Interview: Live and learn - Life is a long lesson in cabaret
Friday, June 3, 2011 at 2:40PM
Catherine Campbell and Matthew Carey have been an indispensable part of Adelaide’s cabaret community for over a decade. They’re not only highly acclaimed and respected cabaret artists who have worked on countless shows, but are also experienced educators devoted to developing and supporting raw talent. Matthew established the Australian Cabaret Summer School in January this year.
After conducting masterclasses as part of previous Cabaret Fringe Festivals, they return to mentor the new generation of emerging cabaret performers on Sunday June 5, 2.00pm at La Boheme.
Catherine and Matthew spoke to Cabaret Confessional and shared their thoughts on mentoring and nurturing new artists as well as their own cabaret journeys.
What can participants expect at a masterclass?
Catherine Campbell: It really varies. While my love is using the words to access the story and connect with the audience, each singer is different and sometimes you find yourself going down a path you didn’t expect – and that is the essence of cabaret! I aim to pass on some of the things I have learnt in similar masterclasses. The focus is always on helping that performer find whatever it is that they brought to tell the story, to find what that is, or to remove the things we layer onto ourselves in performance because we think we are not interesting enough. As they said constantly at Yale (at the Cabaret Convention) “You are enough!”. It has become my mantra too. One of the best things about working with Matthew is that while we share many ideas about what makes good cabaret, we often have totally different responses to a performer, and sometimes completely disagree about what that performer needs to focus on – it is an amazing and enlivening process.
Matthew Carey: I think it depends entirely on what they bring to the masterclass. I don’t specifically plan what I’m going to say before the class begins; it grows out of what happens in the moment. Cabaret is largely what happens in the moment. A cabaret show offers the opportunity to breathe and respond to what is happening in the world that day, what is happening in the room that night. That’s part of the intimacy of cabaret – the audience is sharing an experience with the performer that is unique to that moment in time.
What is the most challenging/enjoyable part of mentoring?
CC: It is a strange thing to do – to jump off a performance cliff without a safety net in front of a paying audience! I find it absolutely terrifying every time I do it. But watching a performer find something new, access a new level of connection with the song and the audience, and watching the audience react – they are the moments that everyone, performer and audience alike, remember. It is very rewarding knowing that you have helped the artist develop something new, but I always feel in awe of the work the student does in a masterclass. The most challenging aspect is working with a performer who doesn’t trust themselves and the audience helping them to find that trust – that can be a delicate moment, which also requires the audience to give something to the performer. Sometimes you feel so raw that you believe what you just did must have been awful, but an audience can let you know that you just took their breath away, and in a masterclass setting they can tell you that!
MC: I find it challenging when I see potential in performers that they are yet to acknowledge within themselves. The reward is helping them discover the confidence to trust in what they bring to performance and that allowing themselves to be wonderful and yet vulnerable at the same time is all that is needed to engage the audience. That’s the sort of life lesson that we all should try to live on and off stage, isn’t it?
What separates a brilliant from an average performance/performer?
Julie Wilson
CC: In cabaret, being able to share our humanity so that there is no barrier between the stage and the audience. The performer and the audience become lost in the story and we recognise in each other our own loves, failures, inadequacies, strengths in the face of adversity. You need very good technical ability, but a beautiful voice is not a prerequisite. The legendary Julie Wilson does it with hardly any voice left after a stroke, and she is a knockout! Absolutely mesmerizing, hilarious, and warmly, openly human. The courage to be completely present and in the moment and to trust that you are enough – those are the things that I admire in a performer and strive for in my own practice. Performers who don’t ‘lie’ to us and aren’t using performance tricks always take me into their story. Of course, to do all of these things requires lots of work and development in many areas: singing, acting, movement, comedy. Cabaret is really a combination of many skills, but the one aspect that must be there is the artist connecting with the audience. We all really want to see a show and feel something that is real and takes us out of where we were when we came in, or makes us reflect on our lives differently, or makes us feel that we are not alone, that other people feel lonely, foolish and hopelessly in love sometimes as well.
