Theatre In Preview

The ‘Briefs’ boys are back in town, and they're lewd, rude and ready to blow your flimsy notions of what is PC back into the dark ages.

Does life ever get you down? Do you ever feel like the grey monotony of each day is crushing your soul, second by second, into a little colourless cube of lifeless gelatin? It’s ok, just relax, I think I may have found a cure.

Returning, triumphant, from a month of high jinks and success at the Edinburgh Folk Festival, Mark Winmill and his troupe of kinky carnival folk are finally back home, and ready to pry your mind open like a can of tinned pears.

Their show ‘Briefs’ is an eclectic blend of circus, ‘boylesque’ and gender-bending theatrics, guaranteed to loosen up even the squarest of quadrilaterals. Even the British liked it! “Actually, the English and the Scots get our stuff almost more than Australians. It’s funny, we did the whole month of shows and the Scottish were just the perfect audience. It’s in their history of theatre. They’ve gone to the theatre a lot more than Aussies, and I reckon that showed. The English also have these hidden boundaries, and they push against them a lot more. There’s that façade of pompousness but it’s very much a façade. They really get a lot of our political stuff,” says Mark.

I couldn’t help but remark that he sounds strangely normal, considering the flamboyant nature of the group’s billboards. “Yeah, I’m pretty normal (laughs). I think people get a bit deluded about a performer who’s so crazy and out there onstage. I’m actually pretty real offstage.”

Crazy indeed. Mark, or should I say Mark’s alter ego, ‘Captain  Kidd’, a scantily-clad, strip-teasing, scallywag sailor, was recently crowned the king of burlesque in the city of sin. “Yeah, I went to Las Vegas in June for the burlesque hall of fame; this big weekend reunion for the ‘50s and ‘60s burlesque women. It’s a massive weekend of performance and craziness and competition and I entered the male section of the burlesque and won. There were quite a few amazing boys there, all American boys, and a lot of Chicago boys who do burlesque and circus. Quite a few amazing performers, but in the end the Aussie came away with the trophy.”

It’s nice to know we’re winning at something these days. Perhaps we should take our focus off the rugby and channel our efforts into our burgeoning male burlesque talent. That’s the kind of world I’d like to live in. If you’re unconvinced, or still wondering what exactly this whole burlesque business is about, Mark has an answer for you. “It’s always been the classic striptease of the ladies of the old days, but now there’s neo-burlesque which is a punky, cabaret style. There’s old world style which is still stunning striptease, then there’s boylesque which is pretty big in the States and kicking off in Australia. There’s a whole new generation of burlesque, but it definitely came from the classic striptease of the ‘40s revival. Even in the early 1900s in theatres, there was burlesque but it was very comedy-based and on the female side.”

And so if you were to tear your RSI fingers away from the computer for a night and venture to the Brisbane Powerhouse, what should you expect? “You’ll be greeted by a bunch of boys in short shorts and socks, then they do a big feather fan group act, then you’ll see a bearded lady and some crazy circus acts. There’ll be a raffle, which ends up being a hideous lap dance and all of this hilarious crap - circus acts and an amazing handstand artist at the end of the show. There’s a high school element, which is good. It’s refreshing for people; it’s not just a bunch of boys getting their shit off. Yeah, it’s awesome. We get great punters, and such a wide mix, from oldies to young, queers, straights and old circus people. Some of it goes over people’s heads but many people get the satire. A lot of the older crew that you doubt would really get into it, love it, and the younger crew are more shocked. It’s great, we get to educate.”

‘Briefs’ will be performed with abandon at the Brisbane Powerhouse from Nov 30 - Dec 3.