Meow Meow

Emerging wildly as a grumpy, late and scruffy diva, Meow Meow cuts an alluring figure even in this faux-failed crooner persona. Staggering through the audience, Meow Meow turns a bungling strip tease into the most uproarious comedy routine, worthy of Buster Keaton himself.

With two cigarettes and a bottle of wine clutched close to her heart, she combines this perfect slapstick with a virtuosic broken cabaret routine and an utterly magnificent voice. Cutting the perfect balance between her spell-binding singing and the bumbling comedy routine, Meow Meow whips up a joyous frenzy: draping herself over audience members, having punters help her with costume changes, using her stomach as a video projector and crowd surfing – yes, crowd surfing – up the tiered seats. Not common practice in burlesque cabaret by any stretch of the imagination.

The Spiegel Garden’s programming taps heavily into the resurgence of burlesque entertainment but Meow Meow's vibrant excess marks her out as a performer above that discipline. No wonder she’s a favourite of David Bowie.