The Edinburgh Fringe venue that doesn’t know where its own entrance is

Julie-Ann Laidlaw preparing yesterday

Yesterday, still zonked from my trip up to Edinburgh and not enlivened by six Red Bull drinks, I met Julie-Ann Laidlaw of Blond Ambition, who wanted me to plug her Vive La Variété show for the Cabaret vs Cancer charity this coming Sunday.

On the way to meet her, I bumped into the increasingly prestigious Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards judge Claire Smith who…

We are celebrating our first birthday and taking a small offline holiday in August – we’ll be back with exciting developments in September. Whilst we are away our cabaret recommendations are…

HANNAH YOUNG'S TIP: Silencio, London Wonderground

Carnesky's Finishing School

BURN, Hot August Fringe

Josephine and I

Silencio, Every Saturday in August, London Wonderground: Put on your headphones and enter a spectacularly silent choose-your-own-soundtrack adventure of live music, disco, b-movie film footage and a curious collection of live acts, from the strangely beautiful to the downright bizarre. Hula-hoops from outer space? That's the very least of it.This is an extraordinarily experiential, multi-sensory journey - a journey that leads you to a time-warped, genre-defying, duelling-DJs dance party. Leave your sense of reality at the door.

With a silent disco after-party, you definitely won't believe your eyes or ears.

Carnesky’s Finishing School, 20th-23rd August, Bethnal Green Working Man’s Club: Anyone who saw Carnesky’s Tarot Drome at the late Old Vic tunnels last year will agree that this live art, new circus, experimental theatre production company are the toast of the town when it comes to subversive and experimental cabaret. Want in on the act? Go on, we dare you…

Marisa Carnesky, the company’s founder has 20 years of experience in the field of devising left field performance and will lead this four day course alongside other big names from the international cabaret scene. To sign up to her finishing school all you need is an initial idea, preferably a little stage experience and £150. We can’t say it better than the strapline -  “…here new cabaret is recognised as an art-form that draws on a variety of traditional disciplines and yet is in no way constrained by them. This is a place where formal training is not as revered as an inspired idea, meaning that it is not only broadly accessible but brimming with subversive potential.” The course, which uses a range of eclectic non-traditional training methods and draws on many madcap disciplines from butoh to karaoke, will culminate in your own show night at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club on the 23rd August!

BURN, 1st August, Royal Vauxhall Tavern: A “hot mess of comedy, music and documentary shenanigans”, Time Out editor Ben Walters created BURN back in 2010 as a celebration of cabaret and the moving image. Low production costs and the toast of London’s underground cabaret scene have been known to make for a combustive mixture at this experimental show

This particular offering  will feature new live work from Ophelia Bitz, Vicky Butterfly (pictured) and Ernesto Sarezale, all of whom will be experimenting, in very different ways, with what happens when you project moving images onto the body. Intriguing right?!

BURN is programmed as part of Hot August Fringe which will also see exciting stuff from RVT regulars such as David Hoyle and Lorraine Bowen.

Josephine and I, Until August 17th, Bush Theatre: See a West London theatre transformed into an intimate cabaret venue, complete with show tune pianist, for Cush Jumbo’s solo show celebrating the extraordinary life of Josephine Baker and the influence this heroine has had on her own life and practice. None can dispute the innate fascination of both Baker’s stage presence and fast paced narrative of multiple husbands/lovers, Parisian decadence and civil rights campaigning. In this show Jumbo (directed by Phyllida Lloyd for whom she played Mark Anthony in the Donmar’s all-female production of Julius Caesar) brings this colourful figure to life in exuberant dance and song numbers, as well as exploring Baker’s contemporary legacy, by addressing the impact that the show girl who captured the hearts and imagination of Picasso and Hemingway has had on her. Critics claim that the show excels at expressing the magic of the historical narrative but that one loses interest in the contemporary sub plot. Nevertheless this show is on Imaginadium’s must see list for August.

Posted by Kate.

“If only all Christmas best-of compilations were as good as #WhenWorldsCollideCabaret’s.” – This Is Cabaret

See the review in it's entirety here: http://www.thisiscabaret.com/review-when-worlds-collide-greatest-hits/ 

Review: When Worlds Collide: Greatest Hits

Dec 14, 2012 Sasha Garwood

The year ended with an exceptional show for When Worlds Collide. Returning to a newly refurbished Pavilion at the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane, the monthly revue departed from its usual format of themed nights to present a “greatest hits” selection of previous acts. If you liked the maelstrom of pirates, cannibals, demons and other comic shenanigans from its first two seasons, this was your chance to catch them a second time.

As the show’s resident sextet of chorus girls, The London Chinatown Dolls fill the redesigned Pavilion with a titillating edge through their collective dance numbers. A marginally inexplicable selection of vintage-style films contribute atmosphere and establish a vaudevillian, vintage feel, despite the distortion plaguing the audio throughout the night.

Many segments feature the girls dressed as 50s pinups, chorus girls, or in one memorable case lobsters. Their sex appeal is evident, with a comic undertone enhanced by the inclusion of compèring duo Norman Gosney and Benjamin Louche (of award-winning night The Double R Club). Whether individually, bouncing off each other or interacting with the Dolls, the boys remain their enjoyably anarchic selves throughout a cornucopia of theatrical antics. Mr. Louche’s divinely depraved decadence contrasts neatly with Mr. Gosney’s traditional showmanship. In one remarkable sketch, the duo plays lascivious airport security guards who trick an unsuspecting belle (played by sharp burlesque performer Miss Miranda) to strip down to her underwear while a terrorist and other threatening figures creep through the metal detector gate with abandon.

When Worlds Collide co-producer and head Doll Miss Amelia gets to shine on a few solo numbers as well. Her spoken-word three-minute rendition of the Nativity stars the Virgin Mary as a California valley girl, getting into the Christmas spirit with immortal lines like “Don’t you talk like that about my baby, daddy” and “oh, Joseph, you’re so sweet to me, let’s make out.” Her other inspired routine, where she plays the Bride of Frankenstein being undressed by a sinister puppet, is as creepy as it is compelling.

It isn’t all showgirls, stockings and sea creatures, though. Magician Adam Hoffman produces some beautifully timed sleight of hand with a squashed banana. Another magician, Johnny Electrolux indulges multiple fetishes with a snowman-themed skit: after a passionate and engulfing encounter with a giant balloon, he launches into a genital disappearing act that confirms the revue’s post-watershed status.

abTOO CABARET: A Message For Gary Barlow (di toocabaret)