The Underground Hour | Claire Owen & performers
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The Underground Hour | Claire Owen & performers

As they share their story of coming together, they dance and sing their way through a great range of classic show tunes and contemporary commercial hits. The fourth wall be damned, they performed directly to us, sharing their story and all of themselves. They love the audience as much as we love them, and crave our adulation. And we were more than happy to give it to them.

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The Underground Hour | Claire Owen & performers.
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The Underground Hour | Claire Owen & performers.

The Underground Hour - a crowd-pleasing, glittery cabaret that harks back to times of feathers and Frank Sinatra. If you like your performers giving you all they’ve got and your showtunes to go up a key to hit a big finish, then this is the show for you. Big talent, big energy and a full house almost burst the seams of the small underground bar, Brooklyn Standard, in Brisbane’s CBD. Someone give these people a big band and a wall of lights. They deserve it.

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Apocalipstick | Polytoxic
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Apocalipstick | Polytoxic

Apocalipstick used drag and gender-fuckery to engage the audience through laughter, the absurd, and the excess. There is nothing better to make someone think about serious issues than to make them laugh! Laughter sits with you in a light vein and it makes you come back to the funny sketch again and again looking for one more laugh. Drag invites laughter by highlighting the contradictions of gender through the excess: hoping for a fuck, office tape and markers become the perfect beauty tools for a face-lift and make-up, and thin-glass toxic masculinity is the weapon of the man looking for acceptance in the wolf pack.

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Songs My Aunties Taught Me | Heru Pinkasova & Dr Rhythm
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Songs My Aunties Taught Me | Heru Pinkasova & Dr Rhythm

Wow wow wow. I feel like my eardrums have just been given a delightful, melodic pounding. Songs My Aunties Taught Me is part opera, part beatboxing, part comedy, and one hundred percent remarkable. This first collaboration between songstress Heru Pinkasova and the beatboxing, drumming Dr Rhythm is a melodious fusion of two very different art forms, which tells the stories of influential women in Heru’s life; both her mother and aunties, and the great women of colour who sang before her.

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Songs My Aunties Taught Me | Heru Pinkasova & Dr Rhythm
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Songs My Aunties Taught Me | Heru Pinkasova & Dr Rhythm

The interactions between Aunty Heru and Jonny Drama brings out a humorous side to the show and the chemistry between them is endearing as it feels like they have both known each other for a long time and that they have toured lengthy with this show despite it being their first. As talented as Heru is with her voice, Jonny’s beatboxing skills are similarly impressive.

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Chameleon | Karen Lee Roberts
cabaret, review Harmonie Downes cabaret, review Harmonie Downes

Chameleon | Karen Lee Roberts

There are many moments I feel swept away by the honesty of living her experience throughout the entire show – particularly the scene where she acts out the consequences of going off meds including a full blown episode involving her partner. Alexandra pleads for help whilst portraying what it’s like to experience the fear of abandonment and confusion caused by changes to her brain chemistry. This was deeply raw and personal and an effective mechanism to flush out any remaining judgment the audience might have.

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Creepy Cabaret | EC Venue and Damien Cassidy
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Creepy Cabaret | EC Venue and Damien Cassidy

Creepy Cabaret is just that - a tale of fake blood, puppets and blow up dolls, and a homage to sex (or lack of) complete with a twist on risking the status quo. It’s a great show and producer Damien Cassidy has pulled together a diverse international stellar cast in the one room.

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By Request | Jenny Wynter
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By Request | Jenny Wynter

Jenny and Angie Wynter made a great team. I assumed they had set rhythms of songs they were going to perform and then Jenny improvised the lyrics. Her talent as a professional singer shone through, unbelievable that she could sing so beautifully and be constructing lyrics at the same time. I fully expected to see smoke coming out of her ears, that’s how fast her brain appeared to be working.

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Common People Dance Eisteddfod | Common People Dance Project
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Common People Dance Eisteddfod | Common People Dance Project

Through sheer force of will and an encyclopedic knowledge of 80s choreography, Neridah has created the impossible – the dance off to end all dance offs that citizens from all sides of river and all walks of life could enjoy. Comprising of at least seven choreographed routines, three celebrity judges, over 100 performers and a competition where cheating is encouraged, it became the hottest ticket in town.

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WHAM! BAM! Cabaret SLAM! | Ruckus Brisbane
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WHAM! BAM! Cabaret SLAM! | Ruckus Brisbane

And no, I’m not in the midst of a 90s flashback to Homebake, bleach blonde undercut, flanny and all. This is Brisbane’s newest scratch night - WHAM! BAM! Cabaret SLAM! Here, local artists of all shapes, sizes, modalities and talents levels will battle it out once a month for fortune ($100) and glory (the coveted and elusive full audience ‘Space NEEEEeeeddddllllleee’).

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