Friday at Cabaret Summer School, 2013.
Paul Boylon visits to talk with us about his cabaret venue, La Boheme. It's a little French-style bar in the middle of the city. It's affordable for emerging performers, and seats 55, making it feasible to have a sold-out show. Paul also talks about the Cabaret Fringe, established by La Boheme to capitalize on the success of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival (held in June each year), and to give local performers an opportunity to showcase their work.
I have twice performed in the Cabaret Fringe - La Boheme organizes an event called Kabarett, in which three performers each present a 20-minute cabaret segment, so it becomes a one-hour show. It's a very successful format; each performer invites their friends, and the deal is that they see you and two other performers, so all three of you gain exposure. I've also held a private event at La Boheme; a cocktail party at which I performed my favourite Brazilian songs accompanied by a guitarist; we called it "An Afternoon in Rio". And each month I perform at Cabaret Live (La Boheme's regular open-mic event for cabaret). It is a lovely venue to perform at and to visit; the cocktails, sound and lighting are all superb.
We also discuss ways of getting publicity for the shows which we may develop in the future.
There's a bit of free time, and I take the opportunity to work on memorizing the lyrics of "Two Kites". This is the only song in my show that I have never performed before. I'm only singing two of the four verses, but the song is quite wordy, and I'm finding I need to pause between some of the lines in order to remember what comes next. I only started learning it this week, but hopefully it will be fine. I've been learning the words over the past couple of days.
Matthew asks me if I can provide better sheet music. During this week he's been sight-transposing "Song of the Jet", but would prefer to have some piano music to read from. I explain that I have previously scoured the Internet for the music to my songs, but I cannot find it. None of these songs are in the books I've been able to buy. Matthew does a search and also comes up with nothing. All three songs are from the Brazilian book lent to me by my guitarist friend.
Next, we are assigned 15-minute time-slots to rehearse our show with Matthew on piano. I'm second on the list. The only thing is, I haven't yet seen the "patter-doctor"; Catherine is helping everyone with their story and jokes, but I haven't had my session with her yet. All of yesterday, every time I looked, she was deep in discussion with some anxious singer. So I've got an idea of what I might do, but I don't know if she'll like it. Matthew says "Don't worry, let's just run through the music".
This is OK with me. I've done this twice before, and the others probably need the coaching more than I do. I've got the basics of the show already. So I go into the rehearsal room. Matthew does not appear to struggle at all with the music. I'm starting my set with a few bars of "One Note Samba". Then will follow "Song of the Jet" and "Two Kites". We have performed the final song "This Happy Madness" together once before, and he remembers how it goes.
Eventually at lunch time I sit down with Catherine. She completely rearranges my show. She recommends ditching "One Note Samba" (we only have ten minutes each), and thinks I should insert some patter between the two verses of "Song of the Jet". She gives me an alternative premise for my story and a new ending. Her advice to me is to be spontaneous and present as if I am telling the story to a friend.
I know her idea is better than mine; she's been doing this for years, and she knows what will work. But now we are straight into the dress rehearsal. I go and put on my dress.
Somehow, during the week, ten, ten-minute mini-shows have materialized. But they are understandably a bit rough around the edges. Matthew announces me and I head for the stage. He launches into a flamboyant introduction to "One Note Samba". I reach the microphone and explain that we cut that song out. I sing "Song of the Jet", but I forget to include the patter between the verses. We start again, and this time my show runs smoothly. There are plenty of laughs from the audience and I come off feeling quite happy with what I've done.
As I resume my seat, Catherine hands me a page full of hand-written notes on how to improve my performance. I've also got the video, which I will review before tomorrow night.
As we finish the dress rehearsal, people start carrying tables and chairs into the room to set up for tomorrow night's show. It's now up to us to prepare ourselves and our songs.
Video of my dress rehearsal
Paul Boylon visits to talk with us about his cabaret venue, La Boheme. It's a little French-style bar in the middle of the city. It's affordable for emerging performers, and seats 55, making it feasible to have a sold-out show. Paul also talks about the Cabaret Fringe, established by La Boheme to capitalize on the success of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival (held in June each year), and to give local performers an opportunity to showcase their work.
I have twice performed in the Cabaret Fringe - La Boheme organizes an event called Kabarett, in which three performers each present a 20-minute cabaret segment, so it becomes a one-hour show. It's a very successful format; each performer invites their friends, and the deal is that they see you and two other performers, so all three of you gain exposure. I've also held a private event at La Boheme; a cocktail party at which I performed my favourite Brazilian songs accompanied by a guitarist; we called it "An Afternoon in Rio". And each month I perform at Cabaret Live (La Boheme's regular open-mic event for cabaret). It is a lovely venue to perform at and to visit; the cocktails, sound and lighting are all superb.
We also discuss ways of getting publicity for the shows which we may develop in the future.
There's a bit of free time, and I take the opportunity to work on memorizing the lyrics of "Two Kites". This is the only song in my show that I have never performed before. I'm only singing two of the four verses, but the song is quite wordy, and I'm finding I need to pause between some of the lines in order to remember what comes next. I only started learning it this week, but hopefully it will be fine. I've been learning the words over the past couple of days.
Matthew asks me if I can provide better sheet music. During this week he's been sight-transposing "Song of the Jet", but would prefer to have some piano music to read from. I explain that I have previously scoured the Internet for the music to my songs, but I cannot find it. None of these songs are in the books I've been able to buy. Matthew does a search and also comes up with nothing. All three songs are from the Brazilian book lent to me by my guitarist friend.
Next, we are assigned 15-minute time-slots to rehearse our show with Matthew on piano. I'm second on the list. The only thing is, I haven't yet seen the "patter-doctor"; Catherine is helping everyone with their story and jokes, but I haven't had my session with her yet. All of yesterday, every time I looked, she was deep in discussion with some anxious singer. So I've got an idea of what I might do, but I don't know if she'll like it. Matthew says "Don't worry, let's just run through the music".
This is OK with me. I've done this twice before, and the others probably need the coaching more than I do. I've got the basics of the show already. So I go into the rehearsal room. Matthew does not appear to struggle at all with the music. I'm starting my set with a few bars of "One Note Samba". Then will follow "Song of the Jet" and "Two Kites". We have performed the final song "This Happy Madness" together once before, and he remembers how it goes.
Eventually at lunch time I sit down with Catherine. She completely rearranges my show. She recommends ditching "One Note Samba" (we only have ten minutes each), and thinks I should insert some patter between the two verses of "Song of the Jet". She gives me an alternative premise for my story and a new ending. Her advice to me is to be spontaneous and present as if I am telling the story to a friend.
I know her idea is better than mine; she's been doing this for years, and she knows what will work. But now we are straight into the dress rehearsal. I go and put on my dress.
Somehow, during the week, ten, ten-minute mini-shows have materialized. But they are understandably a bit rough around the edges. Matthew announces me and I head for the stage. He launches into a flamboyant introduction to "One Note Samba". I reach the microphone and explain that we cut that song out. I sing "Song of the Jet", but I forget to include the patter between the verses. We start again, and this time my show runs smoothly. There are plenty of laughs from the audience and I come off feeling quite happy with what I've done.
As I resume my seat, Catherine hands me a page full of hand-written notes on how to improve my performance. I've also got the video, which I will review before tomorrow night.
As we finish the dress rehearsal, people start carrying tables and chairs into the room to set up for tomorrow night's show. It's now up to us to prepare ourselves and our songs.
Video of my dress rehearsal
No comments:
Post a Comment