The San Francisco-born Dylan Adler’s hour-or-so-long show fearlessly touched upon a host of painfully personal themes, all of which hit pretty hard despite his wild, wonderfully raunchy rudeness.
Frequently taking to a piano for self-penned and coolly Broadway-infused musical numbers (“That one’s from Hamilton!!!”), Dylan began with some amusingly crude jokes about Adelaide, Grindr, and more, before noting that he recently drunk-Facebook-messaged Seth, his old high school bully. This led into a slew of autobiographical avenues, with memories of coming out (with his also-fabulous twin) to his parents, the intricacies of being “half-Japanese and half-Jewish”, and how therapy has helped him with self-hatred and identity issues.
This might potentially sound dark and difficult, and there are melancholy moments (saying goodbye to his beloved grandad and travelling to Japan to scatter his ashes), but none of it lasts long, as Dylan will suddenly leap in with off-colour cultural appropriation gags, or graphic discussions of what constitutes a ‘top’, ‘bottom’, or ‘side’ (?).
Jam-packed with energy and almost manic enthusiasm, this crammed a great deal of naughtiness into a short running-time and, by the end of it, the audience was almost doing as many backflips as our star.
To view the Adelaide Cabaret Festival program, visit: cabaret.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au
