MiG Ayesa: From Candy Bar to Thriller Star

MiG Ayesa is one of five featured singers in the current tour of Australia and New Zealand of THRILLER: LIVE, the celebration of Michael Jackson. He told Sally Alrich-Smythe that as a child he’d always wanted to be a rock star but it was a stutter which helped him break into show business.

MiG  Ayesa is living his childhood dreams. He’s sung and danced in the West End and around the world in Buddy, We Will Rock You, Rent and Grease. He came third in the international competition to be the new front man for INXS and even worked on his own music in collaboration with Queen lead guitarist Brian May, who discovered him when he moved to London in 2011.

The young Aussie performer inside of me had to ask: How did this all start out?

MiG smiled and shrugged, “It was just necessity.” He elaborated. “I always wanted to be a rock star. I did stage productions at school, never trained as a dancer, singer or actor but I just loved doing it at school.

“Why I did it in the first place was because as a kid I was a terrible stutterer and when I sang a song or whenever I spoke lines in a script my stutter actually left me. So the only time I felt normal and real and able to face people was when I was playing someone else…and that actually eventually cured my stutter. That sort of started my love affair with music and performing because that was a way that I could feel I was good at something. ”

It wasn’t all travelling tunnel-vision though, as MiG had indeed been weeks off finishing a communications degree before the stage-bug pulled him away:
“I didn’t think about a career as such until I was trying to earn some money working as a cinema candy bar attendant making popcorn and Choctops down on George St. A friend came back on the weekend from working a Coke commercial. He goes, ‘Oh yeah I made $3000 this week.’‘Excuse me …what?!’

“I thought, ‘this is ridiculous… I make six dollars an hour!’ and said ‘RIGHT!’ So I got an agent, and started to go for commercials. For a whole year I went for thousands of screen tests and got not one job and thought, ‘Look I don’t care. I don’t care, I’ll be an extra! I just don’t want to work at the candy bar anymore!’ and then I suddenly got a job with an anti-speeding campaign.”

Then, well, we know the rest. What we don’t know, simply because I’ve been so wrapped up in the wonderful creation of the performer in MiG Ayesa, is about this upcoming tour. THRILLER: LIVE has enjoyed six years in London’s West End, boasting excellent reviews, a promise for sensational dancing, top-notch voices, and a great night out. The posters and flyers, however dazzling, don’t reveal too much so I had to ask, what kind of entertainment can we expect in a show like this one?

“I was skeptical when I first went to see it, but it really is a fantastic tribute to his whole life. There’s no storyline involved. We basically just go chronologically, one hit after another, until by the end of the show no-one can believe that one man was responsible for all of this amazing music.”

MiG reassured me it shouldn’t be mistaken as a ‘tribute show’. It’s a spectacular collaboration, utilising five featured vocalists, a live nine-piece band and an eighteen strong dance ensemble.

“We don’t try to be imitators. I’m playing me. I’m still MiG on stage, doing my own interpretation of Michael’s music. But you can’t do Michael’s songs without having some of his style - his hiccups and rhythmic phrasing - because that’s indicative of his music and what makes him special.

“I’m old enough to remember when Michael Jackson was in the Jackson 5. I remember when Michael went solo and I thought, ‘Oh thats weird, Michael went solo!’ That was ‘Off The Wall’.It didn’t leave my record player for…well, forever. For a whole two years I’d play it over and over again.

“In 1987 I saw him live at Parramatta Stadium for the ‘Bad’tour and that was just life changing. I don’t think I blinked for the whole three hours. I was mesmerized …he was just super-human. At the time as well there was no star in the world who was as big as Michael.

“He was the biggest thing in the planet, so much so that everyone wanted to work with him. So along with the best performer, we experienced the best writers, the best producers, the best filmmakers, managers, agents, venues …Everything around Michael was the best. He had everything the world had to offer. That’s why it stands the test of time. That’s why we’re doing this show.”

Before I wrap up this piece, I’m obliged to type up a dare of sorts, as passed on from MiG:

“I challenge anyone to be on their seat not dancing when the show finishes.”

Go on, he dares you.

Thriller Live premiered in Perth on December 10, 2014 ahead of seasons in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and New Zealand.

thrillerlive.com.au