★★★★☆
To say I’ve seen a lot of circus cabaret lately is an understatement. So much so that I can usually feel where a show is heading within the first ten minutes. Not because they’re all the same, but because the bones of it tend to be. A bit of danger, a bit of comedy, something sexy, something weird, and then a big finish to send you out feeling like you’ve had a night.
La Clique, returning to HOTA on the Gold Coast, still hits all of that. It just has a hell of a lot more fun getting there.
When you see that a circus is being produced by David Bates, there is a certain level of execution you come to expect. After all, he’s been in this game longer than I’ve been alive, and you get a real sense of his passion for the art form straight away. Nothing here feels accidental. Even the chaos feels planned, which is probably why it works.
That being said… I did not expect it to open with puppets.
Cabaret Decadanse, the Montreal duo of Andre-Anne LeBlanc and Alexandre Lannuzzi, kicked things off, and within about three seconds, I was completely on board. It’s weird, a little unexpected, but very funny.
Much to my girlfriend’s consistent dismay, I’ve always had a soft spot for puppets when they lean into the absurd, and this does exactly that. Think – Randy Feltface, Avenue Q, or Team America. It’s a strange way to start a circus show, sure, but it sets the tone of the evening nicely, after all, you’re not here for the predictable.
Miss Jolie Papillon slides things back into that more classic cabaret space. It’s not my personal cup of tea, but it sets the tone nicely and gives the room a bit of air to breathe before getting back into the unhinged.
Byron Hutton rolls in next with a juggling act, and if you’re anything like me, your brain probably just did that little sarcastic “whoop-dee-doo, Basil” moment from Austin Powers. Juggling is juggling, right? Not here.
The timing of his routine to the music, combined with his entrancing personality, makes the whole routine land so much softer. It’s still juggling – but for once, I wasn’t just thinking to myself, “Okay, let’s move on now.”
Where a certain US President could speak for ten minutes but say absolutely nothing, Hilton Dennis is the complete and brilliant, polar opposite. He says absolutely nothing but speaks volumes.
His pauses, his expressions. Hell, the man’s eye movements alone had the audience in stitches. His tap dancing was great, sure, but it’s everything around it that drove home how talented an artist he is. Nothing he did felt effortless, and yet it all seemed so controlled and easy.
And then the show decides to remind you what kind of night you’ve signed up for.
Heather Holliday shifts things pretty quickly. Sword swallowing, fire, all the stuff that makes you sit forward a bit and wonder how close you actually are to the stage. It’s one of those acts where you’re both impressed and slightly stressed.
David Pereira is another one who gets people talking, and for good reason. His silk work is ridiculous. Strong, controlled, makes it look far easier than it should be. The kind of act where you start thinking maybe you should go to the gym and then immediately remember you won’t.
But then there is his shaving routine…
I’m not even going to try to explain it properly. It’s weird. It’s confronting. But hell, it was unlike anything I’ve seen on a stage before. The audience was truly divided. There were those who outright loved it, and those who loved it, but for ‘legal’ reasons had to at least try and pretend like they weren’t loving it quite as much. Unhinged doesn’t even begin to cover what we just saw – and we saw a lot.
Speaking of seeing a lot… Enter, Tara Boom.
I’m going to tread carefully here, because this is one of those acts that really doesn’t survive being written about. It’s the kind of thing you experience live and immediately know you’re never going to be able to explain it properly to someone else.
What I can say is this. There’s popcorn involved. Yay, popcorn, you may think. Nope – not this time! It’s not used the way you’d expect. And the crowd absolutely lost it.
It was the kind of laughter where you’re really, really grateful that you’re sitting beside your partner or your friends, and not your gran. Needless to say, I chose the Magnum ice-cream at interval in favour of the savoury snacks.
That’s kind of where La Clique lands as a whole. It’s not trying to impress you with how clever or refined it is, and thank God for that. It just backs itself, leans right into the madness, and lets the acts do the talking.
Some of it is slick, some of it is completely cooked, and a lot of it sits somewhere in between, which is exactly where this kind of show should live.
After seeing more circus than I probably needed to in the past twelve months, there’s something refreshing about a show that doesn’t feel like it’s just playing it safe. It knows what it is, it knows who it’s for, and it doesn’t waste time pretending otherwise.
La Clique is bold, it’s a bit loose, and it’s very comfortable getting a little bit filthy when it wants to. Leave the kids at home. Maybe your mum too.
La Clique runs to 19 April at HOTA on the Gold Coast, 135 Bundall Rd, Surfers Paradise QLD 4217.
Tickets are available here.
Website: https://hota.com.au/whats-on/live/circus/la-clique
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/lacliquetheshow/ and https://www.instagram.com/hotagc/
Hero image photo credit: Novasoma Photography
La Clique is an over 18s event. Contains nudity, coarse language, sexual references, adult content and themes, strobe lights, special effects and loud noises.
