Meet Carlotta, the Cross Queen

Dubbed the Queen of the Cross, the entertainment legend will host Carlotta - The Party's Over as a farewell to solo shows during Mardi Gras at Kings Cross - where it all started - after finding it "a bit hard on the feet to do the long shows any more".

In the show, Carlotta AM, who lives in Surfers Paradise, will share details of an amazing life with lots of Q&A opportunities with the audience, all wrapped around a plethora of musical numbers and costume changes. Just stay home if you're easily offended.

"A lot of people know how I work; I'm politically incorrect. If you are politically correct, leave; don't come to the show."

But this is not Carlotta announcing retirement.

"I can't believe I'm still working at 80; I don't want to be one of those people sitting around being bored. I don't look 80 and I've had no Botox; I don't like those lips where you look like you're looking for Nemo."

Carlotta lit Kings Cross's imagination in the 1960s as an original Les Girls member, has been on TV screens for more than 50 years and is a fierce ambassador for the LGBTIQA+ community.

It all started at the age of 16, presenting as male and going by the birth name of Richard Lawrence Byron. Carlotta had fled home and at a party, met Lee Gordon, who said something like "You'd look good as a girl". From there, a drag show opened at German beerhouse restaurant Rheinschloss.

A little later, Lee was working with Sammy Lee on Les Girls - a Las Vegas-style show, which opened in 1963 in a purpose-built nightclub owned by Abe Saffron in the heart of Kings Cross. Eventually Carlotta became known as the Queen of the Cross and was with Les Girls until 1992.

"We used to call it tits, feathers and arse. The drag queens were quite different in those days; they really did look like women."

Carlotta rose to prominence on screen from the 1970s, appearing on Number 96 in 1973 as Robyn Ross and in turn, becoming what's considered to be the first transgender person to appear on a soap worldwide. In 1974 there was an appearance on ABC's Four Corners about surgery and being transgender.

Carlotta was a panellist on shows including Beauty and the Beast hosted by Stan Zemanek in the late 1990s, and on Studio 10 from 2013-18. Carlotta relished the medium and saw how it reached audiences in a different way to live shows.

"[The format] helped kids who were closeted who could say 'Well if she can do it, I can do it too'."

Living an authentic life has been challenging and the thought of today's comparative freedoms weren't something Carlotta thought would have happened by now.

"[When I started] it was very hard; people used to call us freaks and poofters and we got a lot of backlash from the police. But I was brought up in Balmain; I grew up pretty tough and it all worked out in the end - but it was a tough road."

Carlotta, who does not use pronouns including he/she/they, nor any descriptive terms including transgender, had surgery in 1971.

"I was living as a woman and got it done for my own satisfaction, but I never put a brand on myself. Just call me Carlotta; you can call me Freddo the Frog if you want to, but do not put a sex tag on me."

With a thick skin and self-assuredness, Carlotta does not seem to take it all too seriously, believing political correctness has ruined the country.

"Australians used to be able to have a good laugh at themselves. Now you've got to be so careful about what you say because you might [offend someone]. People have become too sensitive; toughen up!"