Pleasure centre

Having created cabaret delights such as Shedding Skin, Style Over Substance and Sugartits, Bourgeois & Maurice are set to rip Australia apart with a show that aims to put the ‘fun back into our fundamentally pointless existence’. Here, they tackle the thorny and horny issue of pleasure from every possible angle

What would be your ultimate definition of pleasure?

Escaping the British winter. Hi Australia! Great to be here.

What’s your earliest memory of feeling pleasure?

When we first got Botox. In our hearts.

And when did you last experience pleasure?

This morning! We gave ourselves champagne enemas while listening to ‘Orinoco Flow’. Perfect way to start the day.

What kind of job or vocation is the one most likely to bring the person doing it some pleasure? And which one looks like it is non-pleasurable in the extreme?

The job of being new British Prime Minister Liz Truss in September 2022. The job of being ex-British Prime Minister Liz Truss in October 2022.

Which is the best album out of these three: Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Welcome To The Pleasuredome, Roxy Music’s For Your Pleasure or Gary Numan’s The Pleasure Principle?

Can we have all three? True pleasure is about excess, after all.

What is your ultimate guilty pleasure? Arson.

What gave you pleasure during the lockdown times?

Performing on Zoom with the self-view camera switched on. Turns out we are absolutely gorgeous and hilarious: our audiences were right all along!

What gives you more pleasure: song, dance or multiple costume changes?

We do love all those things but our greatest pleasure comes from gluing down our eyelashes perfectly. It’s only ever happened once in our lives but we’ll never forget that high.

From people who are into piercing to those who love crazy hot curries, there seems to be a link between pleasure and pain: is this something you recognise?

Absolutely. Pain can be pleasure, pleasure can be pain, positivity can be negative, negativity can be positive, and reality is all an illusion. It’s amazing what you can learn from a vindaloo.

What does a ‘high-energy homage to hedonism’ look, feel and sound like?

Looks like: two deranged children’s TV presenters let loose in the arts and crafts section of Woolworths.

Feels like: that part of the night when you’re dancing on the tables, just before you fall and black out.

Sounds like: if the Village People had met BTS at a gay club in San Francisco in the 1970s and they’d all taken too much acid and gotten very existential.

Bourgeois & Maurice: Pleasure Seekers, Wonderland Festival Hub, Hindmarsh Square, 3–5, 7–10 March, 8.15pm, 11 & 12 March, 10pm.