Bernie Dieter’s LIttle Death Club ☆☆☆☆
Underbelly Festival, London’s South Bank

Right now it is hard for burlesque to stay sexy without the audience feeling #MeToo rather than wanting to be ‘Me Next – Please!’ Bernie Dieter manages to succeed in this high wire act with audience domination, a thumping rock soundtrack, and a set of performers who either bring a new twist or exceptional skill to the traditional cabaret circus set pieces.

Dieter opens with a number that grants a little permission and consent to a rather awkward audience who don’t know how far she or they are allowed to go. Dieter is out in the audience telling them how to behave, how to touch and participate in a way that makes the awkward ludicrous rather than lewd. It is a comic shedding of inhibition that isn’t sexless but does not feel the wrong side of a lap dance.

For those fresh to circus cabaret there is an exciting list of acts to follow Dieter. A drag queen, a contortionist, a bearded lady, aerialists, a mime and a fire eater. The good news for fans of the genre who are settling in for familiar fare is that the talent is exceptional. These are not Covent Garden side street performers.

The drag act is Myra Dubois, acerbic longtime comedy queen of the London pub circuit. In a pantomime performance there was no pandering to press night and she wasn’t going to let a bunch of ‘free blogs’ off lightly.

Nobody over the age of five likes mime and the collective yawn at his intro was slapped straight back in the audience’s face. Le Mime Tipi gave a hilarious vocal tirade about how much he hates mime because “IT’S NOT REAL” and then proceeded to get trapped in an actual box (By the way nobody under the age of five should be at this performance. It is strictly for adults. Nudity on a trapeze swing spares no blushes)

It was the aerialists who were exceptional. This is the biggest challenge in circus. There are no bad aerialists, only dead ones. It is hard to stand out when the minimum requirement is to be breathtaking. Fancy Chance was fantastic but it was Beau Sargent, also the contortionist for the show, who had the audience up on their feet, stamping and clapping because of his mutant acrobatic eel genes. Who knew a truly skilled trapeze contortionist could also make his audience lean in and fall back at the same time?

Little Death Club at the South Bank is a rock n roll night of sex and comedy that will give you a gasp or two. It’s the cabaret equivalent of when Lenny Kravitz split his leather pants on stage.

http://www.underbellyfestival.com/    Until June 23rd 

Review by Andrew Hebden

Queerguru Correspondent Andrew Hebden is a MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES graduate spending his career between London, Beijing and NYC as an expert in media and social trends. As part of the expanding minimalist FIRE movement he recently returned to the UK and lives in Soho. He devotes as much time as possible to the movies, theatre and the gym. His favorite thing is to try something (anything) new every day.