Perfect housewife and best selling author Clara Cupcakes has hit the big time landing her own television show. As part of the studio audience, we witness the pilot episode featuring, hopefully, famous guests and various gelatinous creations.
This is on odd period piece. Advertised as being set in 1974 with the Women’s Liberation Movement in full swing in the background somewhere. Our host however seems to be stuck in the 1950s in both appearance and demeanour, oblivious that full time housewife is a role that’s kinda on the way out. 2025 also kicks its way into this reality as we delight in Clara dealing with modern attitudes while interacting with the audience and looking confused when the younger folk fail to understand her references.
The world of Clara Cupcakes is a strange and often terrifying place. The repeated attempts at fetching her aspic masterpiece features creepy lighting and a loud visceral reaction from Clara. A number of surreal sequences left me scratching my head trying to understand the logic of it all. There was likely some symbolism I didn’t pick up on or the randomness is simply there to keep us on our toes.
Repetition plays a major role in the show with concepts often pushed to breaking point. A disturbing burlesque routine-cum-advertorial goes on and on and gets messier and messier until Clara is an exhausted wreck. Kitschy musical interludes introducing each segment play for slightly too long as we giggle watching her awkwardly dance along.
The larger than life Clara is a whirlwind of energy on stage. Everything is done in a hilarious frenzy and the props end up all over the place. She throws herself into silly mimes and some laughably bad impressions. When she does slow down, it’s to portray her wonderfully droll Grandmother with her indeterminate European accent.
She can be a rather monstrous character with terse exchanges when punters fail to perform the exact task to her vague gestures or correctly respond to her prompts. The increasing list of guests, each with someplace better to be, pushes her to breaking point before she explodes and lays bare the artifice of the show with some cheeky jibes at the theatrical world. There are several tragic tales from her family providing some darkness to the light and garnering empathy towards her.
Being the second show of the run, it was a little rough around the edges. We laughed at the obvious errors happening and not all the jokes landed. These are things that will be ironed out as the season progresses but it is already a fascinating show.
Aspic – The Joys of Gelatinous Cooking & Home Maintenance: The Ultimate Guide to Womanhood is on at The Motley Bauhaus until April 20
It’s not long now until the world’s largest fringe arts festival begins in warmer climes and again a massive contingent of Australians and expats are headed to The Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Many have traveled the Australian festival circuit and have been whipped into shape for international audiences. Some have been previously reviewed by Squirrel but remember they will have been further polished and may have been revised and reworked.
Hannah Gadsby
Last year Australian, Hannah Gadsby won Best Comedy at the Fringe, she’s had to cancel her Edinburgh Fringe run this year but there’s a lot more amazing comedy talent coming up from down under. If you are travelling anywhere near Edinburgh this August, have a look at the following list of shows and consider going to see an Australian act.
In The Worst Clara Cupcakes is the queen octopus who has been evicted from Seaburbia by her love, the King, and this is her quest is to find a way back into the castle and attempt to win him back. She desperately wants to get back into the castle to prove to King that they are meant to be together but romantic relationships, like adventure games, are not that straight forward.
Clara utilises her bright and quirky burlesque performance style in many entertaining ways during her hero’s journey. Each stage of her game play is an attempt to win her way back into the castle and King Octopus’ heart. She tries to do that through a seductive strip tease, a reverse psychology song played on the ukulele, and a delightfully fun bit of audience participation. But with no save points to be found her attempts fail, so it’s game over and she ends up back at the start.
The Worst is full of 8-bit charm, from its music and styling to Clara’s movements, and little touches such as at the beginning when the shows tech inserts the game cartridge, and needs to blow on it to make it work. These details will delight old school computer game fans. There’s the on-screen pop-up character who, like a concerned friend, tries to offer helpful (if amusingly annoying) advice to Clara in her adventure. But Clara wants to find all things on this journey for herself. There are many ways you can try to get a relationship back, but sometimes you need to find the all-important save point that allows you to accept that things are The Worst and move on.
