A word to the wise: whenever you see the words Renegade Cabaret floating around, whether you’re in Wellington, Dunedin, or anywhere else this production appears, get your tickets and go. The Black Rabbit – an arm of the great Spark & Flare production company – always seems to attract the weirdest and most unique performers in Aotearoa, and having attended several times, I can confidently say that Renegade Cabaret is a night to remember. The material won’t be for everyone (pearl-clutchers need not attend) but if you like your cabaret bizarre, saucy, and unapologetically kinky, you’ll be delighted by the ever-rotating lineup.

For this show, a special one-off called Renegade Cabaret: Bellini’s Boys, Black Rabbit hand over the production reins to burlesque royalty JoJo Bellini , who presents a lineup of acts themed around masculinity. But rest assured, there’s no toxicity to be found – the masculinity here is expansive, representing a wide range of gender presentations. In Bellini’s Boys, masculinity is more of a thought experiment than anything else: how do we act masc? How do we break it, subvert it, twist it back on itself? The performers are up to the challenge, taking this creative prompt to surreal and audacious places.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me set the scene for you: the show is held at Whisky & Wood, a charming whisky bar that serves as a bespoke event hall and is otherwise not open to the public. Whisky & Wood is situated above Sweet Axe Throwing Co (in fact, its accessible entry point is through Sweet Axe), and it’s owned by the same people: power couple Sarah Hilyard and Lloyd Bombell, who – despite being some of Aotearoa’s busiest people – nurture the space with love, care, and a friendly hands-on presence. They’re both here in person for the show. Sarah is behind the bar, making cocktails from the custom drink menu for Bellini’s Boys and cheerfully tending to customers. Lloyd is serving as food runner, frequently popping up from the Sweet Axe kitchen with plates full of pizza and snacks. The atmosphere is cosy and warm, feeling as much like a dear friend’s home as it does a performance venue.

And what a venue it is! The space is somehow vast and intimate at the same time – polished concrete floors, minimally decorated walls, a sensible white stage, high peaked ceilings dotted with demure skylights (what a treat to see the venue transform from day to night!). The coolness of the concrete is balanced by warm wood features, including the bar itself, which is diffusely lit and features a tidy display of spirits. It’s an immaculate and dramatic space for a cabaret, and it immediately sets the tone for an evening of highbrow entertainment. Black Rabbit have used the slim black beams to hang a backdrop of multicoloured fabrics, which remind me of conveniently-positioned drapings over otherwise nude figures in Renaissance art.

The moment JoJo Bellini enters the stage, it’s obvious that she’s going to toy with our expectations. She’s incredible – a dazzling, tasseled display of camp and class – and she kicks off the show with a personalised adaptation of “When You’re Good To Mama” from the musical Chicago. And Bellini has got PIPES. Like, Queen-Latifah-watch-your-back pipes. She’s our emcee for the evening, and she graciously welcomes us into her world: even as she experiences a costume mishap on stage, she’s so unflappable that I fully believe (for longer than I ought to) that the mishap was intentional. She’s clearly in charge here. She takes the highbrow context of our setting and immediately pokes at it, establishing serious rules of consent and engagement while keeping us laughing. She’s a delight. It feels like we’re at a dinner party and she’s our whimsical and eccentric host. She appears throughout the night in between each act, never wearing the same outfit twice – one of the evening’s sponsors is Creative Showoff Costume Hire, and Bellini takes every opportunity to show off their range of attire.

As Bellini exits the stage, she introduces our first performer: Ralph Hilaga. Hilaga performs a two-part act that really has no right to work as cohesively as it does. At first, Hilaga manifests before us as a righteous Moses, bearing the Ten Commandments, which he proclaims aloud, and – wait, these can’t be the real Commandments. He hastily confers with an unseen, offstage Ezekiel: Are you sure these are right? The not-so-sacred texts read like something straight out of a Polari Bible, reconfigured into terms popularised by RuPaul’s Drag Race. The audience is rolling. In the next breath, Hilaga transforms into a therapist with a very unprofessional quirk – without spoilers, I’ll confide that the prop comedy elicits shocked squeals from the crowd. These two distinct bits could each be a complete act on their own, but they don’t feel hurried. Hilaga gives us a taste and leaves us ready for more. It’s a brilliant first act for the night.

Our next performance is by drag king Robin Yablind, and for his act I’ll quote my scribbled notes verbatim: “Sexy cowboy Lin-Manuel Miranda (gay)”. Rocking an enormous pompadour and an incredible bit of Western wear with tassels in Trans Pride colours, Robin Yablind puts on a deliciously smutty display of queer Americana. He dances to a country tune that starts off mild enough, then quite suddenly veers into explicit lyrics, and we’re off to the races: the compilation song flits from one NSFW country song to another, hardly giving the audience time to catch a breath between fits of laughter. Robin Yablind delivers a performance that gleefully subverts expectations at every turn.

As we recover our breath, a stagehand brings a paddling pool onto the stage, and we’re left to ponder it for a quiet moment before our next performer makes their appearance. This act is by the magnificent Sexy Ghost Boy (and Sexy Golf Boy, and Sexy Gold Boy). They nearly-silently enter the stage, clothed only in towels (and, we later see, undies) and carrying a glass of red wine. What ensues is a wordless masterclass in audience engagement. Equipped with only the tools of eye contact and body language, Fenn manages to commandeer a number of audience members into a squad of servants to complete a truly ridiculous series of tasks. It’s…it’s honestly incredible. It’s theatrical clown in its purest form – Fenn is making up little games with the audience, collaborating on the rules of engagement with each individual – but it’s done with utter precision and calm. It’s unhinged, it has us in tears of laughter, and yet!! Even when there are five audience members on stage doing different things, Fenn coolly remains in full control every step of the way. It’s mesmerising. And it’s wet (front row be warned).

