs through Suzie’s veins instead of blood. “I’ve got a new podcast out now with one of my friends, so we’ve been recording episodes for that which is really fun,” Suzie continues. “It’s called ‘Empowered by Choice’ and so that’s on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. But I do have a tendency, if I love something it just kind of ends up being a bit of a work thing. I just really enjoy, what I enjoy. You know like performing, yoga, meditation, tea, and the I LOVE having the ability to share that with other people as well. It’s really, really cool.”

Suzie and Toby also plan to be ready for when the isolation restrictions begin to lift and for life post-’rona! Besides maintaining their working relationships and contacts, they also plan to maintain their training and physical form so they can jump back onstage.

Suzie says she’s has found it really inspiring working for Sydney Pole and how their positive attitude to the whole situation has really helped. "I think being around people like that who are putting a really positive spin on what’s happening has been really helpful for both of us,” she says. “It’s also been really good to notice what I’ve missed. I've really missed performing, which I already knew is my passion, but it just reiterates that it is my passion!”

“The one thing that I definitely miss the most though, is the social contact with friends,” says Toby. “It’s the one thing that I know when we can get back its spending some quality time with people, realising that that’s something that we kind of let go of with all of our being busy that I want to make sure that I keep that connection with people. Like actual connection!”

And now for the big question...

Does Toby J like Vegemite?

“No!” he says with a laugh. “There’s only been 2 times that I can remember that I’ve eaten Vegemite by choice. One was after finishing a really big hike and I was kind of dehydrated and depleted, and the other one was after working really hard in the sun and I was basically at the point of a sunstroke, and my body was craving salt so much that I ate Vegemite twice,” he reflects.

“I don’t hate it as much as the first time I tried it, because I’ve learned you don’t spread it on like peanut butter, you spread it on lightly!” he jokes. “I remember the first time I did it, I think I was about 17 when I first came to Australia and that was the thing, you gotta make fun of the Americans eating Vegemite!”

Suzie Q and Toby J continue to energize the pole world with their fun, entertaining performances, heart-felt connection onstage and innovating ideas. Their passion for pole and aerials burns brightly as they continue to shantay their way through another decade of entertaining. Suzie Q and Toby J’s ability to ‘roll with the punches’, has allowed them to continue on the path of following their dreams, while inspiring us with their journey along the way.

How to contact Suzie Q and Toby J

Website - suzieqandtobyj.com
Instagram @suzieqandtobyj
For The Pole Doctor – ‘The Pole Doctor’ on Facebook or @thepoledoctor on Instagram
For Circus Equipment – You can reach Toby through @thepoledoctor or visit his website tgear.com.au.
For Suzie’s Yoga - @emmaspractice on Instagram
For Suzie’s ‘Empowered by Choice’ podcast - @empoweredbychoice on Instagram or have a listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

How amazing are Suzie Q & Toby J?! Leave a comment below & tell me what part of their story you enjoyed the most!

Dazzling Duo of Pole & Aerials - Suzie Q and Toby J