This Week’s London Cabaret Zingers: 10-16 October 2011

Franco Milazzo
By Franco Milazzo Last edited 149 months ago
This Week’s London Cabaret Zingers: 10-16 October 2011

It's getting cold out there so warm yourself up with a hot Zinger or two this week.

Zinger Of The Week: Waiting For Stanley @ Greenwich Theatre

Leela Bunce is already renowned on cabaret circuit as the double-brazenness that is Audacity Chutzpah, the clown-queen of burlesque and co-founder of the monthly revue The Blue Stocking Society. Waiting for Stanley is Ms Bunce's stage show elucidating on the tale of a woman in 1945 waiting at a station for her husband's return from the front. The train finally arrives but Stanley's not on it... Through clowning and puppetry, we see what might have happened to the missing man.

Building on her cheeky charm and innovative performances as la Chutzpah, the play began as a cabaret piece but grew into a fully-fledged drama which premiered in May at the Greenwich Theatre's Emerging Artists season. The production is being supported by the British Legion and the archives of the British Army Museum. More background information can be found here and tickets and show information is over here.

Monday's Zingers

A lesser-sung hero of London's cabaret scene is at the King's Head tonight. Performance artist Dickie Beau is one of the few who can move effortlessly between the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, the Old Vic Tunnels and (this week) an Islington fringe theatre as he explores fear and family in Steven Berkoff's Kvetch.

If you're looking for something altogether less sophisticated (but still jolly good fun), get down to the RVT where the Big Bingo Show has a £120 rollover. Not quite Euromillions, but enough to buy your mum something nice.

Tuesday's Zingers

This week's postbag included a letter from Zingers fan and mind reader Doug Segal, age twenty-something-and-a-half. "Dear Zingers, can you fix it for my show to be mentioned", he didn't say. He did, though, go on to say that his show would be at the Etcetera Theatre between 11-16 October. But what's the show actually like? "It's essentially a comedy mind reading show with a two big differences. One, I'm actually funny, and two, I teach the audience how to do things like detect lies and implant subliminal suggestions. The show opens with a lottery prediction, every single audience learns a trick they can do at home and closes with a random audience member on stage reading the mind of the rest of the audience."

Velma Celli - bad Italian food pun or drag queen with a difference? Rock up to the Brickhouse tonight to see Ian Stroughair's altered ego and her Screaming Queenz and make up your own mind. We can't do everything for you.

Mathieu Amalric - French sex god or so-so Bond villain? Either way, the burlesque troupe from his recent flick Tournée are in town at the Charing Cross Theatre with their Cabaret New Burlesque.

Wednesday's Zingers We’re still not quite sure how something can be new and long-running but the Decades floorshow at Proud Cabaret sounds like good, educational fun for all the family (as long as that family is the Manson Family).

Chaz is back with a brand new invention: the man behind the annual cabaret behemoth that is London Burlesque Week returns to Madame Jojo's with a new show,Forbidden Cabaret and, like a cautious mummifier, he's keeping everything well under wraps.

Singing Mediterranean lothario Wilfredo is joined at his shows Wilfredo...and other beautiful creatures by Lewis Schaffer, Thom Tuck and Ariadne the Greek WAG at the Phoenix Club.

Thursday's Zingers

Alp Haydar went down a storm with his last show Flight 666 To Bermuda, a pantomime about a man caught between his mother and the attentions of a dashing terrorist called Mohammed. He continues the story with his Erotic Adventures in Atlantis as he and his Jihadist beau explore a mysterious island. We're picturing a gay Lost with better acting and an  ending which makes sense. If you miss it tonight, you can catch this again next week.

Relax with a cocktail and lounge covers at the Cellar Door as couple Kitty La Roar and Nick Of Time do their own entertaining laidback versions of rock classics (including Nirvana) over the gentle thrum of Kurt Cobain’s spinning corpse.

Mind-reader Luke Jermay's The Mentalist will be at top supperclub Volupte after dazzling Las Vegas for a couple of years. No doubt "mentalist" means something different over the pond.

Friday's Zingers

La Rêve may be at the posh-sounding Cafe De Paris but its earthy approach to cabaret produces great bills week in, week out. Roll up this Friday to see Dusty Limits, Elliot Mason, Laurie Hagen, Lucky Franco (great name, that), Pippa the Ripper and many more. Food optional, fun mandatory.

We spoke to them in 2008 and we saw them rock out at the Soho Theatre. Tonight, neo-cabaret firestarters Bourgeois & Maurice will be setting Bistrotheque alight in a hopefully metaphorical sense with their pitch-black and stylish approach to postmodern cabaret.

There's an Office Party to end all office parties at the Pleasance presented by Duckie vet Christopher Green aka Ida Barr aka Tina C and La Clique's Ursula Martinez. We previewed it here.

Saturday's Zingers

If you can make your way past door whores The Cloths, RVT's Duckie is as good a place to be tonight as any as DJs the Readers Wives and hostess-with-the-mostess Amy Lamé welcome Pete Edwards and the Dream Bears.

There're more Kvetch, more Decades, more Bourgeois and Maurice and more Office Party. See above for details.

Sunday's Zinger

Do the paperwork, mow the lawn, write to your MP. Then head into town for some all-lady cabaret action at Oliver's Jazz Bar as they put on Bawdsville.

Next week's Zingers is a Halloween special. Meanwhile, here are the dark and delicious Bourgeois and Maurice.

Last Updated 10 October 2011