Meow Meow in Beyond Glamour: The Absinthe Tour (FringeTIX)
Meow Meow @ The Bosco
11:00pm, Thu 28 Feb 2008
Meow Meow stumbles into the back of the Bosco, suitcases in tow. She enlists the help of anyone – and everyone (even Matt Byrne, on time for once, and not really pleased with his involvement with the show… I am, of course, assuming that the man can smile) – in moving her luggage to the stage. There are no safe seats with Ms Meow; even the centres of rows are fair game, as she inelegantly stumbles over legs and laps in search of her next friend/victim.
Less a cabaret act than a physical comedy show, Meow Meow still performs half-songs, smokily husking through the first half before breaking into audience abuse / chatter and then winding her pianist up to scoot through the remainder of the song. Curiously, this style doesn’t get old – mainly because Ms Meow’s comedic presence is immense.
There’s tons of audience interaction – as mentioned above, there’s not a safe seat in the house, and she’s always roaming the audience for drinks or volunteers; the piece where she had two german backpackers and another chap in a group hug around her was genius, as were her crowd-surfing antics. There’s a couple of costume changes – chance for more booby action! – and… well, it’s basically a laugh from start to finish.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this is the cabaret act to see this Fringe. The fact that Anya Pouchanski (from Persephone’s Wolf) wound up translating French for Meow Meow was just the icing on the comedic cake; just a wonderful, laugh-filled, and slightly-nerve-wracking performance.