TAKING ON THE USA
Billy and Jackie Cross are taking Thunder from Down Under to new levels internationally but they’re happiest at home when they’re doing their bit on behalf of the GC
AS I pull up to the mansion in Broadbeach Waters, I start to have traumatic flashbacks. It’s not that I’m frightened to meet with Gold Coast power couple Billy and Jackie Cross, the entertainment gurus behind Cross Promotions, Nineteen at the Star and Australia’s hottest exports (I’m talking male strippers, y’all). After all, they’re far too friendly for that. It’s not that I’m overwhelmed by their sprawling waterfront manor, either. After all, it’s obviously a beloved family home – and precisely where their heart is. No … it’s that for the first time in almost 20 years I’m remembering that Manpower show I witnessed at the Southport RSL.
Let me be clear: I was there for professional purposes only. As a journalist.
It was in the days before Billy’s all-Aussie male revue hit the big time in the USA as the Thunder from Down Under, but they were still far from unknown to this hometown audience.
I was standing at the back of the venue with a few girlfriends, resting against a table, when I was suddenly shoved to the ground.
Recovering my feet, and my dignity, I spun around to confront my attacker. Who was an old woman with binoculars glued to her face. Yes, binoculars. At the Southport RSL. To watch male strippers.
Apparently, I was in her way. And you do not want to get between randy grannies and bare male bottoms.
It was like a Real Housewives scene … there’s something about hot dudes taking their kit off that inspires drama, diva behaviour and duels at the back of the RSL.
Which is why I’m not entirely surprised when Billy and Jackie tell me they’ve just finished filming the first season of their new reality show based around the boys behind the Thunder from Down Under.
“It is super exciting,” says Billy, curled up beside Jackie on a velvet couch overlooking the Nerang River.
“We’ve been signed by a major American network and a fantastic production company – it’s exactly what we wanted. It looks like it’s going to
be big.”
And they won’t be lacking for material. They may not have an RSL in America, but they have plenty of women like my female fight partner.
But as I dig deeper about this new series, which includes plenty of plugs for the Crosses’ GC home base, Billy confides that the show may sizzle thanks to the brawny blokes, but its ultimate success is due to the brains and brave heart of Jackie.
“We’ve pitched a few ideas about the Thunder boys before, but what really sells these shows is the women – and Jackie just has a beautiful relationship with the boys,” he says. “They’re young guys, a lot of them are overseas for the first time and they’re all homesick – she’s their mum away from home.”
Jackie says while being on screen is not exactly her happy place, looking after the troupe is. “They’re a little scared of Billy. They respect him but they’re almost in awe, it’s his business and he was one of them once upon a time as well,” she says.
“I’m the one they come to. In fact, the really interesting thing is that, other than the dancers, women make up most of our business. I think that’s what makes the show interesting too, we’ve flipped the script. The women are in the audience watching the men perform on stage, and backstage it’s the women who are in charge.”
The mum of two boys – Joshua, 19, and Nicholas, 15 – married Billy in 1997, after they met while Jackie was working at Cleo magazine … and Billy’s Manpower business was still in the baby stage.
Jackie’s boss, then-editor and then-pregnant Lisa Wilkinson, convinced her to accompany her to a show in Manly.
“I really didn’t want to go. I remember I peeked through Lisa’s window and saw this guy with long hair, a red varsity jacket and a cross earring … I was like, ‘yep, I’ll go’.
“We met after the show and we just hit it off.
“We were together for four years before I moved to the Gold Coast and started working with Billy. It was a hard decision to leave my job. I loved it. You know, I worked for Kerry Packer and this was the ’90s when magazines were just fabulous.
“But I was committed. We wanted to be together and we wanted to grow our business. And we wanted to start a family.”
Raising two sons and an international empire isn’t exactly easy, but just like in business, Jackie’s charted a course.
As a mother, she may not always be able to be physically hands on, but emotionally and mentally – she’s owning this gig.
Take school dress-up day, for example.
“When Josh was about six we were away and it was animal week or something at school and he wanted to be a praying mantis,” she says.
“I rang the nanny and we were freaking out about how to do this and Billy said why don’t you just ring the costume designer from Thunder?
“The next day I had all these mums ringing me saying: ‘are you kidding?’ The costume had all these tentacles and moving parts and it was just the full you-beaut costume. It was possibly one his finest moments at school.
“With Billy and I in business and travelling a lot our family is different from some, but we are a team. We all work together. The boys have been to that many Thunder shows it’s not even funny.
“Mind you, these days they just find it so embarrassing. But I’m pretty sure they’ll get back into it when they realise the fringe benefits.
It doesn’t matter what you give or who you give it to … just give what you can
“They’re well into our work at the Falls Festival and Nineteen though. That’s when we’re the cool parents.”
Billy says their home was designed with the kids in mind.
He says while the teens have taken over his purposebuilt man cave, he’s happy to sacrifice the space if it keeps his boys at home.
“We wanted to make this house be the place where the boys and their mates want to come to hang out,” he says.
“We have 14 of their friends coming over tonight, actually. We all play basketball together (frequently inside the house, Jackie adds with a roll of her eyes) and we’re really in each other’s lives.
“Josh is at uni now, studying law and business at Bond, and Nicholas is still at TSS. We are extremely proud of them.