Bernadette Peters
MC: So many factors are involved in how we measure and rank performers. Vocal quality, vocal range, how they look/comport themselves, choice of material, acting skills and use of comedy. The reality is that everyone is seeking slightly different qualities in a performer, just as we do with the other people we choose to have in our lives. The quality that I think we all respond to most is the elusive sense of ‘connection’. I want to sense that the artist feels the same things that I do, finds similar things funny, uncomfortable, awkward. That he or she has experienced the different stages of love that I’ve been through and is searching for the same sort of meaningful life that I do.
Bernadette Peters is a beautiful woman, with incredible control of her voice and is a masterful actor, but the moment during her Adelaide concert when I REALLY connected with her was when she joked about trying to sell her house. Having a connection with the ‘average audience member’ is a wonderful gift. Performers that I know who embody that include Catherine Campbell, Robyn Archer, Libby O’Donovan, David Campbell and Barb Jungr.
Who do you look up to and learn from?
CC: I learn from everyone! Each time I watch a cabaret singer really connect with their audience I am in awe of that moment. I look up to Matt Carey because he is able to communicate they story and the humanity of a song WITHOUT WORDS and in dialogue with the singer. That’s pretty amazing. He is also very funny. The cabaret performers who I look up to and have made me see cabaret differently are Julie Wilson, Robyn Archer, Toni Lamond, Caroline Nin, Barb Jungr, Libby O’Donovan, Casey Bennetto, Stephen Sheehan, Michael Morley, Carol Young, Hew Parham, Amanda McBroom, Sharon McKnight, Mark Nadler, KT Sullivan, Tim Minchin, Eddie Perfect, Paul Capsis, Tommy Bradsen, The Dolls, Fascinating Aida, Anya Anastasia from Bird Wizdom, Caroline O’Connor, The Big Pretzel, Wally Carr, so many, I really can’t list them all here! (Ohhh I have probably left so many out that I will read this later and scream.) Many performers outside of the realm of cabaret too.
MC: I try and learn everyday, from everyone. I watch/listen to performances and try my best to understand why I do and don’t respond to them.
What are the most valuable lessons on cabaret you have learned over the years?
CC: You are enough. Sharing the story and the moment with the audience means more than sticking to the plan. Be honest. Have fun. You are enough.
MC: Do away with artifice. Strip away anything that gets between you and the song or you and the audience. Be the most honest channel for the material that you can be.
You’ve both been performing cabaret for many years and have wealth of experience. How did it all begin?
Gentlemen Prefer Curves
CC: I was singing music theatre concerts and finding that I was always typecast, and I wanted to do a show where I could sing any song I connected with, so I approached Johanna Allen. We wanted to be cabaret divas but we didn’t want to diet – and Gentlemen Prefer Curves (GPC) was born. A year later, Carol Young came on board and voila! We had our first gig at the first Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
I joined the cast of Berlin Cabaret around this time. Most of the cast were Flinders Drama Centre graduates and they improvised most of the show – not only was this one of the rare gigs that you could do every Friday night for nearly 3 years and consistently develop your craft. It taught me so much about working with an audience, a fabulous live band, and how to keep the audience focused on you when ‘drunken’ cast members are heckling/upstaging/throwing things at you. All while wearing underwear and a dodgy German accent!
Frank Ford
I also performed with Michelle Grootenboer in Jane Duncan’s The Adelaide Andrews Sisters, and did my first solo show at Naomi Eyers’ Cabaret Laboratory program. The Adelaide Cabaret Festival was instrumental in my development – GPC did 3 seasons there, and I sang in productions led by Jason Robert Brown, Richard Maltby and David Shire, and Andrew Lippa. I put my hand up for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival masterclasses each year – I got to work with Judi Connelli, Barb Jungr, Jeremy Sams. It was during one of these (where the director Gordon Greenberg was getting me to seduce a woman while singing “Sara Lee”) that Frank Ford approached me to work on his Marlene Dietrich show. Working with Frank Ford on My Blue Angel is one of the defining moments of my cabaret life. Frank is a wonderful human being with an incredible sense of what makes good cabaret. Being able to tour that show to New York with Frank and Matthew Carey was one of the most amazing experiences I have had. We got to have workshops with established cabaret performers and songwriters. I was encouraged to go to the Cabaret Conference at Yale, and I went the following year.
