Fun evening of entertainment but with room for improvement
Hidden in Cavendish Square off Bond Street is Underbelly’s speigel tent. A quiet square is turned into a welcoming place to pass time with mates over a pint with the promise of shows a plenty to fill your evening with. It’s faintly reminiscent of Edinburgh fringe though lacking the crowds and queues for toilets and drinks that’s common up north in August.
Marcel Lucont promises ‘A magnificent mélange of international artistes, including comedy, circus, music, fire, aerial and magic, all held together with dry wit and a dry white by the deadpan Frenchman himself’. He actually sported a velvety red but he didn’t underdeliver on the dry wit and deadpan delivery. Lucont was undoubtedly the highlight of the show with a fantastically sarcastic passive aggressive attitude he had the audience in hysterics from the first poem. I greatly looked forward to his times in between sets and would happily watch him work audiences again and again. His poetry was cynical, dry and lewd and often seemed to shock some of the audience who seemed a little naive about what a 9pm cabaret in London was likely to cover when it came to topics and performances. Lucont carried the show throughout and wrapped it up beautifully with a final, so bad it was good, poem.
The acts he had curated for the cabaret were a mixed bag – two entertaining acts were sandwiched between two that struggled to match the energy of their counterparts or the charisma of our host.
Emily Winters was the first act we welcome to the stage, playing a violin to some effect as she stalked on stage to perform her aerial act all whilst suspended by her hair. Admittedly impressive acrobatically, her crowd work needs work and her onstage personality was quite frosty – it was only as she executed a series of fast and furious spins did the audience really get on side as she is undeniably talented.
Pete Heat continued the charisma and energy Lucont had treated the audience to throughout the first half. His magic/mind reading was quietly delivered with a clever tongue and confident management of the audience. It was great fun to watch him lead the audience participant through a series of pointed questions, distracting them from how he carefully manipulated them to landing at his chosen destination.
Jacqueline Furey was the other highlight of the acts. A fire breathing Australian she has a real flair on stage. Her talent raised the spice in the tent and at the end of the day – we really can’t complain when we get ‘fire and tits’ as Lucont so tactfully described it.
La Gateau chocolat was the last act and unfortunately just didn’t continue Lucont’s charisma or the previous acts artistic flair. The songs were slow and a little drab and the crowd work was lacklustre – most of the comedy relied on a large ego and a unlikeable personality.
All in all it was an enjoyable cabaret evening but the line up failed to deliver a consistently high quality that would have made it standout.