Cabaret Therapy

Each year the Melbourne Cabaret Festival throws fresh, interesting and daring shows at the audiences of this fine city and each year we demand to be further challenged by shows which will excite and stimulate our imaginations and maybe just shock us a little.

Last night at the Butterfly Cub I watched something inspiring and beautiful performed by someone clearly in control of their milieu. Situated at the end of Carson Place, off Little Collins street in the CBD, the approach to the Butterfly Club just imbues it with the very spirit of cabaret and climbing the stairs past the various posters, through the dimly lit bar area decorated with nik-naks and kitsch ornaments and toys of yesteryear one is reassured with the ambience of a venue comfortable  in its silliness.

I had been invited along to see the first night of Dash Kruck’s new show ‘I Might Take My Shirt Off’ – as show about – well- trying to put on a cabaret show.

Dash emerges timidly from behind the curtain at the rear of the stage, approaching the microphone as though it were about to bite him and immediately apologises because he is wondering what is the best way in which one can possibly start a cabaret. This is all new to him – apparently.

This leads to his first number, which is - appropriately enough - about how to start a show, and showcases his prodigious performance skills, contrasting his strong and punchy singing voice with his initially timid on-stage persona.

The timing is crisp and his musical accompaniment from Matthew Nutley on piano, Darren Steele on double bass and Bryn Bowen on drums is perfectly judged, being bombastic and subtle by turns as the performance calls.

The show takes the form of a personal journey following a break-up and is supposedly the idea of an unseen German therapist whose voice is heard sternly directing dash on occasion to express himself. This means that the audience have their part to play in all of this therapy and members are selected to participate in helping Dash express himself more, meaning that nowhere is safe - you  have been warned!

To keep track of his achievements, Dash has a list of things which every good cabaret show needs and crosses these off along the way, until he is both drunken and shirtless and free by the climax.

The audience were very receptive to the performance, hooting and hollering along to some of the more risqué numbers and gave a deafening applause at the close of the show which was well deserved.

This is a highly entertaining evening of song and comedy which takes its audience on a personal journey through the darkness of rejection to bathe in the warm light of acceptance and healing.

‘I Might Take My Shirt Off’ is on at The Butterfly Club, Carson Place until June 28^th.

Liberation Day

One of the most idiosyncratic of the numerous bars and venues in Melbourne CBD is The Butterfly Club. Tucked away at the very end of a laneway leading from a subsidiary backstreet in Melbourne's CBD, this venue is a treasure-trove  of entertainment from cabaret and stand-up to straight theatre and music.
Finding the venue at the far-end of Carson Place, I ascended the stairs to the bar area lined with a cornucopia of various toys, trinkets and knick-knacks from bygone days lending it a cosy, intimate atmosphere thanks to the mismatched furniture and often threadbare seating.
Despite a pre-show drink spillage, I was all prepared for an enjoyable evening of entertainment. The lights dimmed and we awaited the arrival of Amelia to the stage.
After a few silent seconds, series of thuds from the rear of the room had the audience turning their head to see what the commotion might be to find Amelia being slowly wheeled down the steps toward the stage on a parcel trolley, holding aloft a bottle of champagne. Her able wheeler pulled her onstage before (noisily and calamitously) disposing of said trolley backstage.
There followed an hour of entertaining anecdotes punctuated by appropriately chosen songs with slightly altered lyrics, all predicated on the notion of 'What is liberty?'
Amelia's previous show 'Storm In A D-Cup' was an honest and funny look at herself and her life growing-up in rural Australia.
This new show explores her quest to liberate herself from her own seemingly-calamitous lifestyle and to attain some form of balance and fulfilment.
The journey this takes the audience on is full of perfectly selected and altered songs from AC/DC to Disney, and Chumbawamba to Whitney - each illustrating Ryan's points perfectly as well as showcasing her amazing voice.
She is ably accompanied throughout by the marvellous piano playing of Matthew Carey, whose tinkling between set-pieces adds beautiful atmosphere to the tales told.
Will Amelia extricate herself from her bad habits and achieve her dreams? Is she solely responsible for the Prosecco shortage? These are both questions which may never be satisfactorily answered, but this is a show which is laugh-out-loud funny and bristling with talent.
Amelia Ryan - Lady Liberty is playing at The Butterfly Club, Carson Place, Melbourne CBD at 8pm until May 31st.