Purple haze with randy rabbits at Brisbane Festival

REVIEW: I would normally be tucked up in bed with a good book, but late-night Brisbane Festival offering The Purple Rabbit is a great reason to stay up late, writes Phil Brown.

Magician Dom Chambers ... and a condom. Picture: Jacinta Oaten

Now come on fess up ... you really want to see a bloke with a condom on his head, right? I’m talking about the one on his shoulders of course.

When I interviewed impresario Scott Maidment of Strut & Fret productions about his late night Brisbane Festival show The Purple Rabbit he warned me that I would see things like that, things that would make me go ... whaaat?

Scott Maidment’s latest show The Purple Rabbit is a saucy romp and Brisbane Festival’s late night guilty pleasure. IMAGE AAP/Steve Pohlner

And I did, quite a few times Friday night at the South Bank Piazza where The Purple Rabbit is on until next weekend. Why is it called The Purple Rabbit? Well there is a purple rabbit in it but there are other reasons and Google may help you find them out. (Purple bunny ears are worn too, very Hugh Hefner)

They have some early shows coming up too but I forsook a cup of tea and a good lie down with my book for the late night wilds of Brisbane Festival at South Bank and I’m glad I did. I think this show is better later, possibly because the audience is liquored up and game for anything. I’m teetotal and was stone cold sober so I was in a better position to judge the proceedings than many.

And even so I loved it but I love everything that comes out of the mad scientist brain of Maidment and his team.

She can twirl an umbrella by hand but Emma Phillips can do much better with her feet. Picture: Jacinta Oaten

He wanders the globe seeking out quirky talent for his shows and his Blanc de Blanc Encore is playing at Northshore, Hamilton now as part of the festival while partner Kirsten Siddle’s Maho Magic Bar is just next door to that and her other show Love Lust Lost is playing in Fortitude Valley.

This powerhouse arts couple produce some of the most interesting and offbeat shows in Australia right now and The Purple Rabbit is the latest iteration of Maidment’s wonderfully dysfunctional creative mind.

Magician Dom Chambers is one of the stars, a man who can produce beers from thin air ... and a brown paper bag which seems to be empty.

And yes he does don a condom on his scone later in the piece as part of a card trick.

The Purple Rabbit gang are in a purple haze at South Bank Piazza until next weekend. Picture: zak Simmonds

One of the stars of the show is foot juggler Emma Phillips and what she can twirl with her tootsies is pretty mind boggling actually. She balances and spins a table and oriental umbrellas and you wonder how much of her life she has spent training for this. Is it a career? Well it is for the moment.

The world’s only Sexual Psychic-ologist (a big call but probably true) Harper Jones is another act and she delves into people’s sex lives with eerie accuracy and drags a few suckers from the audience into her act. But not to worry she trained at Byron Bay and produced a dodgy certificate to prove her qualifications and far be it from me to question its validity. Let me just say ... bulls--t!

Add beatboxer Gale to the mix and he’s terrific and the fact that he came recommended by Brisbane’s own beatboxing meastro Tom Thum, well ... respect.

Then there’s the rather lithe and increasingly potty-mouthed self confessed Asian geek comedian Vincent too and he is hilarious.

It’s a variety show and I love that and it has elements of burlesque and while it is quite rude they manage to pull it off, if you’ll pardon the expression.

I know Scott Maidment believes that a short show is a good show and this show is perfect at 75 minutes and an awful lot of fun in the relaxed environment of the South Bank Piazza where you can sit in normal theatre seating or in a booth or at a table cabaret style. Be careful if you’re down the front though because you may be summoned on stage!

The music pumps, the visuals and lighting set the scene and the performers are talented and funny and saucy as hell. Do not take your children though, okay? It’s 18+ but despite being an adolescent at heart I got in. Enjoy.

brisbanefestival.com.au