Frisky and Mannish: CabaRIOT! | WA Spiegeltent | Until Feb 9 | ★ ★ ★ ★
Long story short, I’m a fan. I didn’t know anything going in but was absolutely delighted as this duo delivered a seamless medley of pop culture rich music and comedy. There was no shortage of eclectic outfits and fanfare as they engaged the crowd through genius mash-ups (‘That’s Not My Name’ and ‘Beethoven’s 5th’ being my favourite) and fast paced banter worthy of Abbott and Costello to deliver political points in the most politically incorrect way possible. Oh, there were boobs at one point too.
I may be biased as a fan of English comedy but Frisky and Mannish never stopped raising the laughs per minute. You can tell they’ve been doing this for a while as they are perfectly in sync and didn’t miss a beat when forced to improvise as they interacted with the audience. A word of warning, if you don’t like having attention drawn to you, sit around the sides.
However, if you enjoy fire twirling, burlesque and hold-no-prisoners pantomimes then you’ll want to be in the middle. Their back and forth is hilarious but what truly blew me away was the songs. They’re both brilliant singers but the way they weaved great songs together into parody mixed among their own spritely tunes carried the show to being a memorable one.
One of the more interesting songs included great delivery of all of the arguments against same-sex marriage. They may have been a -little- sarcastic. There was a lot of value in the educational aspect, especially for viewers who aren’t LGBTQIA+, as they went through every possible sexual preference to the tune of ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’.
As much as I loved their outfits (Mad Max meets Moulin Rouge at a sensible family event), I’d dial it back a bit. By the end, I was ready for it to finish but despite that it’s still a fantastic show.
Joel Blakeley
Catch CabaRIOT at the WA Speigeltent until Feb 9th. Tickets available from Fringeworld.com.au
