A thunderstorm brewed over North London’s Holloway Road as freaks, goths, queer scenesters and everything in between arrived at Nambucca for The Royal Tease. A celebration of difference, suspense and salaciousness, the monthly night treats its audience to a surreal melding of alternative drag, brash burlesque and a whole other host of genre and gender bending acts.
As lightning flashed and raindrops battered the poster-plastered windows, Sadie Sinner stalked onto the stage. She’s the brains behind the whole operation, and throughout the show acted as a luminously engaging MC, singing, swearing, sizzling and stomping her way through the evening. She unapologetically melded comedy turns with shockingly good renditions of cult hits like The Gossip’s ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’, which left the crowd baying for more. The instant you lay eyes on Sadie, from braided head to sparkling high-heeled foot, it’s clear she’s that all-too-rare thing; a truly unique undiscovered superstar. Or as drag queen Gina G puts it: “the campest thing since sliced bread.”
Next up was Meth. She’s doing so well for herself now that she has FANS. Like, proper fans who arrived in slogan t-shirts and hung around for the chance to meet her after. She did some grade-A lip-syncing to hilarious homemade musical mashups that included quotes from Hermione Granger and Miranda Priestly, and a mix of SOS by Rihanna with Marilyn Manson’s Personal Jesus.
Swift on her formidable heels was the fabulous Tete Bang’s childhood-ruining rendition of Barbie Girl, which involved not one, not two, but three dildos. After that was the beguiling Snake. Snake sauntered out in a slinky black ballgown, chopped up a cucumber with a large sword and then proceeded to shove the sword down her throat. A glass smashed as someone dropped it in shock, and several people covered their eyes and squealed.
In the age of the unshockable Game of Thrones generation, where incest and baby-killing is par for the course and rimming is no more controversial than having a cup of tea, it’s rare to find something that really inspires such physical, involuntary reactiveness. But The Royal Tease serves it up in oozing, roiling, writhing bucketfuls.
• Nambucca, 596 Holloway Road, N7 6LB. Every first Friday of the month. £10 on the door, £8 concessions.
