The Secret Circus is a vaudeville thing of big personalities that all dance and do comedy and occasionally wear shitted nappies. The Secret Circus has been written about before on this blog, at least once, possibly twice. The last one I went to was in a big sex club and I assume upstairs people were getting rimmed left right and centre. I wasn’t dothed a peak. These childlike eyes are meant for watching television, not seeing ass splayed and teeth clenched. Nonetheless, I enjoyed each performer and their own bizarre art they offered up.
The theme at that one was ‘big sex’. The theme here, at the Unitarian Church, where rimming is forbidden, was ‘Fuck The Tories’. Each act in some way managed to project this statement, through comedy, clowning and dance. There was also lots of merch sold by various vendors channeling this sentiment, and a bar covered in Sangria. Yum.
One of the first acts I saw was Danny Bradley, a comedy musical performer. His first song was my favourite, a lovely break up song, sung by a character that probably isn’t fully over it. I enjoyed this song the best because the lighting did this weird thing when he pulled away from the mic to scream where it changed his whole face to look evil. Not sure whether it was intentional or not but it was great and all songs were a good old laugh.
Another of my favourite performers from the evening were the clown act Fright Wig, who came dressed as a grotesque (but not so far from the truth) Tory duo. They wore underpants covered in shit, snorted like pigs and made the audience participate in games that involved chucking babies in bins. At times, genuinely disgusting (and a bit spooky) which felt very on the nose.
It was the usual hosts, Beija Flo, Naffrodite and The Queen Of Heartbreak. Each one brings their own unique personality to the table as they take it in turns between acts to riff with the audience and host the evening. The Queen Of Heartbreak also arrives as Theresa Slay, a burlesque performance that gives a saucier look to a former prime minister.
There are poets, The Great Bojonso and Saint Vespaluus who each take to the stage to deliver bleak and political spoken word pieces that devastate and humiliate the forces that they have taken a dislike to. On the flipside there are the less wordy, more physical acts, like the Pilau Prince and their powerful message about Palestine, and Just Owen, who delights the audience with their dancing, pissed off, lip syncing interpretation of Diana.
The headline for the evening were sketch comedy troupe Legions of Doom. They show us a more Tory-friendly version of Dr Who that involves trying to stave off savage northerners (me!) and a truth bombing pseudo poet with a powerful message to spread. It’s a hilarious, tongue in cheek way to send off the evening and ties together an excellent night that laughs in the face of the terrible state of the country.
You can catch the Secret Circus soon… at Quarry! For their 10th anniversary no less! Come and join the party on 6th of September! And if you can’t wait until then, they will be doing another show at the big sex club, the Townhouse, on the 26th of July!