Club Cascadeur [FringeTIX]
A whole heap of Garden performers @ Le Cascadeur
11:30pm, Sat 21 Feb 2009
I knew I was going to have fun here when I realised that I wasn’t getting irritated by the youngsters in front of me crapping on and on and on and on and on about how awesome the “Fringe” was, and how they were “at the Fringe” (or rather, The Garden) at least once a week last year. Self-important elitist prick that I am, that sort of thing would usually get on my tits no end; tonight, however, I was finding the humour in it, and inwardly wishing them well in their journeys through Life. And when midnight came and went, The Kids started braying: “This is shit. They should fucking get their act together and open the doors on time.” Which, in and of itself, is not amusing – except that, once the doors to Le Cascadeur did open, after they’d been waiting in line for 45 minutes, the trumpeting of the show’s spruiker pricked The Kids’ ears in alarm.
“Tickets? What tickets? Have you got any tickets?”
A phone rang, one of The Kids answered: “Yeah, we’re at the back. Just going into a club now.”
The spruiker, hearing their frantic queries and mutterings, through powers of human observation that I completely lack, said to them: “This isn’t a club, it’s a show.”
“…What? Fuck that then.” They left the queue. There was much giggling at their expense.
…god, I feel like such a grumpy old man for writing all that. But, fuck it, I found it funny.
So, as expected, Club Cascadeur is a sort of mish-mash cabaret show featuring heavily from other shows in The Garden. It starts off with a ramshackle mess, with a battle for the title of emcee for the evening. I think Fez Fa’anana (from Poly Hood Cabaret) was one of them, and he declared that the Club was “a fucked up playground for artists to try something different” – the usual code for bits that don’t make it into shows, along with a bit of spruiking. After kicking off with a little spoken word and Fez’s rap about Joh, we’re treated to a piece of Le Gateau Chocolat (from A Company of Strangers, and last seen with Empress Stah) performing Nothing Compares 2 U. Brilliant – he’s got such a fantastic voice, and such wonderful presence.
Moving on, there was a decent hoop act (featuring a vodka-swilling sailor), David Quirk did a bit of his standup routine (not bad – looking forward to his show now), and two operatic acts (buxom Russian Sveta Dobranoch (another Company of Strangers ring in) and the delicious UK performer (Lily? Lilly? I know not, but wish to)) belted out some wonderful notes. A bit of sword swallowing, NZ power-songstress Lindah E, and the drunken leering clownfoolery of Wacko & Blotto rounded out the evening… well, it was 1:30am when they wrapped up.
Wonderful stuff – even though I already had tickets to Quirk and A Company of Strangers (tonight!), I’m now dragging Poly Hood Cabaret into the must-see list. And that, I reckon, is what Club Cascadeur is all about – giving you tantalising morsels of what else is around.