Punch Up! - Resistance and Glitter

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here is no other show like Punch Up! in town. We're a drag, burlesque, stand-up, spoken word, and rap variety show that's unapologetically queer and underground, but open and accessible for all. Emphasising acts that are political, vulnerable and commercially questionable, we are openly anti-fascist, sex-positive, body-positive, and curious. We create opportunities for underground artists and have high expectations for their critical engagement with society. By mixing genres, we recontextualise their meaning. Going to a rap show, an audience expects a specific milieu and will receive the work accordingly. By interspersing rap performance between stand-up and burlesque, the context provides new vantage points to receive the work: politically charged, involving the body of the performer, and as a mode of performance that is notable precisely for its conventions and specificity. This provides not only an opportunity for the audience to experience something new, but also the performer, who is able to perceive a new way of looking at their own art. It could be argued that this mutual act of seeing things differently is a contributing factor to what many people have described as the “community” feeling they get from attending or performing there!

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