Seasonal Tease: Spooky Season
Connections Nightclub
Friday, October 31 2025
It was an All Hallow’s Eve, when the fabric between the worlds both living and dead is at its thinnest, on which Autumn Daze once again sounded the clarion call to that most magic of locales, Connections Nightclub, for her ongoing burlesque series Seasonal Tease. Surrounded by witches, demons, go-go dancers, innumerable corpse brides, and even a handmaid from Gilead, the venue was already, well before the show began, a heady cocktail of New Orleans jazz funeral mixed with biker bar built atop ancient graveyard.
Autumn Daze herself kicked off proceedings as a zombie/mummy hybrid to the insistent refrain of Rob Zombie’s Living Dead Girl. The all-too-common story of a perfect domestic goddess falling into wanton depravity, liberal use was made of the human-sized bowl of blood, with splash blankets strategically deployed to the audience in the front row.
Connections’ first aid kit was reportedly stripped of all bandages for this initial performance, which was somewhat unfortunate, as many of the subsequent acts were straight-up fatalities that might have been saved with some simple tourniquets.
What followed was a cavalcade of monsters, moods, and music choices. As the evening’s performances leant into one night of Halloween rather than the entirety of spring, this update of concept both tightened focus yet somehow made each piece pop more than expected. It was all horror, but there were a hundred contrasting interpretations thereof.
Tonight ranged from a horned beetle who delightfully demonstrated both their loves of body and Italian 90s house music, through four Elviras twerking to Billie Eilish and Megan Thee Stallion, all the way to The Hulk as they channelled their primal rage via Imagine Dragons’ Radioactive. MC Lucinda Panties prodded these show-ghouls when necessary and ably marshalled the evening along, yet somehow found time to incite proletariat revolution, attempted on multiple occasions to rename the show Flaps Ahoy, and spruiked ten-star reviews from everyone she could.
All performances on display were polished, interesting and fun, but several definitively stood out. In the first of these, Moesha portrayed a Polynesian sea witch, who, to remain immortal, fed on the souls of the young. With a song in te reo backed with traditional instrumentation, Moesha proudly embodied multiple aspects of her culture and devoured the stage as effortlessly as her character despatched any children. An exciting adventure into high art, the routine was gorgeously accessible to the wider audience.
The only interstate act in a strikingly strong local line-up, Adelaide’s Dorian Courtisan gave a heartfelt tribute to B-grade schlock-horror, specifically the 1985 cult classic The Re-Animator. As the theme to Weird Science slowly bled through to Celine Dion in full diva force—it made sense at the time—Courtisan delved deep with their inner mad scientist and even deeper into their prop corpse. Blood-spattered gloves led to a blood-spattered corset, and when the boa shaped as intestines made an appearance, the audience’s instinctive, guttural laugh-applause almost brought the house down. The piece ended with a literal waltz, as the happy couple floated stage left.
The finale, the headliner, and one of the absolute queens of Boorloo burlesque, Sugar du Joure referenced the first twelve minutes of the first Scream one of the most iconic kill scenes in modern horror. Brilliantly scored to Gaga and Beyonce’s Telephone, an anthemic choice for the venue as much as the routine, special guest star Ghostface joined du Joure in both chase sequences and synchronised dancing, before the wannabe serial killer was hilariously offed in a very burlesque-appropriate way. Minimal spoilers here, as this performance deserves to be seen far and wide in other settings.
Now well into its sophomore year, Seasonal Tease: Spooky Season was another fabulous showcase for Perth’s burgeoning, almost overflowing, burlesque scene. The variety and imagination on display put both this show and the wider community in good stead as they look forward to 2026, Fringe season, and whatever may come next.