Cabaret review: La Clique Royale – The Queen’s Selection, The Famous Spiegeltent (Venue 87), Edinburgh

BACK on the Fringe by royal decree, La Clique remains a variety performance nonpareil. Its latest exotic cavalcade is headed by a queen playing the Queen. One declares these fun and games well and truly re-opened.

BACK on the Fringe by royal decree, La Clique remains a variety performance nonpareil. Its latest exotic cavalcade is headed by a queen playing the Queen. One declares these fun and games well and truly re-opened.

La Clique Royale – The Queen’s Selection

The Famous Spiegeltent (Venue 87)

Star rating: * * * * *

This year’s line-up features some old friends and some new playthings in the regular cast of gorgeous, sexy and sometimes feathered creatures doing elastic things with their bodies while taking their clothes off. Sigh. Someone’s got to watch it.…

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Mark Winmill, the boylesque wonder, gives a right royal and commanding performance on the silks which you will appreciate more fully if you can take your eyes off his pert buttocks for a moment.

Agent Lynch warms up with a tinkling cowbell rendition of Edelweiss before demonstrating her interesting method of dispensing breast milk. The fabulous Lilikoi Kaos, meanwhile, simply has to wriggle out of that dress before she can gyrate those hula hoops.

La Clique has always been a sensual display but this time round it doesn’t seem to be a valid turn unless it incorporates an element of striptease. Even guest artist, the foxy fire-eater Kitty Bang Bang, was at it, peeling off her leathers to reveal… well, that would be telling. Let’s just say it was flaming brilliant, and as good an example as any of La Clique’s playful rather than titillating attitude to burlesque.

Balkan baritone Mikelangelo was one of the few performers who resisted the urge to disrobe – but when you are suited and booted as impeccably as he, it would be a crime to ruin that sartorial line.

Magician – and, by default, MC – Paul Zenon cannot compete with such charismatic cohorts but even he gets his “wow” moment when he illustrates centrifugal force with a pint of lager. Then, moving smoothly from physics to physique, aerial artist Didj Wentworth resets the bar for upper arm strength.

These acts are superb and often spectacular in their own right but it is the collective impact wielded by the entire La Clique family, from the carnivalesque characters right up to Her Maj, coming together in this most ideal of venues which creates a magical experience that is still the greatest show on the Fringe.

• Until 26 August. Today 9:30pm.

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