Real Men | Ellington Jazz Club | Until Friday Feb 12 | ★ ★ ★ ★
Two of Perth’s most amazing jazz singers have teamed up for a show that is outside their normal professional realm. Jessie Gordon and Libby Hammer are the Anatomically Incorrect Gentlemen Spiff and Spaff and in this lighthearted show they ask what it is to be a man?
The duo take to the stage with ukuleles under their arms, Bowler hats on their heads and moustaches glued to their faces. Although in Perth scorching hot summer nights the mustaches struggled to remain attached,
Spiff and Spaff strum their guitars and sings tunes about watching girls go by, finding love – or at least lust, and asking what is it to be a man. The duo’s banter in between songs is delightful and comical.
Then songs are charming and it’s lovely to spend an hour in the luscious surroundings of the Ellington Jazz Club.
There’s a number of shows in this year’s Fringe which deal with gender identity, it’s a serious topic in society and the moment and it’s great to see it being explored through the arts. ‘Real Men’ is not a serious as some of the others, but it still manages to provoke thought about an important topic without becoming a lecture on hetero-normative practices.
Graeme Watson, image: Mark Rotondella
