Toni virtually started her career with charity work in Birmingham UK, going along with her dad when he performed at Hospitals, Nursing Homes and even the Winson Green Prison.
She performed on many charity shows in the UK and, the very first show she presented in Sydney was a fundraiser at Coogee Randwick RSL Club, which was a great opportunity to show what ‘the new kid on the block’ could do. Female comics in the early seventies were few and far between, so Toni was very warmly welcomed into Aussie show biz circles.
She has been a professional entertainer for well over 60 years, arriving in Australia from the UK in 1972, with an impressive record of rave reviews from T.V., Club, Theatre and Cabaret venues worldwide. Over the years, Toni has supported some of the worlds brightest stars: The Seekers, Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdinck, Morcambe & Wise, Val Doonican, Dave Allen, Lulu, Paul Hogan etc, and from the USA Bill Haley, Billy Eckstein, Jose Feliciano and many more.
In addition to her talents as a comedienne, singer and musician, she is also a very competent theatre restaurant performer, actress and show producer. In the early eighties, Toni produced and starred at the Golden Garter Theatre Restaurant where her show ran for over a year and she was the first to introduce the concept of Theatre Restaurant to registered Clubs, the most popular of her shows being ‘The Best O’ Bloomin’ British’ and ‘Oktoberfest’ which ran successfully for 26 years.
From 1987 to 1989 she produced her own Theatre Restaurant on Sydney Harbour, The Port Jackson Showboat. Then, in 1990, for over 5 years, 7 nights a week, she was producer and featured performer in The Jolly Swagman Show at the Argyle Tavern and Lowenbrau Keller at the Rocks.
Over the years Toni has also provided work for many other performers especially now, through her own business “Aunty Molly’s Seniors Entertainment Events” which she has hosted and featured A1 performers for seniors’ lunchtime theatre restaurant over three decades.
Four times nominee, in 1998 Toni was honoured with the prestigious John Campbell Fellowship ‘Mo’ Award for her work with the founding of ALVA, services to the Australian variety industry and for her endless charity work. Earlier she had also been nominated for inclusion in the ‘Australian Who’s Who of Women’ (1985) and subsequently the ‘World Who’s Who of Women’ (1986) and
in the same year was included in the ‘International Directory of Distinguished Leadership’.
Toni has personally been responsible for producing many fund raising shows and has generated well over a million dollars for numerous Charities, including, CanTeen, The Leukaemia Foundation, The Red Cross, The Royal Institute for Deaf & Blind Children, Cancer Research, Children’s Medical Research, Cerebral Palsy Foundation, Legacy, The Humour Foundation (Clown Doctors) and
Children’s Oncology Units at the old Camperdown and Westmead Hospitals, to name but a few.
More recently, in her work through Rotary International and her own Club, The Rotary Club of Warners Bay, Toni continues to help others by raising funds for needy people and various causes. She admits it’s what she does best and what she loves to do most.