After much of the Classical style Burlesque I have seen over the Fringe it is good to counterbalance things with some modern form neo-Burlesque - and yea verily, it is even better when it works. There have been some real hits and misses in years past. Tonight was the former, not the latter, I am happy to say.

Consider if you will the tradition of Chamber Opera, small ensembles of performers and musicians performing stories designed for a small venue.  The concept of Chamber Opera actually fits very well with neo-Burlesque, and particularly tonights performance, Burlesque Assassin.  We have a house band consisting of stripped back drums, indie-jazz double bass and jangling shoe-gazing guitar - this being Sydney band The Knife Waltz, the lead singer for which, Nikki Nouveau prowls onto stage like a diamonte spotted Snow Leopard, bullwhip in hand.  The reverb laden sounds layered with Nikki’s voice touches on sentiments of PJ Harvey and Blonde Redhead, with certain noir Lynchian qualities.

I’ve seen a few Burlesque shows this Fringe, and some I have openly pondered about how well the mood has been set by the Master of Ceremonies, what I believe to be a critical role. They are no less than a Ringmaster, an Orchestral Conductor even.  Look and learn would be MC’s.  The Dolls House Master of Ceremonies (or is that Master of Seduction?),  is the wonderfully androgynous Johnny Castrati, a dandy indeed and resplendent in a frock coat with dual peacock motifs (cocksure compensation perhaps?).

But he promises us much. “Less David Jones and more Carnivale!!” he proclaims to my welcome relief, my growing anticipation.

Thus the tone and tenure of the evening is set, and the foundations laid for the entrance of Flavella L’Amour, corseted in period garb and parasoled like Marie Antoinette, who teases wonderfully by appropriately pacing her routine, losing not an inch of kapow in the process, across a soundtrack of 1920’s jazz, modern rock and then swing.  She will push the ceiling higher later in the evening with a sassy cabaret jazz routine climaxing in her adornment in her trademark pet python, its random wandering across her curves producing a natural snakeskin garment that moved and reacted to her gyrations.

Karrey Dolly gave us an ‘Edwina Scissorhands routine that was cleverly constructed, although her movements in this routine and her follow up Middle Eastern Gogo Explosion occasionally had timing issues, which need to be forgiven as she was last minute a stand in, and she clearly was committed to delivering a solid performance.

Zoe L’Amour Princess of Pain & Daredevil Diva fulfilled provided a nice contrasting hard edge darkness to the otherwise bright display through acts of masochism, illusion and daring – mousetraps on the tongue, consuming razor blade laden apples, climbing a ladder of swords bear footed and tongue kissing an electric metal fan.  The girl is hard. Well hard.  If this wasn’t enough she proved that battery operated love toys are no match for a mains electricity powered angle grinder thrust into an armour clad groin.

Lastly, to the crooning tunes of Just A Gigolo, our psychopomp extraordinaire Johnny Castrati emerged from his chrysalis to reveal Australian Burlesque royalty, Rita Fontaine who gave us a full contact Gogo shimmy and shake that threatened to undermine the building foundations.

A Dolls House was Burlesque in a Mexican wrestling mask that slammed us into the canvas repeatedly, leaving us much too delirious and weak to tag out.

A Dolls House has their last performance on tonight, 12 March, at 11pm - SOLD OUT

The premise seemed good.  Naked cabaret comedy performance with piano accordian.

I never thought I’d say that nudity can never compensate a wanting performance, but there you go.

It started well, as a bold bump & tease entrance, a slow disrobing behind a strategically placed accordian (a nice change to balloons).  But then Liz Skitch, our femme fatale protagonist for the evening, delivered her particular mix of songs, stories and comedic one liners, clothed in bad musical paisley behind a maddening novelty oompah bass line that had me convinced that at some stage she was going to deliver a “I say, I say, I say, my dog has no nose…” routine.

If you are old enough you may remember comedian Jean Kittsons ditzy character Candida Royal on the Big Gig – remove the leotard, give her German instrumentation and you get the picture.

Look, much of the audience seemed to be laughing and were enjoying it tremendously, so what do I know?

I just didn’t find the stories particularly clever, the songs were loosely constructed and the expected punchy one liners had the aim of drunken haymaker in the front bar of the Ettamogah Pub.

Skitchtease has one more performance this Thursday 11 March 2011.

I would like to use this review of Adelaide-based Syrian Oud player Adnaan Baraky as an opportunity to make a comment on the multiculturalism debate, and this so called notion of “assimilation”.

