DAMES OF DECEPTION

A brand new edition of Cape Town's sensational hit drag act, Pure Mince, appears for one night at Centrestage at the Boardwalk Conference Centre on 1 December.

Their 8th extravaganza once again features the well-heeled dames of deception, fiesty Keiron Legacy and her more sophisticated counterpart Lili Slaptsilli.

They?re elegantly tall, wildly teased and tightly tucked; highly camp, semi-cultured and slickly choreographed.

These drag divas impersonate and celebrate the whose who of female performers and entertainers in the world of celebrity showbiz.

With lip-sync mime drag, Keiron and Lili celebrate the "tight and tucked" art of female impersonation while saluting great performers such as Liza Minelli, Eartha Kitt, The Spice Girls and Jennifer Holliday.

Both Lili Slaptsilli and Keiron Legacy want to prove that Pure Mince will be the purest, healthiest and dishiest beef to be served on a PE stage.

MARK BANKS

If irreverent adult comedy is your scene then Mark Banks is your man as Centrestage at the Boardwalk prepares to be gripped by the inspired lunacy, satire, rapier wit and defiant charm of the effervescent and witty comedian for one performance on 4 December 2000.

The show is a culmination of 12 years as a solo performer, showcasing Banks at his brilliant best.

If Banks is to be believed, his Centrestage performance may be his last, due to a malfunctioning pitialantary gland in his reproductive region. Apparently Cuban doctors have calculated that by January 23, it could grow to the size of a watermelon, which would make performing very difficult.

A tragic truth or an attempt to get more people to come and see his show? Time will tell, even if Banks himself won't.

Banks, one of the funniest comedians in this country, turns everyday situations into hilarious events by saying out aloud what most think but are too afraid to speak, confronting his audience with the hilarious absurdities of life.

His utterly outrageous wit is deft as a surgeons scalpel and little escapes his pot-shots as he fires his arrows at the entire social, political and topical microcosm.

His facial contortions imitate everyone and everything and his vocal effects have his audiences in stitches.

Launching a barrage of insult and innuendo on an almost masochistic audience (and they love every second of it!), Banks' targets range from the inanities of the new South African order to the commercial inconsistencies of modern-day religions, from local politicians, the British Family, the bourgeoisie and the peasantry to TV adverts - no-one escapes his caricaturing.

Described as a 'clown with a tragedian's touch', Mark Banks is a full-time fool who makes a living out of persuading people to see the ridiculous side of things.

Neatly witty, defiantly charming and memorably savage, Banks engages in a one-way conversation with the audience.

His constant element of surprise, wide range of subject matter and contrasting touches of pathos and satire are all wreathed in the polish and quick fire of sidesplitting comedy.

Banks feeds everyone's fancy; his style plain and unimbellished, colloquial and gossipy, his jokes ranging from the schoolboy to the cruelly observant and cleverly insightful. One moment he is all buffoon, the next he is a sympathetic clown.

He is both rustic fool and court jester, a compound of rogue and tragedian, interpreting as man apart the small irregularities of our changing society.

It's a show for adults and Banks warns all potential members of the audience to gird their loins and other sensitive areas, saying, "there are no intervals in the shows and there have been times when even paramedics have to wait 'til the final curtain before being able to apply CPR".

Banks might mock and appear lightweight and irresponsible; beneath the jesting, watch for the dark snippets of wisdom.

Tickets for Mark Banks and Dames of Deception can be purchased on (041) 5812245