Melbourne Reviews

Briefs Factory are a fabulous “boylesque” cabaret company with irreverent, jaw-dropping acts filled with drag, acrobatics, naughty humour and fantastic outfits. Importantly, their performance skills, especially circus pedigree, are top shelf, setting them well above most offerings in their genre. 

Bite Club: 2nd Serve, made a few years ago and only now having a Melbourne season, differs from what we have seen before from Briefs Factory. It’s a collaboration with Australian songstress Sahara Beck, who is fabulous from start to finish. 

Overall, the whole show doesn’t maximise the range of the Brief Factory’s talents. The ratio of Beck’s presence to Briefs’ presence is skewed heavily to Beck. With her three-piece band (piano, drums, bass), she provides all the music for the entire two act show. 

The Briefs boys accompany with their own solos and some catchy group numbers, but Beck is the constant and gets top billing. Host Fez Faanana, a towering Samoan in heels, glitter, moustache and a voice that way too deep at key moments, hails Beck’s talents in nearly every segment. 

Beck is a chameleon chanteuse, with a range of genres and tones and her big voice belies her petite frame. The music is dark and infectious and it’s easy to see why Briefs Factory would want to work with her.

Sometimes Beck integrates into the acts, engaging (mostly repulsed) with Rowan Thomas as he changes costumes and personas (becoming an increasingly intolerable and sexist physical character) and manipulates himself around the cyr wheel. She opens Act II singing draped over a trapeze. Other times Beck is just with her band alone on stage.

Great acts punctuate the mix including Brett Rosengreen’s bolero inspired burlesque, Luke Hubbard (Nastia’s) drag hand balancing that is as hilariously funny as it is unexpected and Mark “Captain Kidd” Winmill’s trapeze routine over and in a bird bath filled with water (an act so well-worn in, yet never gets old). Dale Woodbridge-Brown’s baton twirling adds another dimension and is much peppier than his gross-out drink-through-the nostrils trick that’s straight out of freak shows. 

Each Brief’s boy has only one substanntial solo for themselves. The ensemble dance bits are sprinkled into the beginning (more of these please!!) and in a finale that has too many mini-solos at once to appreciate it all. In between are spicy hits and some misses, including an over-extended audience participation segment that doesn’t make much sense and falls flat. 

Bite Club: 2nd Serve is still enjoyable and Briefs Factory is so good – they are always worth a watch whatever they do. It’s refreshing to see the company embracing collaborations and expanding their artistic visions, trying new things rather than resting on their laurels in their comfort zone.

On the other hand, Briefs Factory's comfort zone is bang on the money. Changing near perfection will always have its pros and cons.