REVIEW: Brent Ray Fraser, the Naked Artist, at Adelaide Cabaret Festival

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Brent Ray Fraser, The Naked Artist, made his Australian debut at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival on Friday night and audiences were blown away. For those who don’t know, Brent Ray Fraser is the naked artist – he paints live on stage while nude and with a very unique brush – his penis.

Brent Ray Fraser - The Naked Artist -
The Naked Artist appearing at Club Cumming at Adelaide Cabaret Festival after his debut solo show Image: Claudio Raschella

The stage of The Famous Spiegeltent, which celebrated 100 years last year, is set with canvases and a small desk to the side. Brent enters wearing just his paint covered jeans but within seconds these had been whipped off and he had the audience in awe at his naked physique. He then applies paint to his penis, pulls a black canvas from the back of the stage and starts painting. Turning the canvas around to reach all angles of it, The Naked Artist twists, turns, jumps, bounces and gyrates. You could hear murmurs from the audience wondering what he was painting. Then a slow ripple of recognition “koala, I think it’s a koala” ran through the crowd.

 

The Naked Artist has included audience participation in a COVID-safe way. For what he terms mono-prints – that is the length and shape of his penis and balls in white paint on the black canvas – audiences would usually be hands on. That is audience members would get to press the canvas onto Brent to create these prints. COVID restrictions mean that The Naked Artist has instead gotten inventive and rather than using their own hands on the canvas, audience members hold a long pole which has a hand on one end.

 

It’s also worth mentioning the soundtrack – The Naked Artist paints to a varied soundtrack from disco to classical. Brent paints to the beat of the music and makes the most of the dramatic moments of the classical music. He dances and bounces around to the disco tracks.

 

On the night that we saw the show, The Naked Artist brought up an audience member to paint with his member. The audience member brought up on stage was none other than Bob Downe.

 

While Brent Ray Fraser is naked on stage and paints uniquely with his penis for the whole of it, by about half way through the 45 minute show you are no longer fixated on his nakedness but begin to focus more on and be better able to appreciate his artistic talent.

 

The Naked Artist is an artist, a stripper, dancer and a wonderful entertainer and puts on a show like no other. The audience loved the show and laughed, gasped and couldn’t take their eyes off of The Naked Artist. He’s only got 2 more shows in Adelaide before he returns to his native Canada so book quickly or you’ll miss out.

 

🥐🥐🥐🥐🥐

Matilda Marseillaise was a guest of Adelaide Cabaret Festival

 

WHAT: Brent Ray Fraser, the Naked Artist at Adelaide Cabaret Festival

WHERE: The Famous Spiegeltent, Adelaide Festival Centre

HOW: Purchase your tickets to see The Naked Artist via the Adelaide Cabaret Festival website:

https://www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au/events/brent-ray-fraser-the-naked-artist/

HOW MUCH: Tickets cost $40 or $35 if you hold a concession card. All transactions attract an $8.95 booking fee.

NOTE: If you want to be able to be a part of the mono-prints process, get there early and sit front row, left of the stage when you’re facing it.

 

You can also read our interview with Brent Ray Fraser, The Naked Artist, here.

You may also like to watch Brent’s very amusing quarantine videos on his Instagram page, which you can find here: https://www.instagram.com/brentrayfraser_art/

And find The Naked Artist’s art at his website: https://www.brentrayfraserart.com/

 

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