ROLL UP! IT’S BACK!
Ah, Christmastime! There’s nothing like a buff chap in spike-heeled patent thigh-boots somersaulting in the air to make you feel festive. Unless it’s a fire-eater in a glittery orange bikini, or a bloke dressed as a hotel bellboy who has painstakingly developed the rareified skill of chaning his entire outfit to formalwear while balancing on one arm on a pile of suitcases.
La Clique, international circus-cabaret from newly liberated Australia, is on its fifth year in a Leicester Square Spiegeltent after many an incarnation across the world, and the setting in the Christmas market absolutely suits it. We were merrily inclined from the start, what with the fairylights and gingerbread, and this year’s acts (visibly and glowingly delighted to be on the road again) are as beguiling as ever. MC is Bernie Deiter, a Weimaresque German-Australian jazz chanteuse in a series of gloriously mad glittersome costumes (what is it with cabaret people and tartan?). She movingly tells us at the end how she was locked down in Melbourne for fourteen months, no work ot tours, and that they’re all thrilled to be back on the road. Roars of joy from the crowded floor. That sense of performers grateful to be back and appreciating audiences has been strong this autumn in concerts and plays alike; never felt anything quite like it.
La Clique’s performers are always quality, from several continents; : top acrobatics, and the deathless Skating Willers (third generation incarnation) turn up again this year with terrifying near-death whirling. But it’s the unexpected acts which are is the joy of La Clique’s mix. Some are classic: Heather Holliday sword-swallows (can’t watch!sorry! especially the curved scimitar, that’s new to mr and just too inadvisable) but she also fire-eats , with spectacular humour and skill. And the highlights were surprises. Craig Reid, The Incredible Hula Boy fresh from Vegas, is all beer-belly, lederhosen and pretzel-throwing in a whirling tangle of hoops (used to be a computer programmer, he says). His hula act is great fun in the first half, but in the second the vaudeville classic quick-change tube-act with Mirko Kockenberger (elsewhere a dazzling acrobat) is pure joy, as witty as it is bafflingly skilled.. So is J”Aimime, who does a lovely variety-classic one-as-two ballroom dance act, with a jacket and hat on a stick. It has a very topical MeToo conclusion as her invisible partner actually gets her shiny dress off. But her other act, described by her as “Balloon eats awkward blonde girl” was brand new to me, and glorious. I have no idea what magical fabric that balloon must be made of, and still don’t quite believe what happened. But we were all just credulously gleeful by then; abd as we all were punch-drunk near the end, there was a most extraordinary ,rackety musical parade round the tent by Leo P, the pink haired saxophonist from Pennsylvania. His twerking moves make the young Mick Jagger look like an arthritic Benedictine. , and Jagger only had to strum, not blow. The lad’s lungs must be phenomenal. Ah, go on, mice! give them the Christmas cheese…
Box office lacliquetheshow.com to 8 Jan
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