Reuben Kaye has been described as “the evil love child of Liza Minnelli and Jim Carrey”, and that’s possibly the best way you can wrap up everything about this entertainer in a nutshell. He’s brutally funny, politically engaged, always fabulously dressed, and he has a wit as intimidating as his lashes are large. Yet behind the “eight pounds of caustic lead-based cosmetics” is a person who wants to leave the world a better, less conservative place than he found it.
This multi-award-winning Australian comedian and cabaret sensation has, inextricably, managed to harness the spirit of old-school vaudevillian cabaret and make it feel entirely modern and exciting. Along the way, ruffling feathers and gaining fans for his television appearances, including his recent spot on the panel of ABC TV's Q&A.
Not everyone needs a bachelor's degree in gender studies... we just need to talk to each other
He brings his show The Butch is Back to the Enmore Theatre on Saturday, July 1, for one of his final Australian performances before he jets back off overseas.
After the success of the show in 2021, Kaye has developed an encore version. Expect bedazzling costumes, fierce makeup and a stage festooned by the sparkling remnants of a glitter cannon barrage. Arts and culture editor Alannah Le Cross recently caught up with Kaye to spill all the tea. Read on for our chat:
According to Reuben Kaye, what is the essence of good cabaret?
Because cabaret has no rules and it's a lawless art form, it's at its best when it's an amalgamation of things. Cabaret is definable by the feeling you get when you see it, not by ticking off a list of criteria.
People say that what I do has a contemporary edge, [but] it feels to me like I'm doing the oldest thing in the book. I'm an old-school song and dance showman. But what inspires me is a general sense of rage, unrest and dissatisfaction. Or maybe I'm an optimist wearing a pessimist’s coat? So I'm always aiming for something better, but still very happy to hang shit on those that deserve it. A lot of queer art, in essence, has always bridged that gap between rallying cry and mockery and filth – and certainly that's the centre of the Venn diagram I want to operate in.
How did you land your aesthetic? You describe what you do as drag, but it’s probably not exactly what a lot of people picture as drag.
There's always been a fascination with demonising sissies and giving queer as sinister. Just look at how Disney codes their villains. I examined myself pretty heavily when I realised I love makeup and heels and things, and I sort of realised that the debate within me and the debate in my drag is actually not necessarily about gender, but about supposed gender roles. It's about the constant battle between masculinity and femininity in a male body, which is, for me, a linked but separate debate to gender… It's male tailoring, but it's high heels and it's lashes and it's eight pounds of caustic lead-based cosmetics that'll probably render me sterile. It's a really interesting line to tread.
Photograph: Opera Australia/Daniel Boud
You’re also bringing The Butch is Back for an encore at Sydney Comedy Festival in April. How would you describe this show?
It's a six-piece band, it's filth, it’s politics, it’s masculinity, it’s the apocalypse – and how they're all strung together with red thread. It was really crafted through lockdown, and it's the most collaborative show I've done. The costumes are fantastic, it's a real extravaganza, and I get to say some of the filthiest things I've ever said.
We see hundreds of coming-out stories, they're legion for queer people, they're like war stories almost. This show is dedicated to my dad and about my dad; and it's meant to let children know that if your parents have an adverse reaction to your coming out, that there is still hope on the horizon for a relationship. No parent has a manual, each parent speaks on their own trauma or their own expectations. There's no such thing as a perfect parent. And it’s also meant to inspire “Hey, if you fuck up and say the wrong thing when your kid comes out, there's still a possibility for reconciliation”.
What does identifying as queer mean to you?
Being queer is a fuck you to any kind of expectation. Not only is it about your sexuality or your gender expression, but it's about your attitude to love. It's about your attitude to interpersonal relationships. By virtue of that, it feeds into politics, because when our love is made political our bodies become political. Our lives are therefore inherently political, and our form of sex, our form of love, our form of friendship and our interpersonal relationships then become a form of rebellion. And there's no better time to remember that than at Pride, especially WorldPride in Sydney.
Is there anything that you would like to add, Reuben?
I'd love anyone reading this to go and see a show, go and see art that is made by people who don't look like you, who don't think like you, because it is the only way that we will really truly change the world. And if you don't want to do that, come and see my show. The bar is open and so am I!
Note: a longer version of this interview was originally published in February 2023 ahead of Sydney WorldPride.
The Butch is Back is playing on Saturday, July 1, 8pm, at the Enmore Theatre, Newtown. Book tickets here.