If you like your comedy smart, your cabaret fabulous and societal observations delivered with zero fear, Reuben Kaye’s Hard to Swallow is your show. A beautifully unhinged truth-teller, Reuben returns to FRINGE WORLD with Hard to Swallow, a show so fresh you’d swear it had a layer of flawless setting spray on it. We’re lucky enough to be the first audience to see it, jokes actively being workshopped in real time (but we love a collaborative cabaret experience) before it travels the country.

This is high-voltage cabaret delivering savage political satire wrapped in wit, empathy and timing sharper than his winged liner. Backed by his three-piece band, Reuben commands the theatre with magnetic authority during songs and prowls the space like a cat when speaking. He’s bewitching to watch as truth bombs were detonated with glittery precision. Topics like masculinity, queer rights, systemic rot and racism are all skewered with relish. 

Reuben is no stranger to controversy in the name of art, and Hard to Swallow leans into that discomfort unapologetically. He asks the questions that we’d rather choke on with flair and makes them hilarious. It shouldn’t be possible to cackle this hard at geopolitics, and yet here we are.

Amid the bits, there’s heart. When the world feels feral, Reuben reminds us that empathy, humour and a distinctly Australian sense of defiance might just get us through. In an era allergic to nuance, Reuben insists on it, using all his talents to cut through the static. It’s uncomfortable, necessary and delivered with sharp wit from an artist at the top of his game.