A warm May night – patios overflowing with winter-whitened people happy to be in the sun. Who wants to spend time indoors listening to mumbly poets, whiney singers or watching comic burlesque? Well, let me tell you, Cabaret Noir reached out and filled the house with an eager crowd.
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First feature was Nik Beat who succeeds in evoking smoky basement jazz cafes in a time when no one smokes in doors. He started with some poetry about fallen idols – Janis Joplin with her ‘corn textured hair’; Marilyn Monroe: ‘dark angel food cake.’ Then he picked up his guitar, joined on bass by Mike Ratt, for some songs. In ‘I made a God out of my Girlfriend’ he tells us ‘I made a god out of the way she gave head.’ In another he warns us ‘love but don’t fall in love’ even though he wanted to ‘be famous for falling in love.’ A great set.
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After a quick set up Dottie Dangerfield (the Dame who puts the D in danger) hit the stage with fun, frisky comic burlesque routine. From cupcakes to tassels in less than four minutes it was a sweet sample of traditional tease that certainly left us wanting more.
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Last up was Giraffe (Lynne Rafter and Mike Copley) with a bouncy set of original songs, full of their off-kilter harmonies, wry (but not bitter) observations of relationships, stardom and work life. Lots of fine lines ‘you had it all figured out now you have to stand down loveless’, ‘I built a boat to sail away from you.’ Noir Photos
Lizzie, planning ahead, has booked me for Cabaret Noir’s extra Noir October show.
Cute Rebels
look what they’ve done to the revolution
they’ve made it retro chic cute cunning
safety pins and tats for Barbie
there is no sting left in being a brat
saying fuck is just an attention getter
no one really reacts you say fuck the pope
or tell a bus drive to screw off asshole
verbal abuse is water off a duck’s back
no one give a shit
the revolution is old news old hat
been there done that
bought the designer rice fabric t-shirt
the special limited-edition running shoes
that got Oprah talking faster
that got mentioned in Jay’s opening monologue
saw a clip of the peak of the revolution
flash by in a Madonna video
who knew she was spokesperson for the revolution
because we had so many high powered names
speaking out on our behalf
all those stars rockers politicians
were eager for a fresh start
time for a change
time to take down the wall of inequity
and replace them with transparency
that only the rich could afford
the poor had to keep hidden
they didn’t want revolution
any more than the rich did
but at least they were honest enough to admit it
in the end
once the mini series was over
we found the right blog to remind us
of what once could have been
the right sponsor to adopt some of the color scheme
we were safe again
not quite right back where we started
but comfortable happy
even a bit amused by the current revolution
those kids acting as if they’d invented the right way
to say fuck all this hypocrisy
we want change and we want it now
I know the feeling
but just like us
they don’t really know
what they want to change in to
if they knew
then we’d have a real revolution on our hands
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Reblogged this on and commented:
Amazing write up from topoet.ca for Sunday’s Cabaret!