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Eddie Perfect Drink Pepsi, Bitch Union Hall Until Sun 5 March A sonorous voice, coming to us from "a secret location somewhere deep beneath the earth's surface", is deploring Pepsi's failure to win the cola war. After firing or killing all the previous celebrity spokespeople, the voice announces the new campaign, 'Drink Pepsi, Bitch', and the star to sell it, Eddie Perfect. From this beginning, musician/comedian Perfect has the audience's immediate attention and he never lets go (despite struggling to get a sing along to Gay People Shouldn't Get Married). The diabolically funny Perfect has crafted a lounge-music polemic against the insanities of consumerism, advertising and Ray Martin that is as catchy as it is vitriolic. A consummate performer, he sings, quips and plays piano and doesn't miss a beat in any department. The show is listed as Cabaret, but the word hardly evokes this cool mix of satirical music and snappy banter. The highlight is definitely the 'Dirt Is Good' mini-musical, inspired by a pseudo-sociological OMO ad campaign, which shows off not only Perfect's immaculate song writing but also his mastery of his greatest attribute: a voice that can make a show tune out of pure invective. Only Eddie Perfect can sing the words 'Drink Pepsi, Bitch' like a serenade. Instead of ending on the almost touching I Wanna Go Home (The IKEA Song), Perfect comes back for the very bitter, very nasty and very excellent September 10, a swipe at all his left-wing listeners who haven't caught up with the post 9/11 world, which he delivers with almost Devilish contempt. He introduces it by saying, "I hope we're still in love with each other by the end of it", and I for one was. After all, if it weren't so vicious, it wouldn't be so Perfect.  |
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