Reviewed by: Stage Whispers

Review by Barry Hill OAM | 23 February 2026

I reviewed Bernie Dieter’s Weimar Punk in the Cabaret Festival of 2022 and have been anxiously awaiting her return. I was not disappointed, she is back, and better than ever with Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett!

She is a powerful presence and wanders the audience looking for willing participants to stroke her thighs, her back and even carry her back onto the stage!

Dieter has a powerhouse voice that never seems to tire and can ‘belt’ out a song or pull back and take us to her private space.

Her Kabarett is a gender-bending and includes – 

A female fire artiste who uses torches, wands, fire foam and produces massive rings of fire that extend over the front rows of the audience. The same artiste also is an accomplished sword swallower. First one sword, then four, and then to prove her act is real, and illuminated wand that can be seen going down her throat, impressive, to say the least!

The drag artist (with moustache –‘Iva Rosebud’) who appears twice in amazingly glamorous gowns and impossibly high heels, only to strip to black tape to protect his modesty, but then abandons the tape and presents the perfect male form. He returns in act two in a routine with a cream cake which I will not divulge here, you have to see it for yourselves. Needless to say, it was hysterical!

The female contortionist who is probably the best I have seen. Some of her positions drew gasps from the audience and deservedly so. She twists her body into seemingly impossible positions clad in an outfit that would not look out of place in S&M.

The final artist, Jarred Dewey (last seen at the Fringe in Yummy Iconic) who is a master of aerial art. His trapeze work highlights his strength and grace (particularly in blue glitter high heels) and his vertical pole work sees him spinning while climbing the pole and swinging out over the audience. His performance is a thing of grace and beauty!

Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett is not so much a show, as an experience! If you have any inhibitions before seeing this production, you won’t have them at the end. Go and see it!