“Their upbringing has been really different to mine. I grew up in Liverpool in western Sydney, and it was a tough life. We’re careful though to balance their privileges with the reality of life for others.” This is no empty promise. The Crosses are major contributors to Rosies Friends on the Street, a charity which helps abandoned and homeless people, donating their time, money and connections to helping the less fortunate.
While the couple have always been keen on giving back to their community, it was something Jackie saw – literally on her own doorstep – which changed their lives.
“I was driving out of the house one morning when I saw this woman parked on our street, right opposite our house, getting dressed in a business suit,” she says.
“She was helping her daughter get her school uniform on too, brushing her hair.
“It was obvious they’d slept there overnight. My heart just broke. What did this mother and daughter have to flee that led them to living out of their car, trying to look normal for another regular day when their lives were so obviously in distress?
“On any given night there are thousands and thousands of homeless people on the Gold Coast – some are sleeping rough, some are sleeping in their cars, some are couch surfing or in a shelter. Homelessness is a real problem on the Gold Coast.”
Billy says they’re not highlighting their role in trying to ease the situation for glory or congratulations, but to encourage others to help as well.
“We were helping out one time and I got to talking to these four young kids and their stories would just break you. Domestic violence plays a huge part in destroying lives.
“These kids should have the safety and love of a happy home like our boys – that shouldn’t be a luxury.
“It doesn’t matter what you give or who you give it to … just give what you can.”
The Crosses are always keen to give back to the city in other ways as well.
While Nineteen at the Star continues to set new standards for local night-life, Billy says he’d like to replicate its success elsewhere.
He says Surfers itself is ripe for renewal.
“We were big in the Surfers scene back in the noughties – with The Berlin Bar, The Drink, The Sugar Shack – but what people want has really changed since then.
“People want to hang out in their neighbourhoods – or they want that village feel that changes depending on your location. That’s why Burleigh, Nobby’s and even Southport are so popular.
“Broadbeach is probably the only main meeting place these days, and there is something to be said for a central location where everyone can go. That’s the great thing about Nineteen and The Star in general. It’s got great transportation links, it’s a place where people feel safe and it’s a real scene.
“I’d like to see that vibe come back to Surfers.”
Jackie says with the Cross Promotions office based in the precinct, and responsible for much of the Schoolies Week entertainment program, they’ve been waiting for the suburb to kick back into gear.
“I just wish we could get rid of all the sheepskin shops. The T-shirt shops are bad but the sheepskin has taken over,” she says.
“It’s fine to cater to tourists to a degree, but we’re a big vibrant city now – it’s the locals we need to look after. If the locals love Surfers, the tourists will too.”
Billy says the city needs to tackle its ‘big brother’ Brisbane as well.
He says whether it’s a cruise ship terminal or international acts, anything that brings economic benefits should be a priority.
“There is a lot of politics at play,” he says.
“Brisbane is able to offer a lot of incentives to promoters which is why bands and artists perform there. It’s the government who are behind those incentives – they’re a state government, not a state capital government.
“The artists all stay here, but perform there. We could host them. We have Metricon Stadium, which is a fantastic venue – just look at when we had the Foo Fighters.
“I know Tony Cochrane is working on this. It’s just ridiculous how often we are overlooked.
“The Gold Coast has the most amazing future ahead but we really have to prove ourselves every step of the way. Jackie and I love knowing our boys never have to move away for jobs if they don’t want to. This is the most dynamic city in Australia.”
Jackie says keeping her boys close is a priority, after losing her own mother too young and with the rest of their family still based around Sydney.
It was the loss of her mother to breast cancer which led Jackie to undergo a preventive double mastectomy herself, as well as having her ovaries removed.
“You know, I barely think about it anymore. I was the first woman in my family to reach the age of 40 without cancer.
“When I found out the risk, it was just a no-brainer. I only wish my mother had the opportunity to do the same.”
And, of course, Jackie uses her own experience to help raise funds and awareness for the Breast Cancer Foundation. Because that’s just who she is.
Together, Billy and Jackie have lived more lives than a cat, and have always landed on their feet. But you can’t begrudge them that. Because behind all that success is plenty more hard work – and solid gold hearts.
“Sometimes we can’t believe it ourselves. The Thunder from Down Under should be a business case for uni students – it just keeps growing and growing and growing,” says Jackie.
“We’re about to open a new permanent base in Nashville – which is the bachelorette party capital of America. Then we have the Vegas boys based at Excalibur, plus at least two groups touring at all times.
“It still blows my mind when we land in Vegas. There are huge Thunder billboards everywhere. Just the other day I had an email from (former NBA star) Shaq (O’Neal) asking about some tickets – he wants to take his mum to a show.”
It’s easy to laugh along with them – their success has been our city’s success, too.
For all their good fortune, they’re still grounded in good humour.
Which is fortunate, given my embarrassing exit from their home.
Unable to figure out how to open their security gate, and too humiliated to knock on their front door for help, I creep around the grounds searching for an exit.
At last, I spy a secret door and scurry through – only to find myself ensconced among their wheelie bins. Positive that they’re watching me on CCTV I hightail it back to the front yard.
As I stand there aimlessly, Billy comes driving out.
Confused, he rolls down his window and I confess my sad tale. Cacking himself laughing – but in a nice way – he points to the button next to the gate.
It’s five minutes I’d prefer to forget, but – just like that Manpower show – there’s bound to be flashbacks.
The Gold Coast has the most amazing future ahead