Blanc de Blanc at the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent

If there’s one event, one constant that I can look forward to each year (apart from my birthday and Christmas of course), it’s the return of the Spiegeltent at the Brisbane Festival. I am always guaranteed a great night out and highly recommend it to anyone who likes a bit of naughty fun. However, I should know by now that nothing in life is guaranteed, and this year’s Blanc de Blanc was a little underwhelming.

It had all the usual trademark ingredients – the intimate cabaret setting of the infamous Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent with gorgeous, taut, rippling, sexy bodies doing various circus and acrobatic acts, plus an ensemble cast showing lots of flesh, frivolity, and generally running amok amongst the audience. The night had acts that were titillating, bawdy, and even cringe worthy at times, but all in the name of fun.

Maybe I’m spoilt because I’ve seen so many fabulous iterations of this show, or maybe it was the extra half hour we all had to wait outside before entering the Spiegeltent, making an already late night show start time to be pushed back till after 10pm, but it seemed there was a little too much reliance on the burlesque filler acts and not enough wow-factor from the awe-inspiring circus acts. It was almost like one or two of the acts were missing from the line-up.

To be fair, if you have never seen the show, you wouldn’t know the usual ratio of circus to burlesque and probably had a hoot. Some of the acts were genuinely impressive (and shocking). Hampus Jansson and Milena Straczynski’s aerial routine was scintillating, while Spencer Novich’s wiry body contortions were both amazing and grotesque, like a train wreck you can’t seem to look away from. In fact, the unassuming ring-master’s sidekick really pulled the show together, and helped keep it buoyant. The mash-up soundtrack that supported the act was a piece of genius.

Blanc de Blanc’s theme is a tribute to champagne with it’s bubbly, light, intoxicating party atmosphere which totally works for this irreverent high-energy show.

Presented by Strut ‘n’ Fret for the Brisbane Festival, Blanc de Blanc will play in the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent in Southbank’s Cultural Forecourt till September 24. Show times are at 7.30pm, Tuesday – Sunday, with special late-night shows held on Friday and Saturday nights at 9.30pm.

Note: Suitable for audiences 18+ years. This production contains adult themes, haze machine, nudity, coarse language, smoking on stage, sexual references, strobe effects, and pyrotechnics.