The Super-Secret Show @ The Fringe Festival
A little love, please, for Trixie Little and her sidekick/nemesis/duet partner, the Evil Hate Monkey. We can say without fear of contradiction that Trixie is best and bendiest burlesque detective we know, and Evil is without a doubt her most simian lover/termentor. This Baltimore-based dynamic duo has plenty of local admirers thanks to their appearances at the Birchmere, Palace of Wonders, and elsewhere — and unlike Batman & Robin, they are refreshingly open about the forbidden lust that keeps them bound in each other’s spell.
Alas, The Super Secret Show, their entry in the Fringe Festival, has been saddled not just with a venue change, but with two truly execrable time slots, 5:30 today and noon on Saturday, before they get to wrap things up at a more appropriate hour (9 p.m.) on Sunday. In the plus column, their move to the Warehouse is a big improvement over the atmosphere-and-bathroom-free Scientarium. It's helps that at the Warehouse you can purchase quite reasonably the kind of adult beverages upon which the proper enjoyment of a show like this so heavily depends.
The Warehouse is fine place to shut out the light, and it's a good thing, too, because this show is frankly too debauched to be performed or seen in the daytime, while the vengeful sun o'erwatches us. There is a whisp of a plot concerning Trixie’s attempt to locate the nefarious thief who absconded with the golden pasties, but you won’t care: You’re there to admire Trixie’s well-toned, weirdly flexible, and unbelievably strong body as she wows you with her skill on trapeze and baton, and her impeccable taste in glow-in-the-dark lingerie.
The evening’s host — he’s called Det. Scoobie in the official synopsis, but he introduced himself at the show we saw as Prof. Blood Pudding, esq., so who knows — drops impressive quantities of spittle and sweat as he keeps the show moving with his uproarious, British-accented narration. (He had his license to kill revoked for killing while intoxicated, though, so watch out.) The show also features Lucky T. Morrow. She’s a hopeless case as Trixie’s secretary, but would it shock you to learn she has other gifts, and that you’ll get a real good look at them before the show is over?
Tickets for the Super Secret Show's final performance tonight at 9 p.m. are available online. It ain't appropriate for kids, Kids. You’ll also have to give a password at the door. We said “Oxnard.”