Shabbat shalom misfits, Reuben Kaye is back in town.
The world is burning outside but The Kaye Hole is a bunker of camp to withstand the oncoming apocalypse.
The Disney villain to top them all, Reuben Kaye was born to slay. In Assembly Checkpoint, a sell-out audience was ready to go to church and although no one believes in God, we spent a lot of time on our knees.
We’re at The Kaye Hole and it’s a safe space for dangerous people.
Kaye has hand plucked the queerest, quirkiest and most diverse cabaret from across Edinburgh to light the stage in the sweatiest late-night extravaganza in town.
It is high entertainment packed with cultural references; a cabaret enjoyed on many levels. Kaye’s razor-sharp social commentary is matched by surprisingly cutting body contortion from Beau Sargent and sword-eating from Heather Holiday, both Kaye Hole regulars.
On the night I was there, there was woefully self-deprecating and compelling stand-up from Rhys Nicholson, the coeliac with an intolerance to hope; hilarious performative satire from drag king, Len Blanco; and poker face hula-hooping from Jess Mews. The Kaye Hole really did have it all and that was just a fraction of the lineup!
Despite the colourful rotating-cast variety, this was all about Reuben Kaye. He is the ringmaster, part circus maximum, part dive bar, all trash. Sequins and sparkle fly at us as rapidly as genius references to the obscure and the mainstream, told with ruthless audience interaction. Don’t worry though, you might win a good fisting if you’re into that sort of thing. Kaye is high camp with higher notes, singing an array of Kurt Wiell, Iggy Azalea and Kate Bush, to name a few. His band, The Preferred Pronouns, amp up the drama, sending good vibrations all the way to Australia.
For those of us wanting to escape the daily news cycle, this is pure entertainment done just right. As Kaye reminds us, the world is burning outside but The Kaye Hole is a bunker to withstand the oncoming apocalypse.
Grab yourself a ticket while you can, The Kaye Hole is on every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night and the revolution starts at 11.15pm.
