Little Death Club | De Parel Speigeltent | ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ 

It’s the early hours of the morning that Fringe is at it’s best. Creepy, sexy, or absolutely outrageous, the headlines begin to embody ‘Fringe’ entertainment more and more, and Little Death Club is no exception.

With it’s Madame, Bernie Dieter, the show has a distinct cabaret vibe as she shows off some of the best that Fringe has to offer. She’s instantly engaging, and demands a hands on attitude from the audience. No seriously. Hands on.

Her sets are topical and in touch with her audience, without loosing the carefully crafted Velma Kelly-esque persona she has on stage. Plus her costume is fucking amazing.

From dick pic rodents to W.A.P, nothing is sacred or out of bounds. You have no idea where she’s going to go next (touching dedication to marriage equality passing or dramatic sexual comedies) and she managed to rile up the most active audience that I’ve seen at Fringe this year. Whatever the other acts on stage, our enthusiasm was sure to bleed over.

Variety shows are a little difficult to judge in this respect. The line up of the evening is constantly changing, so my experiences don’t necessarily maintain consistency. None the less, it seems absurd to not talk about Dieter’s guests.

From a deadpan French comedian (Marcel Lucont) who drove the audience to sound like a laugh track behind black books, to a pair of surreal ghosts (Party Ghost) who contorted the stage as the witching hour struck, there was an exceptional variety which didn’t lose any of the energy that Dieter had riled from the audience.

Leah Shelton was definitely a highlight. Whilst I’d like to say that I’ve never been sprayed with pre-humped goon, I do have to live with the realities of being a young Australian. I’ll say with some confidence that it’s never happened from someone with quite so much enthusiasm as Shelton, or whilst they hang upside down from a pole dancing pole.

The stage was electric the entire night, but maybe the only lull was during Le Gateau Chocolat’s performance. Maybe it was the fact that he chose the only Grease song I don’t know all the lyrics to, but for the headliner of the performance he fell a little flat.

That being said, his personality and singing voice were both extremely entertaining and fantastic, and the relationship with gender that he has was incredibly interesting. Maybe not the perfect pick for a variety show, but I was left pretty keen to see him perform elsewhere.

Overall, time seemed to pass too quickly. We left the show having run over time, but I believe that every audience member who left was eager for more. Whoever the guests, I think that Little Death Club is an unmissable experience.

Little Death Club is on every Friday and Saturday night for the duration of Fringe. For tickets, see the Fringe World website.

Annique Cockerill