When kids tell their parents they are running away to join the circus the reaction is supposed to be concerned horror.

But when the father of Mark Winmill, a veteran of the cabaret circuit, heard his son had signed up for a flying trapeze school at age 20, he wondered why it had taken so long.

“My Dad was like: ‘Hmm, you might be a bit old for the circus’, and I said ‘Nah, I’m going to prove you wrong!’” Winmill says.

After his early days as an acrobat at a Byron Bay resort, Winmill became a feted burlesque dancer and trapeze performer in Las Vegas. He went on to co-found the Briefs Factory International collective, which has since toured the world with its high-energy “boylesque” shows featuring a revolving and eclectic group of performers.

Their newest production, Dirty Laundry, is in Sydney for a run at the Spiegeltent. Alongside principals and co-founders Winmill and Fez Faanana, the current cast includes cabaret dancer Brett Rosengreen, aerial hoop whiz Thomas Worrell, competitive diver turned drag queen acrobat Nastia (Luke Hubbard), stiletto-clad aerialist Serenity (Dylan Rodriguez), and the “Kamilaroi Cowboy”, Dale Woodridge-Brown, a Circus Oz alum with trapeze and juggling skills.

The latest addition is Rowan Thomas, who does a routine on the Cyr wheel, a circus apparatus where the performer straddles a huge ring Vitruvian man-style to perform spins and tricks.

“Our thing has always been influenced by the variety circuit, especially queer cabaret,” Winmill says. “Variety, I think, is the best way to describe it – it’s burlesque, it’s comedy, it’s drag, but there’s a through line to the show, it’s quite cohesive. What sets us apart from the other variety shows is that we’re very much an ensemble. It’s collaborative; everyone gets to put their two bob in.”

While any Briefs International show contains a generous serve of gym-toned flesh and risqué humour, Winmill says there’s a serious undercurrent to the hedonistic vibe.