The annual Adelaide Cabaret Festival may be the only exciting thing about Adelaide during wintertime, and 2014's event was no different. While it makes my head spin to think about how quickly time has flown since I last sat outside the Festival Theatre, mulled wine in hand, bundled up from head to toe before 2013's fabulous performances, it was great to be part of yet another successful year.

Time constraints and travel plans severely hindered the amount of cabaret goodness I could feast my eyes on this year, but I was thrilled that the three shows I managed to review were all beyond entertaining. Courtesy of the team at The AU Review, my reviews can be found here:

Dan Finnerty & The Dan Band

Kathy Najimy - Lift Up Your Skirt

Hail to the King

And what a Fringe season it was! 

The festival just keeps getting bigger and bigger every year, and after many late nights watching some fabulous performances and basking in the glory of The Garden of Unearthly Delights, this particular writer is looking forward to curling up under the sheets and catching up on some much needed sleep!

Thanks again to The AU Review for valuing my opinion enough to allow me to share my thoughts on the following Fringe shows in 2014:

Limbo
Glory Box
Hannah Gadsby 'The Exhibitionist'
Amelia Ryan 'Storm in a D Cup'
East End Cabaret 'Dirty Talk'

(My reviews can be found by clicking the links above)

Leading the list of shows that I'll be attending courtesy of The AU Review as part of the Adelaide Fringe season is 'Dirty Talk' by the sassy, sultry EastEnd Cabaret. My first of many reviews to come is below:

Sultry diva Bernadette Byrne and her manwoman sidekick, Victor Victoria, return to the Adelaide Fringe to present their newest collection of songs and stories that are equal parts filthy and fabulous. This talented duo have been taking international audiences by storm with their unique brand of comically perverse songs and playful performances, finding light heartedness in deviant subject matters that’ll leave tears of laughter streaming down the faces of everyone in the room.

Those with a fear of audience participation may as well leave your reservations at the door, as audience participation is half the fun of this show and believe me, nobody is safe (especially if you’re a young, virile man). It won’t matter whether you are front row aisle side or smack bang in the middle of the sixth row, Bernadette will find you and you will be made a spectacle of. From her grand entrance on the two-headed man-beast, to finding a suitable partner for her rap project, or just some good old fashioned face licking, the audience makes up a solid portion of this show.

From start to finish, 'Dirty Talk' is full of smutty jokes executed with perfect class. The combination of Bernadette’s deviant raunchiness and Victor’s scrappy idiocy is a match made in heaven. If there were ever a definition of partners in crime, I think you will find it here. The pair complement each other flawlessly, bouncing off one another with perfect improvisation, remaining completely composed and in character even during pesky technical difficulties. They swoon such songs as "Accidental Anal", "Tiny Sex Robots" and the crowd pleasing "Danger Wank", proving that dirty doesn’t always have to be creepy and can in fact be outright hilarious.

If you’ve seen EastEnd Cabaret before, you will know exactly what to expect, as parts of 'Dirty Talk' carried over from 2013’s performance, 'Notoriously Kinky'. The only disappointment here was hearing some recycled songs and jokes, but in their defense, the re-used material was classic, so let’s not hold that against them. 'Dirty Talk' is everything a good cabaret show should be; saucy, hilarious, visually pleasing and utterly ridiculous. This power duo of feminine energy has nailed the recipe to success for an award-winning Fringe performance; booze, sexual innuendo and side splitting hilarity.

Purchase tickets to Dirty Talk during the 2014 Fringe season at Fringe Tix

This review first appeared on The AU Review

Adelaide Fringe Reviews 2014

I'm beyond excited to be granted the privilege of reviewing a list of fabulous shows at this year's Adelaide Fringe Festival. This will be my second year reviewing for The Fringe and I'm thrilled to be back.

Thanks to my awesome editors at The AU Review, late Feb and early March will be a busy time, full of the chaos and magic that is The Garden of Unearthly Delights. Late nights and enchanting performances aplenty lay ahead and I couldn't be happier.

Stay tuned for my two cents on some of this year's most raved about shows, including the critically acclaimed Limbo and my personal highlight, East End Cabaret. 

For a full list of shows I've reviewed for The AU Review, feel free to follow my contributor page otherwise I'll be posting reviews to this blog over the weeks ahead.

Happy days!!