A number of years ago I started to learn the Oud with a wonderful teacher in the Western Sydney Turkish community, which culminated in me joining their community orchestra as the token White Anglo-Saxon. I didn’t speak a word of Turkish, I was not a Muslim, I had never been to Middle Eastern country, I knew nothing of the culture – and yet I was welcomed with open arms because of my willingness to cross the cultural bridge halfway on account of my love of the instrument. And I came to learn and love that there is such a thing as a unique Australian Turkish culture, a thing in itself. This was for me represented best in a song composed in Turkish Classical style by my Oud teacher which sang the history of the Australian “Johnnies” and Turkish “Mehmets” fighting on the shores of Gallipoli. “Assimilation” as the critics of multiculturalism would have it, would prevent art such as this from being born in Australia.

During the performance by Adnaan, a highly skilled and creative artist with a learned musical pedigree, he spoke of composing his piece Melodies from the Other Side as the US Forces invaded Afghanistan, written for the dead on both sides of the conflict. He was unable to finish the song. Then when the US invaded Iraq, again he tried to complete the piece but was not able. Finally, after moving to Australia, he was so touched the tragedy of the victims of the Victorian bushfires he was able to finish the song, as if the spirits of the dead were saying to the living “Don’t worry about us, instead, worry about yourselves, for we are in peace”.

This is what is created in the crucible of multiculturalism.

Much of his new music being showcased tonight from his newly released album is born of his migration to Australia, of the search to find a means of expressing his Syrian heritage in the Australian setting. The Blues was not born here, but we are often happy to talk about an Australian Blues scene, and cultural context. Why are we then so hesitant about recognizing Australian-Middle Eastern culture and music, or Australian-African, or Australian-Asian for that matter?

There are songs of geographical dislocation, Ya Balady, of Sufic spirital ecstacy through Union with the Divine, Dinaan and well as traditional dances, Lawha. Through all these works and thematic melodies he conjures amazing taksim (improvisation) that carries one into deep meditative admiration.

Adnaan Baraky will be doing one more performance for the Adelaide Fringe on Sunday 13 March. Attendance would be all the more culturally enriching for you I think, an opportunity to pick up his CD while you are there.

Now, I like Dave Callan, MC for the Burlesque Beauties this evening – he is a funny bastard. But please Dave, please – no more clichéd Adelaide jokes involving Fruchocs, Malls Balls, The 5 Way Roundabout of Death or Iced Coffee. In exchange we will refrain from all Leprechaun, IRA and Michael Flatley jokes. I hope we have an understanding here?

The evening’s conviviality commenced with Lyra La Belle and Radha Leigh doing a ‘Bump and Grind’ Balloon adornment. Now, I’m probably too much of a hedonist because balloons pinned on full frilly undergarments aren’t quite titillating enough – the slow popping and removal to reveal what one can essentially see anyway left me scratching my head. This was followed by Lolly Dolly doing a grown up Shirley Temple ‘Good Ship Lollipop’ routine with giant novelty candy– which, admittedly, I thought a little “Sailor Moon Fetish” like, albeit quite innocent in intent I’m sure.

Thus the start, I will admit, had me worried that things might stay relatively safe. But then things got shifted into high gear and the girls made the rubber hit the road.

It is here I really need to mention Moon Daze singing a slow Billie Holliday ‘You’re My Thrill’. She smouldered, she was intoxicating, she prowled the stage and she made me sit up and take notice.

Radha, Lyra and Lolly brought in a good dose of Andrew Sisters tropical fun with ‘Rum and Coca Cola ®’  - it was sassy, it was sexy and made good continuity of burlesque sensibilities in the 1940’s blitzkrieg era setting, and hooray – pasties! I did mention my hedonist tendencies didn’t I? - oh, good.

‘Take It All’ - a musical number by the gorgeous Dahlia D’Frisco was an inviting, honest and upfront performance. This was followed by a mandatory gymnastic ‘Fever‘ routine, on chairs, draped by Lyra La Belle and Radha Leigh. Nice flow and form, maybe not scorching hot but a fever worthy of a pharmacy strength analgesic nonetheless.

There was no lack of good humour in the evening either – Lyra showing that Cos Play is now legitimate game in burlesque when dancing to ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’, and Dave Callan proving he is the new driving force in Boylesque by nailing almost perfectly an entire routine to Beyonce’s ‘All The Single Ladies’ with support from the Beauties cast.

