Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

So Reuben Kaye is dragged on to the stage by Satan’s exposed dick. 

What more description do you need to summarise the outrageous, salacious, transgressive, late-night cabaret freak-fest that is The Kaye Hole?

Our host has created this spectacular and eclectic festival highlight in his own image, a powerfully entertaining, proudly queer barnstormer showcasing the most uncompromisingly unique acts in town.

Kaye, a fallen angel in skintight, butt-revealing dress, belts out his opening number before setting out his stall with acidic one-liners and aggressively flirtatious single-entendres. 

For an apex sexual predator, he is a welcoming presence. His stage is a safe space where the misfits and the marginalised rule by talentocracy, but the complacent and the reactionary are challenged and confronted. The Kaye Hole is undoubtedly the latest branch of the family tree of provocative, socially challenging cabaret that stretches back to 1930s Germany, while being utterly contemporary.

Michelle Brasier belts out What’s Going On? with the force of a hundred voices; Betty Bombshell delivers a sassy, athletic burlesque routine, and Malia Walsh has a hilariously bold and joyously messy physical period comedy sketch. Comic Jay Wymarra – making the middle word of Torres Strait Islander seem ironic – teasingly exploits white guilt, sings a jaunty version of I Wan’na Be Like You, then delivers the ‘always was, always will be’ line about Aboriginal land with a revolutionary power.

There’s so much nudity on display that by the time Jordan Gray gets her kit off, it barely raises eyebrows, even with the two-for-one deal the trans comic offers. However, her spirited, keyboard-bashing performance keeps the large, up-for-it crowd energised. 

And for a climax, Circus Oz performer Leo Pentland does awe-inspiring things with leather straps. (As an aerial artist, I mean. If you were thinking of anything else, Kaye’s ostentatious innuendos have got to you).

Line-ups will vary, but there is no finer way to end a festival night than this wild and wonderful celebration of individuality.

• Reuben Kaye: The Kaye Hole is back at the Forum Theatre at 11.15pm on Saturday.

Review date: 18 Apr 2023
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett