“Burlesque Idol” was starting about ten minutes late (as most shows at Trades hall seem to be doing). The venue is the ballroom and it was a full house. My main problem with this is that anything happening on my side of the stage or low down on the stage was obscured by speakers and heads, so my advice is get in the queue early and grab a good seat! The stage had a couch on the left side where the MC, Jacques, interviewed the contestants and a desk on the right side where the judges sat. Two of the judges were part of the show (James Hazeldean from Man Bites God and Miss Josephine). The third judge was a person picked from the audience.
The show consisted of two rounds of each of the three acts with a special guest between the rounds (Birdman) and a special act after the second round involving some very attractive audience members. The acts competing for the title of Burlesque Idol were Hi-Ball Burlesque (redheads), Baby Take A Bow (Brunettes) and Man’s Rise (blondes). They each performed a strip to a variety of music (Big Spender, Ramones, Wife Out, Can Can etc) down to Pasties and frilly knickers. There is also a special big finale involving watermelons and cream but you’ll have to go to find out…
The MC Jacques (from what started out as a German accent, then turned French so possibly from the Alsace region or maybe Moorabbin), was doing an excellent job with his single entendres and playing up to the audience hijinks. James as the hanging judge had some very good lines but did occasionally miss the mark and Miss Josephine was the supportive judge advising all the acts to enhance their assets.
My biggest disappointment was that the flier indicated bitchiness and backstabbing activities would be demonstrated, but all the girls were quite polite to each other. See the show if you enjoy looking at attractive women performing raunchy moves without going beyond the ‘tasteful’ limits of Burlesque.
For bookings go to Burlesque Idol