Reuben Kaye is back and butch as ever
Image: Reuben Kaye. Photo by Jax Moussa
You might not immediately think of Reuben Kaye as butch, but he is — just not conventionally so. His butch is camp and ostentatious; his muscle is in the attitude and resilience he wields on and off stage. No one without some level of brawn would push the boundaries of taste on stage the way Kaye does and then wade into the crocodile infested audience.
Kaye’s show, The Butch is Back is cabaret with serrated edges; a package of multifarious delights buried under land mines. It has been described as genre defining, gender bending, outrageous, hilarious —
“And my therapist has called it a backward step,” laughs Kaye.
After spectacular seasons in London, Europe and across Australia, Kaye is bringing The Butch is Back back home. Supported by a six piece band and an array of corsets, Kaye will deliver caustic humour, dynamic energy, and diva-level vocal prowess.
“If people saw me at the Opera House for Mardi Gras, that is just a taster. The Butch Is Back is bigger, it’s harder, it’s faster…The music is outrageous, the jokes are dirty – if you hate conservative politics but love dick, this is the show for you,” says Kaye.
Featuring songs from an eclectic range of artists including Bobbie Gentry, Reba McEntire, Stormzy, Nancy Sinatra, Gerri Halliwell, Leonard Cohen, Rolling Stones, Screamin Jay Hawkins, Kaye’s show has something to satisfy every palate, or bring on a gag-reflex.
“No one is safe but everybody is loved,” he says.
But not everybody loves in return. Earlier this year Kaye was publicly lambasted over a particular religious joke he made around Easter time; some of the commentary was aggressive and ad hominem. However, Kaye sees this as a form of validation.
“I think in 2023, if you’re not getting death threats then you’re not doing drag.”
Then he adds more thoughtfully: “Sadly, I think we’re in a world where debate is very vicious here and people will take things very personally —but every joke I make is from a place of love and wanting the world to be better and safer for everyone.”
Despite its often acerbic nature, Kaye’s comedy is intended to help unify people by allowing them to laugh at themselves and broach difficult subjects, something the queer community is particularly good at doing.
Kaye’s uproariously camp and subversive brand is almost de rigueur today, but it was part of his survival kit growing up as a boy who always felt a bit different.
“I turned to comedy and music and art because I was a weird kid, and what I learned through that is that weird kids aren’t weird, they’re just ahead of the times.”
The boundary-erasing world of cabaret, with its history of embracing the queer and marginalised, is the perfect medium for the multi-talented, contentiously-inclined Kaye.
“Cabaret has always been an immediate response to the social situation. It’s social commentary – that’s what makes it so contemporary, so dangerous, so exciting. And it changes every night, the script changes every night, so I’m reading the news and I’m rewriting and rewriting and it’s one of the reasons the band hates me.”
Kaye loves to meet and chat with audience members before and after a show, and his soul is renewed every time he meets a parent who has brought their gay child or a gay child who has brought their parent. He is proud to be living proof that there is a future for a queer person or an artist (or clearly, both).
So, what can audiences expect from The Butch is Back at the Enmore?
“I’m bringing so many gorgeous costumes and my filthiest jokes and my best musos and I can’t wait to see what Sydney thinks.”
