Bobby Fox has spent more than two decades on stage, and by his own admission, he still can’t shake the imposter syndrome — not once in a while, but every single day. It’s a strange thing to hear from a performer who originated the role of Frankie Valli in the Australian production of Jersey Boys and played it more than 850 times, a four-time World Irish Dance Champion who toured the globe with Riverdance before he’d even finished his teens. But that contradiction is exactly what makes this episode of Showtime worth sitting with.
Andrew G’s conversation with Bobby, recorded ahead of Jersey Forever — a reunion concert bringing together the original four stars of Jersey Boys at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre — moves quickly past the highlight reel and into something more honest. Bobby describes stage confidence bluntly as “a trick,” something you have to manufacture with a sense of purpose and conviction each time the curtain goes up, regardless of what’s happening underneath. What actually gets him through, he says, isn’t confidence at all — it’s the deadline. The show doesn’t go up because he’s ready. It goes up because it’s 8pm and people have paid to leave their problems at the door.
That tension between the performer people see and the person underneath runs through the whole conversation. Bobby talks about being far more introverted than his stage presence suggests, admitting his favourite part of any gig is the moment it’s over — not out of regret, but because he’s chasing the feeling of accomplishment on the other side of it. He’s candid, too, about perfectionism: something he says used to cause him real turmoil before he learned to separate the healthy pursuit of a high standard from its more corrosive edge.
Bobby’s story starts long before Jersey Boys, in Longford, Ireland, where he began Irish dancing at four years old under the watch of a mother who, despite never having danced herself, was determined to see his full potential realised. That meant daily practice from around age seven — at least an hour and a half, every day, without exception. It’s a discipline he says still shapes him: he feels most content when he’s being consistent, and disjointed the moment he isn’t. He credits it as one of the most defining influences on who he became, long before he understood why.
Riverdance was the turning point that took Irish dancing from a niche pastime to a global phenomenon — and, at fifteen, it was the moment Bobby went from a kid who did what he was told to someone genuinely obsessed with performing. He’s quick to point out that professional Irish dancing barely existed before Riverdance opened the door. From there, the path led him to Australia, into musical theatre, and eventually into the audition process for Jersey Boys — a process that ended with Frankie Valli himself, watching footage from across the world, giving the final say on who would play him.
Perhaps the most striking part of the conversation is Bobby’s answer when asked about the uncomfortable truth of being a successful entertainer: constant, nonstop rejection, and the near-total absence of security in the profession. He describes the strange reality of being a working performer in a world that doesn’t quite know where to file you — recalling, half-joking, that when he fills out his own banking details, the closest job category to his own isn’t “performer” or “actor.” It’s usher.
It’s not all weight, though. Bobby speaks with real warmth about reframing his career as a business a few years ago — a shift that took the emotional charge out of comparing himself to other performers and let him focus on what he does well. That change, he says, made him not just calmer but genuinely better at his craft, more productive, and more willing to create his own opportunities rather than waiting for the next audition. He’s equally thoughtful on the difference between performing for a paying theatre audience and performing at corporate events, where, he explains, the hardest work isn’t the material — it’s winning over a room that never chose to be there in the first place.
Now, more than fifteen years after playing Frankie Valli on Melbourne’s Princess Theatre stage, Bobby returns to the character’s music with the three other original cast members for Jersey Forever — not, he insists, unfinished business, but a celebration of one of Australian musical theatre’s most iconic productions, delivered by the people who made it iconic in the first place.
Jersey Forever, featuring Bobby Fox, Glaston Toft, Scott Johnson and Stephen Mahy, plays for one night only on 7 August at the Palais Theatre, St Kilda. Tickets are available at jerseyforever.com.au.
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