Maybe my main critique of an otherwise enjoyable evening is that some routines felt a little rushed. A bit more holding back, a bit more tease might up the intensity further  – but nor was it absent, accolades again to Moon Daze for hitting the mark bang on.

Burlesque Beauties continue their season until 7 March 2011 - and already sold out!

The giant story book prop on stage adorned with “Peaches & Gin – A Burlesque Upon a Time” was the first indication that we were in store for quite a fractured Fairy Tale. While the drive time radio-style banter and MC’ing from Rohan Watts and Cara Louise didn’t quite cement this premise to my comfort, they did try to build the atmosphere with getting the audience comfortable with whooping and hollering as was appropriate.

Our first tease of what was to come was delivered through a clever silhouette routine through the pages of the oversized story book by Luna Eclipse & Sapphire Snow, culminating with them coming to life in the flesh much to our delight. This was followed by a musical number on the theme of “Until Death We Do Part”, by the Evil Queen of Hearts Cara Louise, which was delivered with humour & homicidal wit. No arguments, the gal can sing cabaret.

The un-coventional bedtime story continued with Sapphire as the jilted Princess, who gave us a most illuminating “black light” Cinderella routine. This was followed by a “Jeannie” I will probably keep dreaming about, courtesy of Ms Luna, who gave us a cheeky and entertaining Arabian Nights number, showing her personality is way to big to be kept bottled in a magic lamp.

The question as to whether one is a jiggler or a dangler came to mind as I contemplated Sapphire’s novel pastie-placement of tea bags in her clever “Mad Hatters Tea Party”. We were then graced by a visit from Luna’s Ice Queen on wings of silver, that culminated in a powerful grind to 50’s rock, a sensually staggered but stomping strip tease.

All together, we were given a well constructed story line and framework to support the talent and creativity inherent in these two burlesque babes. But to comment, another online critic has made an unkind quip that the props & performance of Burlesque Upon A Time is more reminiscent of a well put together talent show, but not a professional burlesque gig – which I think shows he completely misses the point of Burlesque as a performance movement.

Like Punk, the Burlesque revival has a strong do-it-yourself ethic – and when you have this in mind you can see the difference between corporate managed “faux-Burlesque” which is sterile jazz dance in corsets, versus performance from people who have built and supported their act from the ground up. Personally I prefer a little more Buzzcocks in my Burlesque, and a little less Toto.

It must be said that the location of Sydney’s Absinthesalon, halfway along a steep hilly Albion Street, is well placed – given that the natural effects of gravity can only but assist the imbiber down the hill towards Central train station and other responsible forms of public transport. Let this be ample encouragement to leave the car at home dear absintheur, and enjoy the full experience.

Bad timing, pregnancy and the global financial crisis have all plotted against me in my efforts to be able to fly into Sydney to get along to the new Absinthesalon premises before now, but now I am here outside the dark grey toned establishment.  You may sometimes read this in other reviews of the Salon, but I can myself verify that as you linger outside the door you may detect the tell tale aromatic signature of aniseed in the air.

Proprietors Joop van Heusden and Gaye Valttila are most welcoming and usher me inside into the front room of the salon – exposed rustic brickwork, displays of the extensive range of quality absinthe products and water fountains, a giant antique cash register adorning a counter serve as a prelude to the inner sanctum behind the draped curtain adorned doorway.

Behind the curtain is a most intimate and inviting environment that captures the feeling of a proper absinthe salon. Now, don’t get me wrong, Belle Époque in Brisbane is an excellent representation of retro-French dining, all gold leaf edging and fleur-de-ly’s, but Gaye and Joop have utilised the limited space typical of a period Surry Hills terrace to manifest a very different type of neo-Gallic experience.  The interior is illuminated with a ‘petite’ version of wrought iron street lamp posts, tasteful minimalism to the interior decoration, round mirrors and sparing use of stylistic wallpaper. The far wall is adorned with a graceful mural of La Fée Verte, the Green Fairy herself, a fine rendition of one of the most famous representations of her from the original heyday.

With room for at most 30-odd patrons, all seating is set around a pleasingly non-crowded arrangement of small café tables adorned with 4 tap water fountains for the absinthe ritual. And let’s be clear, the experience and discussion of absinthe is not unlike that of wine, it should be shared amongst convivial company. The spacial design suitably encourages this.

