Australian cabaret icon Reuben Kaye returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with his latest blend of comedy and musical cabaret, delivering a ferocious high energy set in new show Reuben Kaye: Live and Intimidating.
In this hour long set, Reuben turns his razor-sharp wit on a number of topics. Addressing his upbringing in a Jewish immigrant household, the toxicity of homophobic Australian rules football players, and the fallout from a Channel 4 video resulting in death threats from the Christian right, Live and Intimidating presents Reuben at his most fearlessly amusing and ferociously defiant.
Blending a mix of music, audience interaction and delicious boundary-breaking storytelling, the hour with Reuben breezes by. Reuben delves into his Channel 4 collaboration which saw him step into a classroom and face the brutal and refreshingly open attitudes of a group of children. The star describes the universal positivity across the globe – yet discusses the one group who found a problem in the video – the US moral majority. The comic hilariously recounts receiving death threats from bigots without the tech savvy to remove an email signature from their hate speech. Reuben turns this traumatic hate into comic ammunition – twisting this vitriol into intelligent comedic gold.
Turning on the growing movement of angry straight men – Reuben turns attention to Australian rules football bad boy Joshua Taylor-Myles and his homophobic tattoos, with the comedic pointing out the homoerotic ironies in his behaviour. Contrasting this with a more hopeful outlook, the star delves into the story of his inspiring Aunt who escaped Auschwitz twice – exploring the impact of humour as a means of survival – a message likely to resonate with the audience, in particular the queer community who use humour as a means of navigating the challenges of a heteronormative world. This makes way for the wonderful gag about Reuben’s overly politically correct father “so politically correct he would ask the Trans-Siberian Orchestra what their pronouns were.”
Scattered amongst the set are magnificently sharp moments including a number of jokes targeting middle class audiences (involving such topics as Ted Hughes and quiche lorraine), wickedly crude gags centred on gay sex, and some well-pitched moments of audience interaction where Kaye navigates the audience like a panther hunting for prey. Reuben gets the audience further involved through high camp original musical numbers with the support of musical director Shanon Whitelock, where the cabaret icon showcases equally strong vocal chops as comedic ones in the punchy energetic musical detours.
Reuben is a fearless raconteur whose sharp observations and intelligently-constructed gags delightfully tear apart the stupidity of small-mindedness and bigotry, encouraging us to challenge the status quo around us. Brimming with hilarious audience interaction, camp musical spectacle, and a performance of ferocious hilarity, Live and Intimidating is another success story for Reuben.
Tickets for Reuben Kaye: Live and Intimidating are available here.
Lead photo: Jax Moussa