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Not Opera - Saturday Night Beaver The Banquet Room Sat 19 June Whoa, baby! If you managed to wade through your Cabaret Festival program to the very last of the acts before they start talking about lunch and body painting, you will have noticed a couple of shows under the broad title, Not Opera. The one that I saw is different than the following week's, but don't wrinkle your pretty little polyester suit about that. The Banquet Room is the most cabaret-like venue the Festival Centre has to offer. Under the plastic palms and flanked by disco lights set on the floor like museum pieces (Kirsty Gray - decor), MC Steve Sheehan casually - and with no idea of what he would say next - introduced a bizarre mix of acts barely thematically linked with 70s disco. The first cab off the rank unwisely preceded Sheehan - Da Whyze Guise badly needed an introduction when one gave the other a dancing lesson. They never really got their act together, although there was a nice demonstration of liquid body dance moves akin to Michael Jackson's. And that's how the night went - a lot of half-baked ideas served with variously sized servings of talent. Amber McMahon displayed another feather in her cap with a tongue-tripping song, but there was also many many minutes whittled away watching a self-inflicted haircut. That was followed by a macho strip involving an entire wardrobe of clothes. Let's see... an alcoholic dance to the death, Afro wig dancing, and finally, Ms Ima Starr embarrassing herself by recycling a few songs in a see-through nightie that was always one second away from ripping through her high heels and sending her crashing ungloriously to the dance floor. Quite a night on the turps. And if you were looking for beaver on Saturday night, you'd be more likely to find sweet potato in the underdaks on this night when a spade is not a spade. Creators Ross Ganf and Ross Stanley conceived but miscarried - the whole shebang was like a family night of pantomime at the beach house during the Christmas break. If you are reading this on the web, and you like showbiz where the excitement of never knowing what you'll get is not quashed by underachievement, there is a Las Vegas-lampooning Not Opera entitled The Pink Flamingo Lounge show on Sat 26 June.  |
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