Camp cabaret and saucy circus at Tower By Steven Thompson
VARIETY is alive and kicking and back at its spiritual home - Blackpool Tower.
LA CLIQUE - the centrepiece of the Showzam! festival - is a mind-altering combination of camp cabaret and saucy circus, complete with a healthy dollop of adult humour.
Blackpool's annual festival of circus, magic and new variety has pulled off a real coup this year.
The LA CLIQUE troupe has performed sold-out seasons in London, Sydney, Melbourne, Montreal, Dublin, New York, Edinburgh and Paris - and now you can see them at the Tower.
The raunchy, ultra-camp show may not be to everyone's tastes but some of the acts have to be seen to be believed.
The crowd favourite is Captain Frodo - a double jointed contortionist who does things with a tennis racket Andy Murray can only dream of.
Then there's the Wau Wau Sisters - a pair of scantily-clad, chain-smoking trapeze artists whose flexiblity apparently knows no bounds.
The gentlemen in the audience appear especially transfixed by their synchronised routine as the girls' bodies entwine 20 feet above the Tower Circus floor.
Dinosaurs of the variety world, the Skating Willers, who have been wowing audiences for nearly 30 years with their gravity-defying stunts, also make an appearance.
Described as the roller-skating equivalent of Torvill and Dean, their break-neck-speed act leaves the front row feeling very nervous indeed.
The sticky goo holding LA CLIQUE together is the deliciously disturbing Opera-singing diva, Le Gateau Chocolat, who appears throughout the show.
The cross-dressing baritone camps it up to a whole new level early on before a stunning the crowd with a painfully beautiful cover of Radiohead's Creep - it is a bona fide show-stopping moment.
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