The boys from Briefs are gracing the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with three shows this year: The Second Coming, Brat Kids Carnival and Club Briefs. If you've seen a Briefs show before and don't have children, then you're best to go straight to the Club Briefs offering. If The Second Coming is to be considered your main meal, then Club Briefs is the dessert that you crave with the Briefs boys performing a variety of acts that are more extreme and risqué and with a lot more skin on display.
Louis Biggs opens the show with some cheeky rubrics cube puzzle solving and lollipops that end up in places they shouldn't. Biggs is the poster boy for naughty fun and stirs a buzz in the audience that sets the precedent of expecting the unexpected. Evil Hate Monkey similarly uses an act he's known for and takes it to the next level with his array of banana tricks and a climatic finale that fills the Spiegeltent with horrified laughter.
It's interesting how much uncomfortable conversation sex and nudity can create and how people can easily feel confronted by seeing a breast or a penis. So when you're watching a performance art piece in which the dancers are nude for the entire show, it can lead to some awkward moments. However, Mette Ingvarsten is well aware of this fact and in 7 Pleasures she immediately knocks down the obvious issue before the performance has even begun, or before anyone in the audience is given a chance to realise it has begun.
Ingarsten's work explores the pleasure - and the pain - the body can provide and the difficulty in being able to enjoy one's own body when faced with constriction and conflict. The set design for 7 Pleasures is simple and familiar, a living room with a few chairs, a table, coffee table and a pot plant. Its familiarity is what sets you at ease...except for the giant sculpture of naked bodies forming in a back corner.
Having seen Briefs last year in an upstairs room of the Athenaeum, I was more
than eager to see them again for their short return Melbourne season. The six
talented performers covering (or uncovering) burlesque, circus, drag and everything else in
between, were a highlight of last year and after seeing their show on Tuesday
night, remains a highlight for this year as well.
Led by the charismatic and engaging bearded lady Shivannah (alter ego of ringmaster
Fez Fa’anana), the performances are nothing short of mesmerizing and
laugh-out-loud hilarity with plenty of skin on display - it is called Briefs
for a reason, after all.
For those who have an immense fear of audience participation, this show could possibly be your worst nightmare. But for those after some sexy excitement and fun, then look no further because Briefs has got you covered, or uncovered as the case may be.
Formed in Brisbane, this all-male boylesque group has spent the last year travelling around Europe performing sell out shows to rave reviews. Melbourne finally gets its turn to revel in the skill and beauty on stage in a show that is not to be missed.
All the performers - Shivannah, Captain Kidd, Dallas Dellaforce, Thomas Worrell, Evil Hate Monkey, Lachy Shelley and Louis Biggs - possess a strong sexual confidence among them, which is imperative when your acts revolve around you wearing minimal clothing (and sometimes nothing at all). They also happen to be highly talented individuals and while the show is heavily structured and choreographed, there is a naturalness to their performances that allows for spontaneity and surprises for both themselves and us. There is moreover a brilliant mix of variety in the acts and they are so well paced that the ride we are on never stops being enjoyable.