I wrote several solo shows which I performed in the Fringe and Cabaret Fringe and I keep trying to find that next project.
MC: Barbra Streisand was probably my cabaret entry point. I loved her music and as I learned more about her I discovered that she had begun her career singing in cabaret clubs in Greenwich Village, New York. I started researching this idea and era of cabaret and read all I could on the matter. This was around 1995, in the early-ish days of the internet. I discovered Stu Hamstra’s Cabaret Hotline Online and subscribed to his email newsletters. Stu continues to review and discuss shows that are playing in New York. From reading this, I pieced together my own idea of how a cabaret should work and started creating shows with my colleague David Gauci. We learnt as we went along. Once we had created a few shows we learnt about the Sydney Cabaret Convention and started attending and competing in that annually. That provided the opportunity to mix with and learn from other cabaret practitioners from around Australia and we got some valuable workshop experience with Kerrie Bidell.
On my first trip to New York in 2000, I immersed myself in cabaret at Don’t Tell Mama, The Russian Tea Room, Joe’s Pub and The Duplex. As soon as I got back to Adelaide I wanted to implement ideas I’d seen into new shows of my own. Not long afterwards I met Frank Ford and he explained he was starting a Cabaret Festival. David Gauci and I were one of the local acts booked for a spot in the Piano Bar during the inaugural Cabaret Festival and I’m proud to have been involved in every one since.
Matthew, you founded the Australian Cabaret Summer School, which you launched in January this year. Some of your graduates are performing in the Cabaret Fringe. Tell us why you started it and what the experience was like.
The Class of 2011 with Catherine Campbell. Photo by Michael Marschall
MC: The Cabaret Festivals that are held in Adelaide each year have stimulated interest in cabaret among performers. You can study singing in Adelaide, you can study Acting and even Music Theatre in various places, but there was nowhere to study Cabaret.
What is cabaret? How do you develop into being a cabaret artist? What is involved in creating a cabaret show and building an audience?
When I began my cabaret journey I found myself cobbling together information from a vast collection of sources and considered how I could effectively and efficiently pass on some of the experience I’ve accumulated on to other people who share my passion for the cabaret experience.
I’m very proud that some of the students from the very first Australian Cabaret Summer School are going on to present their own shows this year at the Cabaret Fringe and I can’t wait to see how they are continuing to develop. I’m also in the early planning stages for another Summer School in early 2012!
Catherine, you taught alongside Matthew at Australian Cabaret Summer School. What was it like to mentor those students?
CC: A huge honour and so much fun. Every day we witness people working to find the story in their song, the truth in themselves, to share and celebrate their good, their bad and their ugly with us – and there is something immediate about singing that can touch us without us knowing why. Each singer is so different and it is amazing to watch the honesty that the performers find, and be part of the struggle to find it, in every exercise.
What kind of performer you would like to nurture and encourage to grow?
CC: A performer with the ability to be vulnerable while still being confident about their skills. Being open to learning new things. Being able to say something amazing about all of our lives because you have had the courage to risk saying something about yours. Recognising the amazing support artists like Matt Carey give to the performer. Encouraging performers to look beyond the US/New York style of cabaret to European forms and developing Australian ones.
MC: I think that if you stop growing, you stop BEING an artist. I encourage anyone who’s passionate about a certain aspect of performance to learn from and be respectful of those who have gone before you, and then go forward to be as fresh and creative as possible. Don’t be afraid to draw upon your other interests and knowledge. Having your own experiences and your own voice is what sets you apart as a performer.
Where do you see the cabaret scene heading to? Do you see a trend?
