As my astute cousin, whom I took last night to see Charlie Hides Whooooo?, pointed out, there are three kinds of drag queens in life. The first kind of queen simply don’t just take it far enough, leaving you feeling bored and irritated. The second kind take it too far, leaving you looking for the closest possible exit. The third kind, however, get on stage and do it just right: they entertain the f**k out of you. Charlie Hides is clearly the third kind.
Now, technically Hides isn’t really a drag queen. He’s more a celebrity impersonator. But, for the sake of ease (and hopefully demystifying this most sacred art to a wider audience) we’ll go with the aforementioned definition. After all, anybody can impersonate Cher, Madonna or Joan Rivers, but only somebody skilled in the gender bending illusionary art of drag is gonna successfully transport you into believing you’re watching a true diva get her gig on. And Hides does this in spades. And diamonds. And clubs…specifically Connections Nightclub.
If you are a fan of the wildly popular YouTube channel Hides has, Charlie Hides TV, well…you really oughta go and see him live. Why? He’s not only incredible on stage, but he hasn’t the bluest tongue and loves to cross the line with his jokes. Or, as he himself pointed out as incarnation Kandi Kane Baxter pointed out, he sees the line, steps over it and then gets a straw so he snort it up. What else are you gonna do with lines?
Last night’s show was a hoot. Hides is ribald and dramatic, a singer and a comedienne, a gender illusionist and incredibly smutty. Which is fantastic. His YouTube shows pale in comparison to the how rude he actually be. And it’s the kind of humour that has you laughing one moment and then gasping the next. Yup, just the right amount of humour.
Highlights? My favourite (and, personally, what I had come to see) was his Cher montage. Hides’ Cher is untouchable and far more scathing than anything fellow Cher impersonator Chad Michaels (of Rupaul’s Drag Race fame) could deliver. And to see Hides’ Cher live – a perpetual in joke of how untouchable this diva truly is – was divine, delectable and side-splitting fun.
I was also glad to see Joan Rivers stop by from her current sold-out shows in heaven. After all, the former queen of comedy knows how to scathe, and Hides as Rivers goes straight for the proverbial jugular (and why not…Rivers needs all the blood she can get at this point in her ‘life’). Yes, she may have been a little scattered in parts (it’s a rough ride from the afterlife) but still, Hides has an unflappable presence.
He’s at his most human and relatable as Laquesha Jones, his sassy ghetto entertainment reporter with a nose so contoured it looks as though she just left the plastic surgeon that afternoon. Jones is all ass and sass. She’s also relatable…which is kinda unnerving but welcome. Jones closes the show with a medley of pop classics that are at times true to original and other times butchered bawdy renditions with plenty of XXX content.
Low points? Well, there are a few incest jokes that clearly go too far (again, that line is already up Hides’ nose and, by this point, is kicking in). The Dolly Parton montage made me feel largely uncomfortable, but I wonder if that had more to do with content or the fact that I had my elderly astute cousin with me (I don’t know why I was worried really…she’ s lived and clearly heard that stuff before). And in Hides’ defence, he did give us the option of a safe clean version of the show or a version that was smut smut smut. But c’mon…who’s ever gonna choose the clean version?!!?
If you are looking for something that will make you laugh and blush in equal measures, then stop reading and book tickets to this show. Charlie Hides is fabulous. And, he’s perfectly home in our local homegrown home of disco, Connections Nightclub. In fact, I couldn’t think of a better venue for him to appear in. So get offline, shut down YouTube, and go and watch this diva shock the life into you. Pure scandalous brilliance.
Charlie Hides Whooo? is playing at Connections Nightclub until Saturday February 21st, get tickets at www.fringeworld.com.au
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
