New Spiegeltent show part of Brisbane Festival early event program

A staple of Brisbane Festival before the pandemic, this new Spiegeltent show offers a colourful entree to this year’s event.

Melanie Hawkins, Skylar Benton, Spencer Craig and Emma Phillips perform in Blanc de Blanc Encore. Picture: Zak Simmonds

What Emma Phillips can do with her feet will blow your mind, according to Brisbane impresario Scott Maidment.

Maidment, the boy from Brissie’s north, is back home with his latest show, Blanc de Blanc Encore. His Strut & Fret production house Spiegeltent shows were a staple of Brisbane Festival before the pandemic.

We’ve been starved of the saucy fun he dishes up for two years now but the wait is over.

He has pitched his Spiegeltent at NorthShore Hamilton, dubbed Twilight Electric Precinct for the duration, as part of Brisbane Festival’s early event program and the show is on there right through until the end of the festival in late September.

The question is, what has he got for us this time?

“There’s big dance numbers, a bit of skin, some risque humour, spectacular aerials and lots more,” Maidment says.

“And we have this amazing woman, Emma Phillips, from New Zealand who has never played here before. She spent two years living in this Chinese village where she learnt this amazing foot juggling, They beat her with sticks when she made mistakes and I can tell you, Queensland has never seen anything like this. When you see her it will be like … what?!?!”

Maidment travels the world collecting acts for his “circus-cabaret corruptions” which are accompanied by live music and in your face entertainment in the intimate Spiegeltent setting. He packed them in year after year at Brisbane Festival and aims to do that again and invites audiences to “get comfortable … on the edge of your seats”.

twilightelectric.com.au