Dirty Sexy Politics. That’s right, who would have thought those three words appear in the same sentence?
‘Dirty Sexy Politics’ is a new musical comedy unlike any other, with political satire that will keep you laughing all the way through the G20. Creators of the cabaret show, Tom Albert and Sam Valentine, debuted the show at the 2013 Sydney Short + Sweet Festival and it has since grown in popularity.
The pair felt the timing was perfect when writing the political satire, with the Australian government practically writing the material for them. “[Short + Sweet Festival] was at the end of 2013, so the federal election was about to happen. We thought, let’s do a political satire. People seemed to like it and we won some awards.
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“Since then, with the government doing what the government has been doing, the time has become even more right. We have been continuing to develop this show. The guys down in Canberra are really doing our job for us when it comes to coming up with ridiculous things we can write songs about.”
The duo believe the positive response to their show is due to the increased interest from the public in politics and current world topics. “I think people are more sensitive to the fact that the government is being scrutinised a lot more, not just by the public, but by almost every angle.
“There’s a lot more exposure of parliament representatives just doing things that the general public find funny and that is what we are capitalising on. The two characters [in the show] we’ve created, take away all of the extraneous, political repartee and all of the word play and all of the red tape.”
Tom and Sam thought the idea of a comedy/cabaret with a focus on politics would have already been well overworked. “One of the things we were remarking upon the other day was that when we created the show, we thought that we were going into pretty well trodden ground.
“We were originally under the impression that cabaret reviews focusing on politics was a popular form. But what we are increasingly finding is that people that come and see the show have never seen anything like it.
“We’ve just done what we wanted to do with the show and thought we were on pretty well trodden ground, but apparently we are a bit of a unique element at the moment which is fantastic to be at the forefront of that.”
The pair has always had an interest in music and were keen for this to be a key element in the show. “With musical comedy, it’s a little more performative and we have the license to be larger than life.
“One of the beautiful things about making it a musical comedy show, is that music can have this fantastic way of not only surprising the audience by hiding quite a strange idea in a familiar melody, but also it has a beautiful way of almost just breaking down a barrier so you have the liberty on stage to address things that people aren’t usually comfortable talking about or addressing in a public forum. That is one of the real strengths of doing a cabaret show.”
Tom and Sam hope after audience members see the show they will feel comfortable to challenge ideas and examine the world around them. “The show is political, but we don’t have a political agenda. We are more about asking questions and scrutinising power.
“We are basically trying to promote and encourage a public ethos of scrutinising the… decisions that are being made by the government, and that’s probably the most important thing to us. We have people coming away from the show using that musical energy, feeling... energised and that they can ask questions and challenge things.”
'Dirty Sexy Politics' will be premiering in Brisbane at the New Globe Theatre on the 29th November.
