STAGE: Simply the bust

From saucy seaside postcards to the oh-so-’70s comedy of Benny Hill and Frankie Howerd, gag-writers have had a humour fixation on bosoms.

But before you tell me I’ve boobed and should not be making fun of the female form, let me introduce you to the entire stage-play of comedy which has been produced from squeezing, poking and wobbling society’s various views of this most evocative of anatomical features.

And no, it’s not a male chauvinist -– man or pig – that’s behind it, but two feisty Australian funny-ladies ... Emma Powell and Bev Killick.

Emma and Bev, right, are two performers who’ve taken the subject of the female bosom and turned it into musical comedy.

They see breasts – their appearance, their functions, their limitations, their sexual stimuli, their comedy focus – as an opportunity to have fun, and make people think.

And to make their points, the pair appear on stage semi-naked – but somehow manage to cover their bits with an incredible array of props.

Killick, for example, kicks off the show with a one-woman comedy act celebrating – and knocking – the female body and its various bodily functions with a performance which has been descibed as “side-splittingly funny”.

Then Powell and Killick team up and strip off their tops to perform a series of antics with their boobs.

The show has been a huge hit in Australia and New Zealand, and it has now played to mroe than 250,000 people.

The audience play a vital role in the proceedings (by appearing on a large on-stage screen and often actually on stage) which threatens, on occasions, “to turn the entire theatre into a disorderly house.”

Emma and Bev’s up-front and out-there breast-based contortions are also intercut with “rousing song-and-dance sequences, hilarious sketches, a shadow play and brilliant stand-up comedy.”

“Busting Out! is an affirming lesson in body love and esteem without the soapbox,” says one Australian news-paper. “It makes women feel good about themselves and their bodies,” says another.

Yes, there’s just the right amount of sexual politics in this comedy show, which challenges the nonsensical notions that women (and men) hold about how women should be shaped.

And what show about breasts would be complete without catching sight of the feminist flag, noted by the inclusion of songs such as Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves and I Am Woman?

And just for good measure audiences get to wallow in the Gok Wan-like celebration of a woman’s right to feel comfortable about her natural body shape.

This show, as you may have imagined, is perhaps not for men, though.