Friday and Saturday nights are generally booked out in advance so don’t be surprised if you rock up on a whim and unable to satisfy your curiosity.  Another aspect to be aware of is that there is a three drink limit per person. Some may find this as profoundly odd that a drinking establishment would be seeking to limit their own sales, but as any absintheur worth their salt will tell you, the consumption of each glass of absinthe should be prolonged, savoured, and well considered. When approached in this fashion most will be satisfied after two glasses, some even after one.

So as Joop himself may tell you, “Slow Down!”.
(I know this is counter-intuitive to most Sydney-siders, but advice well worth heeding. Hey, you got a booking, stay around and enjoy the ambience for a while.)

Also, don’t be surprised if your hosts take on the role of Sommelier, and in fact steer you away from initially diving head-first into the high-proof absinthe brands. They are there to help you enjoy the absinthe experience as much as possible, and as such they will guide you through appropriate entry level absinthes until you have a better appreciation for the flavours, the nuances and styles. There are many absinthes to try in a range of price brackets (from around $12 a glass upwards), many styles and regions to explore.

You’ll just have to keep coming back won’t you?

I know I will.

Stay tuned for review of Jade PF 1901 absinthe conducted in situ

We have just updated our comprehensive listing of Australian Burlesque performers in our directory listing, with website, facebook pages or myspace listings to this bevvy of beauties.

Get to know these names and faces, because pretty soon will be the inaugural Australian Burlesque Festival - to be held in Melbourne June 3-6, and in Sydney June 11-12, where many of these names will be gracing the stage showing that Australian burlesque is just as innovative and stylish as what may be occuring elsewhere around the globe.

Are you a burlesque performer that we have somehow overlooked? -  then drop us a line and let us know about you, we would be happy to add you to the directory listing on our blog.

And while we are talking blogs, pop on over and bookmark the fine folk at Aussie Burlesque - a new Australian blog focussing on the movement down under run by burlesque belles, Samantha Bell and Lola The Vamp, with critique and commentary from those who know it from the inside.

Salutations Libertarian’s all,

there is a smorgasboard of decadent entertainment, titillation and whimsy coming in a few short weeks with the Adelaide Fringe on our doorstep once more.  We will be giving extra attention to the burlesque arts this year with the following on our shopping list:

Vari-A-Tease – with the divine Danica Lee, mischievous Missy and a cast of performers delivering a menu of burlesque, vaudeville, magic and cabaret.

A Deli Burlesque – A cross-pollination of neo-burlesque and vintage charm.
Babes on bikes; hula-hoop aerobics; exotic bird rituals and more.

Burlesque Beauties - Reminiscent of 1920s, 30s, 40s and50s, three sassy burlesque beauties present their unique blend of classic burlesque, comedy, music and vintage sass.

For events closer to hand – 2pm Saturday the 13th of February at Gallery Serpentine, in Newtown (Sydney) are having  special Valentine Day event, with Jocelyn from the Cult of Scent showcasing a range of new and favourite hand crafted artisan fragrances.

Come and find out which of the Cult of Scent perfume best suits you and - if you’re very very nice -get your bottle of Cult of Scent perfume customised especially for you!

Industry intel from the Just Drinks media group alert us to multinational wine and spirits behemoth Pernod Ricard announcing that it will support emerging visual artists, through a competition featuring its Pernod Aux Plantes d’Absinthe Superieure brand.

The contest will award its first place winner $1805 US in cash with a second place prize of $500 and third place $250. There are plans for a celebratory event to be run concurrently with The Armory Show, the annual international art fair, in New York City.

Brian Eckert, Pernod brand manager for Pernod Ricard USA is quoted as saying “Pernod has been a strong supporter of the arts since the brand debuted in France more than 200 years ago” - a statement I am sure is true if you count keeping bohemian artists in constant creative lubrication.

“Since its debut, Pernod has been a favourite drink among the cultural elite including Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet and Poe. We thought it fitting to honour this relationship with a contest that celebrates the artist in us all.”

While some may suggest that these cultural elite were also regarded fringe degenerates by polite society in their time, certainly Pernod Ricard as a modern company are doing their bit to support the arts so they are putting their money where their mouth is.

Interested artists must submit only original works, and all works submitted must include the date 1805, the date the brand was first launched.  Submissions are being accepted until the end of  January, 2010, in the following categories: painting, illustration, photography, video, digital/animation.

Submissions will be accepted entirely online at www.facebook.com/pernodabsinthe.