Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The Banquet Room. 22 Jun 2013
The Hans cabaret show is just a noisy love-in.
Despite the early hour, the Banquet Room audience assembles well lubricated and in a thrill of expectation. Hans does not disappoint. Fishnets and bling, he's straight into the high-energy razzle-dazzle which he then sustains for 70 minutes of a wild, funny, sweet, naughty ride.
Of all the shows in the Cabaret Festival, it may just be this highly accomplished local boy who delivers the truest spirit of real cabaret. The Boy Wonder of Berlin is "Like a German" in the sense of cabaret tradition. He arose through the old Weimar Room, after all.
Since those early days, Hans, aka Matt Gilbertson, has been developing and honing his act. Now he has a terrific four-piece band called The Ungrateful Bastards plus four beautifully-drilled dancing girls called The Lucky Bitches. And he has shtick - a bit of satire, a lot of cheek, some fancy strutting, flirting, insulting and victimising. He plays vanity as a comic card followed by innuendo and tease - all with wicked good humour. He calls his audience members "bitches" and "darling" and he gets in among them, up close and into their personal space. They squeal and writhe and laugh and love it. He encourages photos, Tweets, You Tubing, all social media exposure, so phones are raised and glowing everywhere.
Of course, while he does a lot of singing, Gilbertson's real talent is dancing. The fact that he is such a tall boy makes his dancing skills all the more spectacular, especially flanked by and synchronised with his dancing girls. The lad's a hoofer. He can tap. He can high-kick. He can also fall down the steps and recover with a funny come-back line. That's showmanship.
The Hans show is loud. It is in-your-face. It is right on your table if you are sitting in the middle of the Banquet Room. Hans and the girls leap frequently on and off three tables centre room which, with moving people, spotlights and dark floors, adds a bit of the old high wire circus risk to the show.
He sits down here and there, on a lap or two, but it's when he sits at the grand piano that the audience does the big swoon. He delivers a very fine Liberace-style Flight of the Bumble Bee with flowery bits and all. And still he has further talents to show.
He's a big boy and he turns on a big show which, with three or four lightning costume changes and songs of Madonna, Abba, Dietrich et al, just keeps getting bigger. The grand finale is huge. It's Gangnam Style, one of the hardest of dances and oh, isn't he good at it! He gets the audience up but it can only sway and wave and whoop. The show should be over. Hans is calling it in and his audience is calling for more. It's a love game. He's not going to leave them wanting more. They get more. That's Hans. As he keeps telling 'em, "Have a Nigella squeeze, darling. I want to give you the full experience."
Samela Harris
When: 21 to 22 Jun
Where: Banquet Room
Bookings: bass.net.au
