The Secret Circus, one of Liverpool’s leading variety shows, returns once again for their yearly retreat to the Townhouse, Birkenhead’s leading sex club. Each year it hosts themselves and a mixed bill of vulgar and depraved artists showing off their most sultry talents. It’s host to dancers, drag acts, cabaret, poetry and comedy.
This year it’s the dungeon downstairs that hosts the majority of the comedy acts, featuring a selection of comedians and poets that are welcome to do the material that other places would rather they didn’t. It’s a great selection of artists, with stand out poet Ryan Chambers returning to do his signature dark and silly style. It also features host Frankie giving an extremely NSFW demonstration.
In the garden was fire dancer Shananigans, whose tricks will stun and frighten you in equal parts. At one point she was dancing to the YouTube mashup of Deftones and Britney Spears, one of the all time great mashups, which was incredibly welcome.
I should also point out that, while hanging around the bar getting shit-faced, I stumbled across Craig Sinclair and Izzie Major of Fright Wig. Both were dressed as giant babies and pestering people around the bar, in a very unsettling piece of performance art. It was bizarre and dream-like, but fun to watch with a pint.
Unfortunately, I had arrived at the event with a very sore throat from shouting lots, but fortunately the beer there was very reasonably priced, so I was soon pissed enough to forget my ailment. Moving on from the bar occasionally to see various acts, I also stumbled across Sue Gives A Fuck.
Sue is a lip sync/comedy act that you are unable to turn away from, and each one of her performances is as spellbinding as it is daft. Also on the bill is dancer Sophie Turner, comedy poet The Chubby Northerner, and stand up Alex Bertulis-Fernandes.
As with last year's show, it was a fantastic mix of acts that make great use of the unusual environment. There’s a lot of unique characters here you wouldn’t see at an ordinary Secret Circus, and it provides a space for one of the more unique shows you’ll see this year.
If you want to catch the Secret Circus, they'll be celebrating their tenth anniversary with a special show at Quarry on Friday 6th September, and of course they will be returning to the Townhouse next year. 26th September, save the date!
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