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I feel that this review should have some sort of warning on it. It should go something like this: “please avoid this review and this show if you have a problem with full frontal nudity, raunchy debauchery, religious parody, comedic bondage, send-ups of childhood icons, dudes kissing, booze, boobies and/or good ole fashion low brow holiday fun.” Cause, lemme tell you, Tits The Season 2 Be Naughtier, the latest and sadly the final chapter of the year-long burlesque odyssey that is Glam Gam, has all that and then some.

First off, to call Glam Gam burlesque is kind of like calling a unicorn a horse. While true, it barely comes close to describing everything you get. Glam Gam is burlesque, but it is also sketch comedy, music, video (yes, there is a strong multimedia component), drag, vaudeville, soft-core porn, something completely indescribable and even my personal favourite, audience interaction!

Sitting in the front row at Cafe Cleopatre, a very appropriate venue for such a spectacle, I couldn’t resist jumping on stage when sometimes emcee and later raunchy hula-hoopist Sherri Levesque asked for volunteers. I can’t really tell you what happened without giving too much away, but it involved the luscious Jizzika Unclean and a spin on a classic contest.

There were quite a few twists on the classics in this show. From a hyper-modern and sexualized Nutcracker (use your imagination) to Jesus give lap dances to audience members. The Glam Gam crew ripped through the standards, leaving just enough room for original material like the recurring Glamily skit featuring a dysfunctional family drunk with holiday cheer comprised of Glam Gam founders Sarah Murphy, Julie Paquet and Michael J. McCarthy. The show also featured Murphy’s heart warmingly funny, though still sexy, Newfoundland tale: A Brenda Murphy Christmas starring the same three founders and cellist Anthime Miller.

Miller wasn’t the only live musician taking part in the show. Rusty Jameson played her ukulele while singing a hilarious little ditty called Present Face which pretty much everyone can relate to.

Religion played a big part too. It ranged from funny and sexy in the finale to downright dirty in McCarthy’s interactive Personal Jesus skit (for charity, nonetheless) to outright creepy in Tanya Stasilowicz, and Les Blow’s La Vision de Santa Teresa to well, um, holy crap that was hot, in Johnny Forever’s Virgin Mary-inspired The Only Girl in the World (which gets a nod for most interesting use of a crucifix).

Honestly, it’s hard to describe a show like this. It’s original, hot, funny, the costumes and set are perfect, the performances are great. The only way to truly sum it up is to tell you that you have to experience it to believe it and that’s the only downside. This will be the last Glam Gam show, so you only have one more chance to catch it, tonight. As this was my first experience with this group, I feel lucky that I got to experience it when I did.

ED’s note: Santa is being kind this year, if you missed the show, there’s going to be an encore on December 18th, 8:30pm @ Cafe Cleopatre, 1230 boul St-Laurent, 2nd floor $16 or $14 with a non-perishable food item. More info on the show’s Facebook page

And also watch a preview trailer for the show:

Jason C. McLean is a Montreal-based actor, writer, activist, culture-jammer and sometimes singer. He is a co-founder of the Forget The Box Media Collective and currently the editor of Forget The Box Magazine as well as a columnist (The Soapbox), theatre and music reviewer and general contributor. Jason is also a co-creator, writer and in-character host of JC Sunshine's Fireside Chat on Forget The Box TV. Outside of FTB, Jason is a co-founder of the International infringement Festival, organizer of the Montreal infringement Festival and a member of Optative Theatrical Laboratories where he acts, writes, organizes and contributes to the Optative Blog. He also contributes to Art Threat, has written for the Montreal Mirror and holds a BA in Journalism from Concordia University.

Jason C. McLean

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