The World Famous Burlesque Hour is currently in its 11th year of wowing audiences across the globe, from Australia to Cuba. The show has been described as the world’s most provocative variety show, subverting the male gaze and celebrating women through performance.
Long serving member of the travelling family Azaria Universe has been with the show since its inception, having trained in Moscow and worked with CircusOz, she is a veteran of her craft. Azaria spoke to OUTinPerth ahead of their Fringe World performance.
“The show has a huge heart,” Azaria says. “The way the audience is invited in, we really treasure the audience and want to take them on a journey. The work is created to celebrate humanity, to celebrate humans, to celebrate women and joyousness and all the different forms of female bodies. Some of it’s really hilarious and some is just ridiculous and beautiful and sad – it has many, many layers.”
The line-up includes dancing star Holly Durant, who Azaria is excited to announce will be singing this year – as well as Georgina Symes, Rockie Stone and Azaria herself.
“Georgina Syme is our new performer this time around,” Azaria beams proudly. “She does a character called Uta, it’s a piece that she used to perform in a hotel room where they would be staying in the room and the show would happen in there and the audience came in and had this crazy journey with her. She would get changed and have a breakdown and all this crazy stuff.”
Azaria herself has been performing what she describes as hardcore feminist performances since the early ‘90s.
“Some of the pieces we originally made in the performance space and performed at underground clubs in Sydney – a lot of those pieces are still in the show. They’re my rockstar pieces, they go down very well!”
Leigh Hill
The World Famous Burlesque Hour is on now at the West Australian Spiegeltent. Tickets available at Fringeworld.com.au.
Update: 14-02-15 10:20 This article was updated to correct an error, the artist Georgina Symes was incorrectly named.