After an intermission (complete with an audience competition with top prize by sponsor Three Rabbits Tattoo), the second act kicks off with a football-themed performance by drag king Miles O’Chaos. It’s hard to imagine a more appropriate foil to Fenn’s unhinged but restrained act; O’Chaos brings a very different flavour of unhinged, with an all-out display of testosterone-fuelled athletics. Sporting a crisp, glittering beard and a truly impressive mullet, Miles O’Chaos flaunts his stuff with football juggling, pushups, and MUCH gyrating. We’re so here for it. It’s the perfect energy to get us back into the show.

Our next performer is the great Martin Schultz-Moller, showcasing his spin on a traditional circus act that’s rarely seen in Aotearoa: sideshow. Now, there’s very little I can reveal in this writeup without spoiling the act, so let me give you the same setup that Bellini herself did. If you find the act TOO uncomfortable, how about taking this moment to go get a fresh cocktail at the bar? Now, dear readers, those of you with an appetite for the grotesque will want to stick around as Schultz-Moller takes the stage, channeling the energy of a sensual yet hapless gender-non-conforming construction site safety manager (say that five times fast). The audience visibly squirm in their seats throughout the act, with a combination of disgust and delight that really only Schultz-Moller can command in all of Wellington. It’s unforgettable, although some viewers will wish they could forget it. And it’s perfect.

Next up is Victor Victorious, who has a delightfully twisted imagination – I still fondly remember their act from last year, which involved an ungodly amount of clothes pegs. For this show, they perform a delectable burlesque striptease with a twist. Of course, the best burlesque acts surprise and delight with every item of clothing removed – half of the fun is just seeing what crazy costumes and props are underneath each layer – but in this act, the surprise underneath has to do with power tools. With bright flashes of metal and pleather visible with every removed item, Victor Victorious dares the audience to ever look at a power grinder the same way again. (I certainly won’t!)

Our final treat for the night is a duo drag act from kings Robin Yablind (returning to the stage) and Braiden Butter (Karli Holdren). Now, I’ve reviewed Holdren’s femme showgirl persona Ginger Velour in Circus of the Night earlier in this Fringe season, and it’s a delight to see another side to the same performer: Braiden Butter is a rough-and-tumble comedy king, highlighting Holdren’s impressive range. Braiden Butter is the perfect complement to Robin Yablind, and the duo delivers a tightly-choreographed dance act depicting the two boys as bejewelled, bemulleted car bros taking a joyride for the ages. Complete with glittering repair shop overalls and surprisingly acrobatic dance segments, these hilarious himbos get into all sorts of trouble in front of our eyes. I would watch a buddy comedy flick about these two lads getting into shenanigans all over town. They end our evening with a high-energy, if bewildering, comedic triumph. I would be remiss if I didn’t shout-out the show’s photographer, James Peryer-Bastion, who performs almost the same level of acrobatics just to capture the best shots.

I really hope that Renegade Cabaret invites Bellini to curate another show. Bellini’s Boys is a fun twist to an already-daring concept, and the result is a stunning lineup of lads. It’s absolutely not to be missed.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

MC and impresario Victor Victorious promotes this Renegade Cabaret as “a celebration of strange”, but at its heart it feels much more like a radical celebration of Aotearoa’s embattled performing arts community. 

The two-hour variety show is directly inspired by semi-spontaneous, volunteer-led events that are a staple of the New Zealand festival scene. The opening night features appearances from people who frequent Circulation festival and its ilk, and Renegade Cabaret is very open about its origins. 

Replicating the feel of an open-air, uncensored performance marathon in a city setting has its challenges and its upsides. Leroy’s may be upstairs, but the event still feels accessible on many levels in a way that sitting in a paddock does not. The discussions around informed consent are wonderful to experience, easing the audience into the physical and emotional intimacy that they are about to witness up close. Spacing out three acts at a time with generous audience breaks and MC patter is a wise choice, because with acts that are so diverse in tone, a palate cleanser helps each act to stay memorable. 

The event’s gimmick is that the line-up will rotate through its run, and that the crew won’t necessarily know what to expect from each performer. This semi-chaotic format gives the whole proceedings a pleasant frisson of unease and adrenaline. Interactivity is part and parcel of the experience, cleverly balanced with a feeling of psychological safety and mutual respect for both the performers and the audience. 

The opening night’s line-up includes circus artistry with a real sense of risk, emphasised and sometimes induced by the semi-improvised format. It features erotic, comedic and utterly serious nudity, often in swift sequence. Many variety shows end up unconsciously skewing towards favouring one style of performance, but Renegade Cabaret avoids this bias by being such a genuine surprise to its own showrunners that we as onlookers share in that spontaneous delight, like a kid digging through a lucky dip bag and discovering new treasures each time. 

Some honourable mentions from opening night: Andy Manning shows off their brilliant song writing and punchy comedic timing in a dazzling first-act appearance. Chase D’Ladis gives Hammer Horror-era Dracula vibes with a surreal and occasionally hilarious chair dance. Joel Lawry concocts mad-libs erotic fiction that has the audience teetering between titillation and tittering. Ms Leading serves cannibalistic fey energy. Mel’Dente hits us right in the feelings with a powerful and completely earnest vignette of suffering and determination. Natasha Ploy shows us something new with a single-hoop dance that has the audience gasping. 

All in all, Renegade Cabaret doesn’t leave an aftertaste of strangeness. Rather, it feels wholesome, for all its advertised sleaze and intensity. This reviewer is put in mind of the concept of ‘radical inclusion’, brought over from the festival scene. Renegade Cabaret doesn’t set out to estrange people. Instead, it welcomes them in. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer