“LOOK AT ME!” comes the cry from the audience entrance. “LOOK AT ME!” And look we do. A gloriously beardy, bald, kimonoed and besequinned performer strides onto the stage and up the aisle greeting familiar and unfamiliar faces alike. Meanwhile at the keyboard, an unassuming scruffian in lurid pyjamas who has been quietly reading a book, starts to play. As you do. 

It’s all perfect. Extrovert Hans Kettell and his introvert partner in performance, Jorg Hochapfel, together balance this show upon the head of a pin; a show that proves that any subject matter can make cabaret magic.

The opening furore resolves into a song inspired by Divine’s words. High, savage, energetic campery. This segues into a chance for Hans to engage with us – we are invited to participate in a bit of a singalong. Whitney or Britney, we choose our divas and join the chant. They have me right there. 

The show unsettles into a collection of songs as varied as music can be. Covering subjects as diverse as people in a supermarket, being a bicycle courier, and a little lady sipping coffee in a Viennese coffee house; covering styles as diverse as the subject matter. 

My personal favourite is the mysterious twelfth apostle, waking up at the end of the Last Supper after the others have gone, doing the dishes. It is dark and sweet and the lyrics are a prose painting of the prosaic and the divine.

Laced together with stories and chatter, every song is given entertaining context so even the few sung in German are hilariously easy to understand.

As a cabaret performer I am inspired; as an audience member I am simultaneously transported and grounded. Hans Kellett is a Kiwi who has lived in Berlin since 2001 and he straddles these cultures so comfortably, it creates a new normal for us. For the evening, anyway.

Jorg and Hans say that “it’s our job to comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable”. I must be the former, and I am not alone tonight. On the way home, my head is full of the wispy tendrils of lyrics and that artful piano accompaniment – visual moments and emotional responses. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

We are told in the promo materiel that New Zealand born Hans Kellett and fellow band member Jorg Hochapfel have hopes for the show to “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”. With this in mind, I and the rest of the audience take our seats in this very intimate venue, unsure what to expect.

The show starts unconventionally. A large, bald, beaded man wearing long, laced boxer’s boots and a short tan cassock enters amongst the audience posing and strutting whilst demanding, “Look at me, LOOK AT ME!”. This is, of course, Kellett, who now has everyone’s full attention. 

Kellett seems remarkably calm and collected after such an entrance, speaking as if down the pub with a couple of mates. He introduces the show: Kellett is ‘Hans’ so Hochaphel, on piano, must be the ‘Princess’ he asserts. He further exclaims “it’s going to get messy tonight!”

We are off.  From calm and collected, Kellett abruptly bursts into song. As his big booming voice fills the room, Kellett leaps about the stage as a four year-old might when trying to impersonate a lunatic; with astonishing energy for such a big man.

After this outburst of visual mayhem Kellett again becomes the calm ‘mate in the pub’. He offers little anecdotes of his time as a bike courier in Wellington amongst others before gulping some beer, wiping his forehead, removing or adding a clothing prop or two before he becomes the four year-old again. 

The format of ‘lunatic’ to ‘mate in the pub’ remains true throughout the show. Each song is different from the last, never offering any indications of what might come next. Hochaphel plays assuredly, using a range of musical styles with little reverence given to any. His music and physical calmness is the perfect counterbalance to Kellett’s explosive delivery.

With titles such as ‘Bubblegum’ and ‘Creampie Indicative’, I find the lyrical content of songs ranging from exciting and engaging to simple whimsy. Some are sung in German with body language and hand movement to help decipher their meaning; there is even a little French thrown in for good measure.

I would like to draw comparisons with other acts or artists but find myself floundering to reference any who offer anything that may be beneficially associated. I can however say it has been a truly exceptional and unique experience; one I would eagerly repeat.

I was unsure, when it began, whether I’d be comfortable or disturbed. I am still far from certain but I can say I feel strangely enriched for my encounter with Princessin Hans.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer