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Cabaret Festival

Review: Bridget Everett – Pound It

Cabaret Festival

Perhaps best known to Australian audiences for her appearances on Inside Amy Schumer and Maria Bamford’s fantastic Netflix series Lady Dynamite, Bridget Everett is a force of nature in her own right.

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Everett is a cabaret rock star and Pound It! is the cabaret equivalent of a Guns N Roses concert.

Bursting onto the stage swigging from a bottle in a brown paper bag, she launches into her opening number, “F*** Shit Up”, giving the audience a fairly succinct idea of what it’s in for.

From there we’re treated to a tale about her insecurities about her “little nippy titties” as a pre-teen, which is followed by a semi-improvised empowerment anthem, “Titties”, dedicated to her mother.

Everett’s voice gives Rhonda Burchmore a run for her money and her humour is black as night; there are jokes about incest, erotic asphyxiation and abortion, and a song dedicated to her father’s “salad spoon balls”m to name just a few of the highlights – nothing is off-limits.

At one point, the show takes a turn for the wonderfully absurd when Everett talks about the doll collection she has in lieu of children, revealing that she’s brought her oldest, Olivia, along with her (although sadly, little Olivia’s face melted on the heater when Everett got blackout drunk).

When Everett’s individual songs were featured on Inside Amy Schumer they were stripped of their original context, which did her and the songs a great disservice. Hearing the stories behind them gives them so much more life and makes them infinitely funnier than they were in isolation.

Featuring tons of audience participation (think older men being “motorboated”, Everett sitting on someone’s face or slinging a young woman over her shoulder to play her like a guitar), on-stage costume changes and intentional wardrobe malfunctions, this is not cabaret for the faint of heart.

It certainly won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re willing to have your boundaries pushed (Bridget doesn’t have any) and want to spend a night crying with laughter, then there’s no better entertainment.

Pound It! is sure to be one of the highlights of this year’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

The final performance of Pound It! is tonight at the Dunstan Playhouse. See more Adelaide Cabaret Festival reviews and previews here.

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