Guilty Pleasures | Flour Palace | Feb 2, 3 & 9 | ★ ★ ★ ★

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I must admit, I’m quite the fan of Lady Velvet Cabaret. Not just for their amazing artistry and dedication to promoting the craft of Burlesque, but for their mission to foster collaboration amongst the creative communities in Perth and empower people to tell stories of love, lust and loss through their bodies and movement. So, needless to say I was anticipating a good time.

Last night, Lady Velvet asked us to give in to temptation and step into the world of some of Perth’s favorite Burlesque and cabaret artists sharing their most seductive and saucy secrets.MC- Lucinda Panties set the tone of the evening settling us all in, only to rile us right back up again. Promoting and even encouraging hooting, hollering and even the odd donkey noise to spur the upcoming performers as they took the stage.

Each “guilty” pleasure was as unique as the last. Deep dark secrets about obsessing over Harry Potter Fan Fiction (You gotta love a burlesque act about reading!), sleeping too much and the ultimate guilty pleasure of all… Britney Spears *gasp* had the audience whipped into a frenzy as they lapped up the imaginative, cheeky and ultimately fun-packed performances.

Special mentions are reserved for Mr Boylesque 2017 Karl Kayoss, who gave us a sassy little towel routine (I would have loved to see more of their signature acro though) and International Superstar and runner up for Miss Burlesque Australia 2017 Sugar Du Jour who thrilled with a spellbinding interpretation of “More Than A Woman” giving us a routine that was smart, creative and an absolute riot. There was not an eye in the house that was not transfixed by their performance.

The audience participation portions of the show lagged a little and left me longing for another performer to come on stage #bringbackthetalent. Lucinda Panties tried their darndest to use humour and sharp wit to wrangle unruly participants, to no avail. A little editing of those segments would have been welcomed with open arms.

Pro tip: Ordinarily I would never recommend you sit in the front row of a Burlesque show (unless you give express consent to being accosted and generally used as comic fodder), but the venue was less than ideal with most of the audience missing out on a third of the act due to the stage being too low. A real shame as you will want to see every inch of this show.

The take home message? Diversity is sexy. Confidence is Sexy. Guilty Pleasures are to be celebrated and Lady Velvet has got the Fringe Fire well and truly started.

Go warm yourself by the glow of some local talent.

Guilty Pleasures has three more performances on February 2, 3 & 9. Tickets and more information available from fringeworld.com.au

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