CC: Cabaret is certainly increasing in popularity and I think that we as a society crave feeling connected as a community. Good cabaret gives us that in the performance and in the physical setting. ften you are at a table with people you don’t know, so you meet them and start chatting. I think more and more people are exploring their response to cabaret and that means they are stretching the boundaries of cabaret. It is extremely exciting that Adelaide is home to the world’s largest curated Cabaret Festival AND the largest Cabaret Fringe Festival – and this year Cabaret Fringe has more shows listed than the Big Festival!
MC: I would like to think that events such as masterclasses and Summer Schools help give more artists the confidence and tools to develop shows that they will be able to present in many different venues around the country and even beyond.
I think in what is still a niche of the performing arts, cabaret has to develop a close and encouraging community where we support each other in creating and promoting our work. The website cabaretconfessional.com grew out of my desire to provide a hub for cabaret artists and audiences all over the world to share their insights and learn from each other.
Australian cabaret festivals are growing audiences who know about cabaret, and the challenge is to let them know that cabaret also happens beyond the festivals and to help them discover the artists and venues that present cabaret all year round.
What would be your all-time most memorable cabaret moment/s to date?
Catherine Campbell in My Blue Angel
CC: Performing My Blue Angel in New York. Performing with Gentlemen Prefer Curves at the Cabaret Festival (we did the first ever show where they used the Festival Theatre stage as a venue) and in the Spiegeltent. Singing to my mum and my sister in my first ever solo show. Watching Fascinating Aida and thinking ‘THAT’S what I want to do!’ Nearly every show we did for Berlin Cabaret. Performing in every Cabaret Festival. Getting to see amazing cabaret shows every Cabaret Festival for free as an artist. Singing lying on a piano while 38 weeks pregnant. And of course Paul (Boylon, an owner of La Boheme, is also Founder and Associate Director of the Cabaret Fringe Festival and Catherine’s husband - Ed) asking to marry me by singing my favourite Piaf song!”
MC: I don’t like to single out any one experience, but workshopping and performing the show My Blue Angel in New York with Catherine and Frank Ford was a real highlight. We worked with Mark Nadler, Sue Matsuki and KT Sullivan. Accompanying at a cabaret class held by Lina Koutrakois in New York was also a thrill. I’m also very thankful for the Flat on your Bacharach show that I developed with Melissa McCaig and Libby O’Donovan, as it has given me the wonderful opportunity to perform nationally and internationally, developing my skills.
The best thing about being a part of Cabaret Fringe Festival?
CC: Performing for amazing audiences with amazing performers! The electric intimacy of La Boheme. Celebrating local talent.
MC: The diversity of shows that are presented and the fact that it provides a forum for any artist. From those starting out in cabaret to those who have been treading the boards for decades and to provide enjoyable and thought provoking entertainment to a similarly eclectic and diverse audience!
What else is in the pipeline?
CC: I would like to write a new show - I have ideas for about 10! - and continue to develop Le Chevre Noir, a crazy French-inspired cabaret with Jamie Jewell and Sidonie Henbest.
Founder and Associate Director of the Cabaret Fringe Festival Paul Boylon has been keen to make Kabarette a regular feature at La Boheme, and I am pushing for Cabaret Live! to go fortnightly - with themed shows! So many ideas, so little time.
MC: I’m looking forward to taking a holiday in July!
Click here for details and more information on Catherine and Matthew’s masterclass Words & Music at La Boheme on Sunday June 5.
Related post:
2011 Cabaret Fringe Festival Wrap-up: Masterclass with Catherine Campbell and Matthew Carey
Lena Nobuhara
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Reader Comments (2)
wow, this is a great interview. it's fascinating to see the journey and hear the highlights and delights from the cabaret careers of two very talented folk. thanks to all three of you.
Thank you - glad you enjoyed the interview.
It was such a thrill to do this interview with them, as I have incredible respect and admiration for their work in cabaret.
If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have become as big a cabaret fan as I am today!
I'm extremely looking forward to their masterclass this afternoon.