Before we move forward, let's look back!....or some such nonsense.

So, I got myself back on the cabaret horse back in August following a very successful visit to Frinton-on-Sea to "star" as the Widow Corney in Oliver! Of course I thought my contribution to the production was massive (or at least important) until my landlady in Frinton came to see it and, during our debrief of the performance, said "You didn't have a very big part did you!". I could just tell that she had hoped to play host to Nancy or, at the very least, the Artful Dodger. Anyway, I brushed it off and left Frinton the next day telling myself "I am a good company member. My input counted" over and over again until my landlady's words had removed themselves from my psyche. So, I was back to London to prepare for a short cabaret set 4 days later.

This set was the start of, what I am hoping will be a brand new cabaret show all about the 80s. However I did start to think about the first cabaret show I did a couple of years ago and how I haven't really capitalized on it's potential yet. It has only had one outing and, although it was flawed, there was the bones of a fairly good show there. Unfortunately, as well as being incompetent I am, also, incredibly lazy.

Following the one and only performance of my first cabaret I was chatting to a friend about it. A very honest friend, who although she had enjoyed the show, had many points of constructive criticism to make. There were a few things that were rooky mistakes to do with staging that I knew I had done and knew I would not make again but the biggest conclusion we both came to was that there were many good "jokes" in there, I just hadn't quite found them yet. This all comes down to laziness but also to impatience. I would be rubbish at cross stitch or something else that took time to complete. That's why I like crocheting. You see results quickly and that's what I want when I write the material for my cabarets.

I'm even impatient when it comes to these blog posts, which is why they are always riddled with mistakes. I say my posts are edited by my sister but I haven't sent one to her to look over in ages because I am far too impatient to wait for her to check it before I post it. So, I MUST stop being so impetuous and take a bit of time to make sure things are hunky dory before I unleash them on an unsuspecting world.

Case in point, during my prep for my first cabaret I did a short set at The Pheasantry as part of Cabaret Confidential. I sang 5 songs that were including in the longer show when I finally got around to putting it together. One of the songs was Stiles and Drewe's "Diva", a song about a woman who can't sing in tune. I have perfected the art of singing out of tune but hadn't, completely, when I first performed it 2 years ago. See for yourself. This is the full version of the first attempt I made at singing out of tune and, for my money, it isn't quite out of tune enough.

I have performed it numerous times since and am much, much better at singing out of tune now. Who would have thought after all those years of training I would end up actively attempting to sing badly!

Anyway, this is the first of a few posts with clips from my past shows but I am hoping, if I can stem the laziness and the impatience in equal measure, I will have something new to offer soon.