Sexy provocateur Veronica Blacklace is back with seasoned cabaret talent and fresh faces from her own burlesque school. On a beautiful bank holiday night, the packed Spiegeltent experienced a carousel of wonderment and excitement filled with sultry vocals, gravity defying aerial acrobatics, circus splendour and steaming hot burlesque.
The show comes with a warning: ‘this...is not for the faint-hearted’. However, this was one of the least offensive cabarets I’ve seen
Veronica Blacklace has been polishing her talent for 10 years in the West End and it shows in her extravagant Cabaret Boheme. A vocalist, burlesque artist and compere, as well as a producer, she is a force to be reckoned with. Together with vocalist Chris Hide she presented numbers from Roxanne to Grease tied loosely together by a movie magic soundtrack. She also ‘slightly’ adjusted the lyrics of My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music and Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, which left the audience roaring.
The guest acts were nothing short of spectacular. ChiChi Revolver thrilled with her dizzying burlesque hula hooping and the athletic Sasha Flexy mesmerized the crowd with her aerial hoop and pole acts. Then there was Dave the Bear, the hairy growler, a performer so sexy that just watching him might leave you pregnant. At least the guy’s got a sense of humour, I’ll give him that. And a rug that won him the title of Best Male Burlesque last year. Well deserved, too.
Veronica is a natural at working the crowd. It might be time to brush up some of her material, as the same lines are used by other comperes - perhaps they stole them from her, who knows. The show also included the mandatory public participation act where a male member of the audience is first fondled by Veronica and the dancers, then gets blindfolded and ends up with a drag queen in his lap. The audience was roaring with laughter, but come on, we’ve seen this a million times.
The show comes with a warning: ‘this...is not for the faint-hearted’. However, this was one of the least offensive cabarets I’ve seen. Compared to the best, it lacked originality and a proper storyline. It was an entertaining show, but a bit more ballroom than boheme.
