Busting Out (Tour – Salford)

Busting Out is a tribute to breasts created by Emma Powell who performs with Bev Killick. It includes sketches, musical parodies, stand up and mammary manipulation. However, two acts of this means that the inconsistency of the material becomes apparent.

The stand –up based on observational humour is weak. The musical parodies rely heavily on puns (“Memories” becomes  “Mammaries”). However, the audience involvement works very well.

In the style of The Puppetry of the Penis (another Australian export – must be something in the lager) the duo manipulate their breasts into shapes. The results are both amusing and disturbing. ‘Abba’ is recognisable and hilarious but their The Vagina Monologues is hard to get out of your mind.

Busting Out has no pretensions other than to entertain. The only negative aspects of breasts that get a mention are those that can be used as a source of humour – the effects of gravity and age and how to offset them. No effort is made to analyse the fascination that breasts have for men.

This lack of ambition prevents the show from being a classic and keeps it as a good work’s night out.
 
– Dave Cunningham