American superstars of cabaret Murray Hill and Bridget Everett bring a night of raunchy hilarity to the Brisbane Powerhouse.
It’s hard to describe to someone what cabaret actually is. Is it singing? Is it storytelling? Is it funny? Well, for American cabaret superstars Murray Hill and Bridget Everett, it involves making audiences squirm by not just pushing the boundaries of good taste but leaping from the stage over them and into the crowd as they did at Brisbane’s Powerhouse for the Queensland Cabaret Festival.
Brooklyn-born drag king Murray Hill opened with an hour of improvised crowd-work comedy. No one was safe from his wrath as he poked fun at everyone, from the 'table full of lesbians' to a gentleman he refereed to throughout the night as ‘Big Dick Mick’ for his spread-leg seating.
Some real comedy gold was found in this, like when Murray saw a young lady wearing a Tupac shirt and ripped jeans that looked like she was ‘attacked by a wolf’. When asked by Murray what she does for a living, her answer 'fashion designer’ gained a massive laugh of disbelief from both Murray and the audience. What was most delightful about Murray was him finding huge laughs in just crowd interactions. While it would be nice to learn more about the character, his creating comedy from nothing is impressive.
The very first line to come out of Bridget Everett’s mouth was ‘Let’s freak the fuck out’, and it was less a challenge as a prediction of what the audience would do throughout the show. Wearing a loose-fitting dress while clutching at a bottle in a brown paper bag, Bridget’s breasts fell out of her dress often during the opening number. But she didn’t care as audiences were going to see and hear things much raunchier than that.
Before one song, Bridget told an emotional story about growing up with poor self-esteem about her body image. She showed that was in the past as she sang a song celebrating breasts of all sizes, from ‘itty bitty titties’ to the imaginative ‘beaver-tail titties’. The song’s hook involved her shoving terrified audience members’ faces into her cleavage and made herself ‘bounce, bounce, bounce’.
Things only got more intimate from there. Bridget had uninhibited dance-offs, spat candy into another girl’s mouth, picked one girl up to play her like a guitar, and even sat on the face of one guy. More so than invading personal spaces, Bridget was an electrifying performer, matching her raunchy humour with the voice and energy of an arena rocker. Her voice could go from a sultry croon like on the brilliantly titled ‘What I Gotta Do To Get That Dick In My Mouth?’ to a touching soar on a cover of Miley Cyrus’ ‘The Climb’(for one guy, the touching was literal).
Normally this kind of show wouldn’t be recommended to anyone who’s shy, but both performers will relax a person’s inhibitions just as much as they cause discomfort. Murray Hill and Bridget Everett are both electrifying and hilarious performers people need to see to believe.
Some real comedy gold was found in this, like when Murray saw a young lady wearing a Tupac shirt and ripped jeans that looked like she was ‘attacked by a wolf’. When asked by Murray what she does for a living, her answer 'fashion designer’ gained a massive laugh of disbelief from both Murray and the audience. What was most delightful about Murray was him finding huge laughs in just crowd interactions. While it would be nice to learn more about the character, his creating comedy from nothing is impressive.
The very first line to come out of Bridget Everett’s mouth was ‘Let’s freak the fuck out’, and it was less a challenge as a prediction of what the audience would do throughout the show. Wearing a loose-fitting dress while clutching at a bottle in a brown paper bag, Bridget’s breasts fell out of her dress often during the opening number. But she didn’t care as audiences were going to see and hear things much raunchier than that.
Before one song, Bridget told an emotional story about growing up with poor self-esteem about her body image. She showed that was in the past as she sang a song celebrating breasts of all sizes, from ‘itty bitty titties’ to the imaginative ‘beaver-tail titties’. The song’s hook involved her shoving terrified audience members’ faces into her cleavage and made herself ‘bounce, bounce, bounce’.
Things only got more intimate from there. Bridget had uninhibited dance-offs, spat candy into another girl’s mouth, picked one girl up to play her like a guitar, and even sat on the face of one guy. More so than invading personal spaces, Bridget was an electrifying performer, matching her raunchy humour with the voice and energy of an arena rocker. Her voice could go from a sultry croon like on the brilliantly titled ‘What I Gotta Do To Get That Dick In My Mouth?’ to a touching soar on a cover of Miley Cyrus’ ‘The Climb’(for one guy, the touching was literal).
Normally this kind of show wouldn’t be recommended to anyone who’s shy, but both performers will relax a person’s inhibitions just as much as they cause discomfort. Murray Hill and Bridget Everett are both electrifying and hilarious performers people need to see to believe.
