Spiegelworld's Absinthe

Overview

What do you get when you combine seriously chiseled muscles, cheeky lace underwear, a few nipples, death defying acts, and more laughs than you’ve had in a while? Oh, how we wish we knew where all your minds went first. But we’ll put you out of your misery. The answer, Absinthe, presented at the Spiegelworld Tent on the Crown Rooftop in Melbourne. Did we mention it’s MA15+?

After opening in Las Vegas in 2011 and then hitting the streets of New York, this show has drawn sold-out crowds for four years straight. The modern circus is a constantly rotating door of performers, dancers, singers, burlesque performers, and comedians from all over the world with unique abilities, leaving you with no clue what will come up next. And it’s hosted by the somewhat sleazy Gazillionaire and his weirdly funny sidekick Penny. Word of warning, the things that come out of her mouth are not for the faint-hearted.

As the performance is inspired by the booze-soaked cabarets of the late 19th Century, the Spiegelworld tent is the perfect location for the show. The rooftop of Crown, for the night, feels like a secluded and sensual bar — ideal for saucy acts and dirty comedy.

Without ruining too many surprises, the show opens with a pile of ten or so chairs and one small man doing handstands on top of it, we move to an almost naked girl and a very large balloon, to fire breathing, to towers of just men who drink shots of absinthe between acts, to girls who swing on a hoop and each other while kissing in the meantime.

Don’t be surprised if you gasp, a few times for the sexy, sexy performers and a few times for when you think they're going to fall right in front of your eyes. This show literally keeps you on the edge of your seat, a cliché we wouldn’t use lightly.

Mini Melbourne is sponsoring the event, which makes for a very cute Mini to play with on the rooftop, just another weird and wonderful addition to this very memorable show. We do wonder how they got everything up there.