Elly Squires, as her alter ego Clara Cupcakes, has created a hugely entertaining show about how hard dealing with the end of a relationship can be, all the while keeping to a fun bright retro computer game aesthetic. If you’ve ever had to deal with heartbreak or you love video games, The Worst is a fabulously kitschy fun time.
1. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure show where the audience picks what they want to see in the show. It’s like Goosebumps without all the ghosts and slime monsters and stuff. Or is it…….
2. It’s actually two shows! That’s right. Circus and Hollywood. I wrote two shows like a big dummy. But both of them are real fun and good and you get to pick which one you want to see at the start. You’re in charge! Which is not at all intimidating for me AHAHAHAHA oh god.
3. Hot Patootie is fun to say. Go yell it at the top of your lungs in the middle of the street, “HOT PATOOTIE”. See? So much fun!
4. There are animal hats. So many animal hats.
5. They are very silly shows but also fun and meaningful so you’ll feel super nice after you leave. Like a big ol’ warm hug from your favourite crazy Auntie.
Clara Cupcakes performs Hot Patootie at The Butterfly Club from March 22 – April 3
There was a time when whimsical comedy was a dirty word and its association with the hipster movement added to the sneering. In The Merchant of Whimsy, Clara Cupcakes led a sugar fuelled Whimsy Anon type meeting and took us through the 5 steps of coming to terms with your inner manic pixie dreamgirl.
If the advertising for this show hadn’t already made it clear, this show was whimsy overload. From her kooky outfits to the vaudevillian music and atmosphere to the hand crafted animated interludes everything was extremely cutesy and twee. It was fascinating to see how she manage to insert plenty of current cultural references into the script, both in the juxtaposition to the old fashion atmosphere and how she gave them the whimsical treatment.
If the thought of an hour of wall to wall whimsy sends you rushing for the insulin, be assured that this show both celebrated and ridiculed whimsy in equal measures so there was plenty to tickle all fancies. It also ventured into some dark places to show that things were not all unicorns and ukeleles in this world, providing welcome light and shade and ensuring unpredictability.
Cupcakes entertained using her circus skills. Her stunts often seemed random and silly but were perfectly integrated into the narrative. There was a fair bit of old school clowning, pratfalls galore, mime, a silly song or two, and some impressive hula hoop action. It was pleasing to see that humour played a pivotal role in this show, not just relegated to amusing patter between party pieces. This character was larger than life and her ineptness in keeping things together provided many laughs.
Storming through the room like a bossy child, Cupcakes constantly got audience members involved in the show. Even though she employed a lot of bullying and a little bit of personal space violation, the actual tasks assigned were largely enjoyable for all involved. Audience humiliation was kept to a minimum with Cupcakes ensuring that she remained the butt of all jokes. Often punters were left holding or wearing props when their help ended, leaving them unsure if they were to be called on again.
Music played a large role in this show and when they failed to hit their cues, the amusing chaos kept all smiling. Short videos featuring Cupcakes as a paper doll were used to introduce the next section and keep us engaged while she changed costumes. These almost spelt out what would happen in the next part, both what Cupcakes would emerge wearing and what props would be used but there were many twists and turns to keep some surprises up her sleeve.
This was a very silly show with plenty of heart and a message to take away. If you don’t mind if things getting a little touchy feely, embrace your kooky side and get swept away by the hilarious Clara Cupcakes.
1. There is cheese. Like actual, physical cheese. Not just the show being cheesy, which it is a little bit as well. I have both literal & metaphorical cheese. Cheese.
2. You need a reason other than cheese? Really?
3. Okay then. Well, I have 6 costume changes. One of them happens in under 15 seconds. Magic! Ohhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhh!
4. There are a bunch of things in the show like circus, singing, dancing, monkeys, animation, nerf guns and at least one squirrel. You know, the usual stuff.
5. If you come to the show, I will give you a hug. Unless you hate hugs. If you hate hugs we can handshake in a very official way like business associates who have just done some really good business (but I will be secretly hugging you in my brain).
