Club D’Amour: Encore
Ice Cream Factory
Wednesday, January 28 2026
Local legends Tone & Cheek Productions returned to Fringe World for the 2026 season with arguably the hottest destination this side of Marble Bar, Club D’Amour: Encore. An undeniable smorgasbord of entertainment, an exquisite mixture of circus and drag, comedy and song, the evening transported the audience to a venue where almost all one’s desires could be made real.
Queer-leaning and kink-friendly, with a splash zone that required multiple umbrellas and most costumes hardly there, this club was very definitely adults only. The night was gleefully led by MC Fay Rocious, whose caustic, often filthy wit laid waste to all in her path—one particularly acerbic line about Erika Kirk at her husband’s funeral deserves to live long in the collective memory.
Several acts had members of the cast high in the air above the stage, as they demonstrated awe-inspiring prowess with circus aerial equipment. From one performer somersaulting multiple times around a jump rope all while fingertip distance from the venue ceiling, to another atop a flying pole wearing horse reins and nonchalantly chomping on carrots, to trapeze, loop, and even a mind-melting crossover with shibari, these all took the scientific inevitability of gravity and laughed directly in its face.
The performances were no less entertaining when both feet remained firmly on the ground. Though the room temperature barely changed, through clever use of music, language, and dance, the venue steamed up with imagined hot showers, outfits barely more than G-strings and soap suds, and an actual water-filled bath that sprayed its contents far beyond the front-row cabaret tables.
A moment where the actual show temperature noticeably rose involved Nat Oakes as both a fire-eater and a fire-breather. Then, along with for-this-act assistant Melina Mall, the two performers really truly did set each other alight with the help of sudsy accelerant, one while doing the splits, the other in a kneeling crucifix position. Even for audience members who had seen many fire acts at many various festivals, this one provoked a sharp intake of breath and guttural astonishment.
Christine Ibrahim, a classically trained singer with the associated HECS debt to prove it, brought more laughs to the stage, firstly by combining Mozart and Cardi B, inserting WAP into The Magic Flute while dressed in lingerie inspired by Sun King-era Versailles, and then, during an audience participation skit trying to matchmake for another cast member, proceeding with ease through the rapid-fire patter of Raye’s song of the summer, Where Is My Husband!
There are many shows across the festival that have the various aspects of drag, live song, circus, biting comedy, and/or literal fire. However, there are far fewer shows that curate these elements together in such a concise, professional way, yet remain at the same time authentically fun and seemingly relaxed as happened tonight—Club D’Amour: Encore successfully threaded this needle, all too often easily missed by others, and much credit needs to be given to all involved, both those in front of the audience and those back of house.