After getting cancelled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is back this year with a program primarily made up of Australian acts due to international travel restrictions. After an Earth Hour dinner by candlelight at Mamasita Sean and I headed down to the Forum Melbourne for So You Think You Can Drag? as part of The Festival Club. The show featured a range of drag performances and was hosted by the hilarious Tina Del Twist, who sang, drank and joked her way through the evening.
There were some great numbers throughout the night. Highlights for me were Dazza and Keif dancing to the Beastie Boys “Intergalactic,” Sabrina Baby Slut’s lip sync themed around a girl addicted to air freshener, Lou Wall’s song about the patriarchy dedicated to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and Kali Forni-Kate’s bee-themed number complete with a section where she lip synced to an ASMR track. My favorite performance of the evening though was the closing act Ruby Slippers & Egson Ham. They came out in a colorful horse costume to Daryl Braithwaite’s “The Horses” and segued into Cardi B’s “WAP." The performance had elements of dance and burlesque in it and was absolutely brilliant.
Over the past few months I have been binge watching numerous previous seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race that I missed when they originally aired (it's available for streaming on Stan here in Australia). One of my absolute favorite contestants, the winner of All Stars 3 and co-host of the YouTube series UNHhhh and Viceland's The Trixie & Katya Show, Trixie Mattel performed tonight for her third Melbourne show at Chasers Nightclub in South Yarra.
The show was broken up into two sets to allow for costume changes. It began with the famous Melbourne queen Karen From Finance lip syncing to Meredith Brooks' "I'm A Bitch." Karen was our MC for the evening and was quite entertaining as she revved up the crowd and introduced each performer. At the start of each set we got a lip sync performance from local queens Lexi GaGa (set 1) and Sabrina Babyslut (set 2), who had the largest number of outfit reveals that I have ever seen in one performance. It was pretty epic.
Supporting Trixie on this tour was RuPaul's Drag Race season one and All Stars 1 contestant Tammie Brown. Tammie is an absolute original and performed her own songs across both sets, including "Walking Children In Nature" and "Porta Potti Prostitute." She also spoke to us in multiple languages and got the whole crowd to move like chickens.
Trixie Mattel is an extremely talented musician and comedian, and she has combined these elements, along with her trademark look, into an amazing and hilarious show. In the first set she did a total take down of some of her fellow RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars contestants and played the finale version of "Kitty Girl," inviting people up from the crowd to sing the verses by Shangela and BeBe Zahara Benet. She also did one of my favorite songs of hers, "Mama Don't Make Me Put On The Dress Again" off the album Two Birds, and a cover of Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi."
In the second set she opened with the most epic mashup lip sync performance themed around the working woman that included movie clip dialogue and portions of Dolly Parton's "9 To 5," Donna Summer's "She Works Hard For The Money" and Britney Spears' "Work Bitch." The whole crowd lifted and lost it when Trixie started dancing down the stage platform. She did some more comedy bits, including her attempt at an Aussie accent, and finished by singing "Break Your Heart" off her latest album One Stone.
All the girls that performed then came out for one final bow and a photo with the audience (Trixie somehow managed a quick costume change into a pink dress and short wig) and that was it for the night. It was such a fun evening although I wish Trixie had performed more of her own music, including the wonderful and touching "Moving Parts." I'm looking forward to getting to see Trixie again (as well as other Drag Race alumni) as part of the Comedy Queens tour in August.
Here's the video for "Mama Don't Make Me Put On The Dress Again"
