EdFringe Review: La Clique

There’s an immediate sense of walking into another world when walking through the doors of the 105-year-old Famous Spiegeltent and into the world of ‘La Clique’. Behind you, a small caravan of food vans and bars, and a mishmash of chairs, tables and Gin & Tonic fans, inside a shadowed world, centred upon a spotlit bathtub upon a compact circular stage.

The bars are bustling, whilst other patrons are ushered to their seats. Multi-hued lights illuminate the striped canvas pinnacle, and murmuring excitement buzzes amongst the gathering audience.

And if that’s not enough to make you feel like you’ve taken the night train to a very curious circus, then the robust tones and showbiz smile of La Clique founder/ringmaster, David Bates, will soon complete the picture. The twinkle in his eye alone promises entertainment…

The clues that the revels are also going to get messy come early, most notably the passing of a sheet of clear plastic between the hands of those in the front row. You see, that bath isn’t empty, and it’s due a bather.

Cue fulsome-haired, aerial contortion-strap specialist Tuedon Ariri, and a bathtime to remember. It’s a celebratory and sensuous opening to the show, a genuine mid-air dance designed to get the front row wet. Sea World, eat your heart out.

Fortunately, the bars stay open throughout the show, so you’re welcome to join her. La Clique is a show that wants its audience to buy into a moment of safe debauchery, so drink, cheer, hoot and holler as the spirit moves you. These are performers who live and breathe an audience’s admiration – the more you give, the better show you’ll get.

Completing the opening one-two punch on the night I stopped by (the line-up changes daily) was Aurora Kurth, cabaret singer extraordinaire. I hadn’t heard “Down to the Dregs”, composed by Casey Bennetto for his 2008 musical tribute to the very same Famous Spiegeltent, but it’s a cracking tavern song, and Kurth is a cracking performer. Layla isn’t the first woman to come to grief in song, but she may be the only “python charming diva” who fell foul of the demon drink.

La Clique…will surely create some of the brightest and best memories for Fringe-goers in 2025.”

So what hoot-worthy act followed? I’m quoting from my notebook: the ‘magic horny couple’ aka Daredevil Chickens, aka Anne Goldmann & Jonathan Taylor. Their vaudevillian quick-change routine is all the more impressive given the intimate space. One secret to La Clique’s success is the technical skill and artistic talent behind each act, however out there or outragrageous. In this case, Anne and Jonathan devote excellent stagecraft in service to a unforgetably calamitous conclusion.

This blend of fun, comedy and superb circus skill is found throughout the assembled cast, which follows, be it LJ Marles aerially-augmented beat-boy routine set to Run DMC’s ‘It’s Tricky, before slaying in red to Lady Gaga’s ‘Abracadabra’ later on, or David Pereira who first impresses with a beautiful routine in aerial silk to Puccini’s ‘E lucevan le stelle’ before contorting himself through a full body shave and shouting what sounded like, ‘Bum, Bum, Bum’ to those with a prime view. Oh, and if you think there’s nothing naughty about Kurth laying down an aria (other than her performing talents), you haven’t asked yourself what’s under her dress.

A note to the wise, La Clique makes it clear this is a 16+ show – believe them. This is a circus-skill heavy, cabaret extravaganza with a healthy side-helping of burlesque. That is to say, nudity can, and will happen at any time…and the sprinkling of audience participation depends on swiftly established consent. This is occasionally bawdy – but always friendly – grown-up entertainment not intended for the easily scandalised.

The only time yours truly grew a little uncomfortable was during Tara Boom’s pre-intermission popcorn routine. It’s not every day you watch a hoola-hoop superstar strap a popcorn maker to her head, butter herself up and dig in. Nothing about her progressively less dressed, and increasingly popcorn-covered condition gave me pause – it’s an ambitious routine to say the least – but the smell of the popcorn is one immersive element I could live without. Fortunately, when she returned later to juggle parasols most delightfully with her feet, it came without smellovision.

There’s no question that La Clique is a unique experience. You, will, for example, never forget Daredevil Chicken’s return to do some banana juggling, otherwise known as their ‘sexy game.’ Oh my.

Plus, for their 21st birthday, they have brought with them quite a cherry for their cabaret cake: luminous performer (writer, director, and all around treasure), Ursula Martinez. What else should she perform than her legendary ‘Hanky Panky’ magic striptease? First created more than 20 years ago, and made famous after La Clique’s first Fringe outing, we should all be so lucky as to witness her and her show in action.

On the record, Martinez retired the show back in 2016, citing her 50th birthday as part of the cause. Funny, sexy, and subversive, her sleight of hand becomes progressively more impressive the fewer places she has to hide the hanky. How the routine ends…go see for yourself: I’m not spoiling it.

My one note would be the underuse of the grand piano in the corner. The quality of the recorded music is grand, but I’d take a helping of twinkling keys here and there to up the ante. There’s a thrill to live accompaniment you get nowhere else.

That’s my taste, however, and taken collectively, La Clique’s 6-week residency in the Famous Spiegeltent and its coterie of food and drink purveyors will surely create some of the brightest and best memories for Fringe-goers in 2025.