Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2012: Boom Boom Club

Boom Boom Club is a riotous cabaret troupe, touring the country and showcasing acts during a three-hour, promenade-effect nightclub. Pick a bar, pick a sub venue, sit down, watch, don’t watch, be awed, be offended; be tickled by contortionists, stand-ups and burlesque.

Created in 2006 in Camden, after a fantastically-reviewed run at the London Wonderground at South Bank, they have transferred to the Fringe, taking over the top floor of Underbelly and creating a dark, dingy, sexually-fuelled night club. Multiple cabaret spaces include a bar area set up with various podiums where you are entertained by young, scantily-dressed girls and their amazing ability to pull their limbs in wonders of directions and make their spines do the unimaginable. Lucky Franco has an extraordinary delivery of cool casualness as her body twists and the audience responds with squeals and squirms.

Many acts of the Fringe join in to advertise their shows in a cabaret off the main hall, including a very funny Ria Lina’s It’s Not Easy Being Yellow, who builds on her blended routes from a Filipino mother and a German father and uses her woes of trying to find her unique selling point and makes a career from it. She is hilarious and beats down any cheeky babble from the crowd, commanding her stage with her ukulele and a knowing smile. She plays at The Voodoo Rooms at 7pm for an hour until 26^th August.

Sexy Time – a physical comedy act exploring what it really means to be “sexy” – pop up next onto the stage. They go back to basics with a caveman-like feel to their appearance and mock the developing instincts of human nature. The taster of the show they give is nightclub-based, and what happens after alcohol and drum and bass, interrupted by late-night Celine Dion. The results are chortling and relatable. They play at The Underbelly at 9.20pm for an hour until 26^th August.

You are escorted around the rooms sporadically by The Late Night Cabaret Shop – they are the wenches of the night, with delicate costumes and enormous wigs. They are playful and naughty and keep the space alive; true show-girls who provide the fluidity and atmosphere of the three-hour show. Starting at half-past midnight, they have the audience’s boozed senses on their side but they are still an outrageously in-your-face troupe who are rather magnificently unique.

Verdict: ••••

Sarah Milton

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