The ballsy US stand-up comedian and jazz singer warned early on that she would cross the line … and quickly proceeded to obliterate it. But with a show titled Lea DeLaria is NAKED – An Acoustic Look at the Life of a Big Hairy Dyke, you could hardly claim you weren’t warned.

No sacred cow is safe from her machine-gun-like delivery, with targets ranging from politicians and religion, to sex, feminism, monogamy and gay marriage.

DeLaria kicked off by crowing over the recent US election result and stomping all over the virtual grave of George W (complete with lewd comments about the lovely Laura and their twin daughters). Republican Party vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin didn’t escape unscathed, either – some people may think she’s a bit of all right, but not DeLaria. “Apparently she was runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant … who won? The caribou?”

Stomping the stage, DeLaria laments the end of the feminist heyday, when having myriad sexual partners was considered more liberating than marriage (“I was a very good feminist”); she reminisces about the old days, when butches were butch and femmes didn’t want babies. She sings about the joys of being a big hairy dyke, and assures us she’s plenty happy about the “big” bit (“I read that book Fat is a Feminist Issue … I got so f***ing bored I ate it”).

Last night’s audience included a mixture of queer fans, jazz fans and queer jazz fans, with those in the middle learning more about lesbian sex and gay politics than they would ever glean from Queer as Folk or The L Word (DeLaria prefers the F-word).

But the music lovers weren’t neglected, with her comedy routine frequently broken up by jazz numbers that offered a change of pace which almost came as a relief.

With a number of jazz albums under her belt, as well as performances in Broadway musicals, DeLaria’s powerful voice has won her widespread acclaim in the US and around the world. Her Adelaide show included numbers ranging from a swing version of Stephen Sondheim’s The Ballad of Sweeney Todd to a jazz take on Blondie’s Call Me, with a liberal smattering a scat in between and Janette Mason accompanying her on piano.