Skitch Tease can be summed up in a few short words: “It’s stand-up comedy and songs on the accordion and…” wait for it, “…all in the nude!”
Skitch Tease can be summed up in a few short words: “It’s stand-up comedy and songs on the accordion and…” wait for it, “…all in the nude!” says Liz Skitch about her solo performance.
Rewind to a few hours before our interview and you’ll realise that Skitch is both serious about her accordion and about nudity. “Only just this morning I was playing the accordion in the nude – well, I had some underwear on otherwise I would’ve gotten arrested – in the middle of six lanes of traffic here in Adelaide,” she explains.
Part social experiment but mostly just for fun, the exercise wasn’t a political stunt but mostly about, “How can I break the rules? How can I make people think twice?”, Liz says. The response was a few ‘toots’ and ‘woohoos’ from the general public and little visit from the police who merely told Skitch to “carry on”.
“You have to challenge yourself as an artist to do something that no one else is doing, so as far as I know, there aren’t any other nude accordionists out there. But if anybody is interested, I invite them to join me!” And if you don’t want to perform alongside her, then the equivalent of a dance-off in the realm of accordions is otherwise known as ‘squeeze-boxing’.
Skitch is naturally hilarious and highly enthused, and for all you conservatives out there, just so you know, Skitch’s squeezebox is strategically placed throughout her performance to protect her special bits from exposure. As Skitch eloquently put it: “I’m not a stripper – this is a celebration of nudity – I’m a nudist! A nudist accordionist.”
Material-wise, the comedienne draws from real-life experiences from going to private school, to the things her mother says, to pushing the boundaries of a regimented surrounding. “I like to think that what I’m doing is classic vaudeville because it’s a combination of comedy, of music and of burlesque. It’s a nice mash-up of a variety of comic art forms.”
Liz Skitch performs Skitch Tease at The Butterfly Club between April 13 – 23. It’s on Fridays and Saturdays at 10.30pm. Tickets are $18 – $22 and available at thebutterflyclub.com or 9690 2000, or at the door.
