Highwire Events & Entertainment. Gluttony - The Peacock. 22 Feb 2015
They say good things come in small packages. In this case, it turns out super awesome circuses also come in small packages! In its current incarnation, Le Petit Circus features three wonderful performers whose infectious smiles and fun antics keep the applause coming throughout.
Jake Silvestro, Jane Schofield and Ollie Versteegen perform admirably in Gluttony's The Peacock in incredible temperatures and (on this unique occasion) minus their costumes due to an overzealous member of the cleaning staff. Despite the heat and less than ideal attire, they put on a fantastic show that kept their audience, young and old, whooping and cheering for more.
With acrobatics, juggling and trapeze, there is no lack of circus action. Individually they shine; Schofield was a crowd favourite with her show of strength holding up troupe member Silvestro and hula-ing more hoops than you could count whilst monitoring 6 spinning plates. Silvestro impressed with his cart wheeling and Versteegen's back flipping and classic "detachable thumb" trickery won hearty appreciation.
But the troupe is at their best playing off each other in acts including a hilarious game of not-quite musical chairs.
Le Petit Circus trio get a "hats off" for performing a great show under really trying circumstances. Packed full of energy and excitement, this is a must-see family event for the Fringe season.
Nicole Russo
When: 17 Feb to 15 Mar
Where: Gluttony - The Peacock
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Strut & Fret Production House. The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Deluxe. 22 Feb 2015
Out she comes, dressed in nothing but bright blue paint, with boofed up blue hair, Yana Alana's curvaceous contours smack the senses. After further celebrating blue in song and with blue flowers and curtains, she blows her own horn, figuratively and literally, in this risky and unpredictable show.
In her quotes from her fictitious book, 'Go Fuck Yourself,' marvelously witty ditties sung in her sparkling voice, and a major running blue with her dour keyboard accompanist over her inappropriate phone use during the show, we get Yana Alana as the blue bitch in her One Woman Show, which is very nearly a two-woman show.
In between scenes concerning medication, mediation and meditation, Yana belts out her original songs with a vigorous gusto. Having fired the accompanist, Yana attempts to carry on with the help of an audience member at the keyboard, and of course this doesn't work out and the show pretends to grind to a halt. But she reinvigorates with a hilarious song about not being able to say sorry - a topic close to all Australians on a political and personal level.
Introducing herself, she invited the audience to be as honest and revealing as she would be. In a self-disclosing show such as this, I am often distracted by thinking about what's behind the material. What's under the blue paint? Yana Alana the comedian, singer and award-winning cabaret performer in her vivisection of performance art and artists.
David Grybowski
When: 13 Feb to 1 Mar
Where: The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Deluxe
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Strut & Fret Production House. The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Deluxe. 22 Feb 2015
Nigerian-born, London-raised, French-named Le Gateau Chocolat has returned to Adelaide with his brand new show, 'Icons.' Flamboyant and outrageous with gay abandon, and resembling his nom de theatre, dressed in dark cocoa colours and topped with impossibly long lashes, he quickly extends his credentials, including a cavernous baritone voice that shakes your bones.
The programme promises a show that investigates fame, in part through Le Gateau's own experience as a performer. However, I got the impression that Le Gateau recently had a purple patch and was encouraged to make this rather cathartic show. It comprised many heartfelt and honest revelations by the performer, led by a song he wrote and sang for the funeral of a friend and colleague.
Many other songs, chosen from a typically wide-ranging catalogue from opera to pop, looked into dark spaces. The set backdrop of a collage of photographs spoke to the past and remembrance. One thing Le Gateau does readily is change over the hair, and a number with a glowing golden lion's mane-like affair was transfixing. It seemed like the show he needed to do given the space he was in, and performers need to perform, don't they?
David Grybowski
When: 13 Feb to 15 Mar
Where: The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Deluxe
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
The Garden of Unearthly Delights - The Vagabond. 21 Feb 2015
I'm highly attracted to The Magnets! After a few minutes into the opening number of six-part harmonies, I'm like, "OK, open the curtain and let's see the band...the bass guitar...the drum kit." No such thing. These six Brits do everything flapping their gums. A six-man mouth band. It's quite unbelievable. The audience was fresh-faced with delight at their virtuosity. There was an air of wonder and enchantment. These guys have a big resume of appearances on television and back-up work for the likes of Blonde, Tom Jones and Bryan Adams. There was a bit of testosterone on stage - the program of songs by Pharrell Williams, Mumford & Sons, Bruno Mars and such was punched out with extreme prejudice.
The Magnets are an eclectic bunch and their format leaves room for each member to shine. CG Fraser wowed the females with his supple gyrations and wooed all with his deep baritone simulations of bass guitar. Made the others look pretty straight. The show's sensation, though, was Andy Frost. Backing up the singers with simulated percussion was astounding enough - you could close your eyes and see the hardware. But his extended beat box solo left the audience breathless. Double bravo!
The Magnets take a cappella to an entirely new level. Others sound like a church choir or have a few clever vocal features. But these guys are consummate vocal musicians. Not to be missed.
David Grybowski
When: 13 Feb to 15 Mar
Where: The Garden of Unearthly Delights - The Vagabond
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Amos Gill. The Rhino Room. 20 Feb 2015
‘Amos Gill is Gillty’, and he certainly is! Guilty of hilariousness, guilty of inappropriateness, and guilty of awkwardness!
Standing, alone, on a 1 square metre stage jammed into an opening on one side of the Rhino Room’s ‘Howling Owl’, Gill quipped at how sexual the mood was. Sex was definitely on the agenda – and it wasn’t going to end there.
When not discussing his own sexual exploits (or lack thereof until his foray into breakfast radio) he was recalling a fateful evening as a 10 year old in a motel room shadowed by the ‘Big Orange’ when he got stuck listening to his mother “get it on” with a gentleman caller.
Gill is very funny, and he plays well off the audience in the room. Quickly latching onto a gentleman sitting half-way back we soon learned his nickname, Pie-Cart, and how his seat had been the location chosen by an earlier audience member who had given the show extra “length” (for want of a better word)! You may just have to see the show for that reference to make sense.
The inappropriateness and awkwardness is occasionally an issue however, and more than once one felt sorrier for Gill than amused as he told gut wrenching stories from his past, which were self-deprecating and just a little sad.
That said, for the most part, the laughter abounds. He’s a funny guy, and apparently also hosts a bit of breakfast radio – either way, “get on it”.
Paul Rodda
When: 20 Feb to 7 Mar
Where: The Rhino Room – Howling Owl
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au