MICF: Karin Danger

Hot Box.  Karin’s got one. I’ve got one. So do you. It’s that slightly awkward place where we feel hot enough to blend in with the crowd.

The first great thing about Hot Box is that it’s at the new, super cute Butterfly Club. The club’s fluttered from South Melbourne to the city, but has brought every knick knack, figurine and couch along to fill up the vast new space, where there’s now enough room swing whatever you fancy and still enjoy a drink made from the nicest bar staff in the city. If you’ve not been to the old or new club, make Hot Box your first visit. It won’t be your last.

The next great thing is cabaret performer and composer Karin.  Hot Box is personal and intimate and leaves her no room to hide behind character.  I’ve glimpsed her passion before, but this is the first time I’ve seen it fill the stage, which creates a show that’s so much more than a handful of funny songs – and they are very funny songs.

As a performer, Karin is faced with the so-boring pressure of looking “right”. I’m not sure that I know anyone who really looks right but, as a writer, I can work at home in my underwear growing excessive body hair to keep me warm as you imagine my glamourous amazonian self hand writing reviews in gold ink. Writing is one of the few professions where we can be total slobs and get away with it. Performers aren’t so lucky.

Karin’s a no make up, flat shoes, jeans and t-shirt woman working in a fake eyelash, Spanx, starved and sequins world. Her show’s about her transition from slob to lady and whether it really made any difference to her life.

Sometime after we’re born, we lose that ability to be totally comfortable with our selves. Hot Box is about re-finding that comfort, realising out that hotness is never what’s “right” and letting the boundaries of your hot box move and change until it’s comfortable.  Bring all your friends who umm and err in front of the mirror.