Five years and 50 shows represents a whole lot of crazy fun, and fans of Toronto’s Lunacy Cabaret wouldn’t have it any other way. Featuring raunchy comedy, burlesque dancers, aerialists, acrobats, a live band, and a rotating cast of extreme and bizarre characters – each event cleverly improvises on a new theme. Staged in the Centre of Gravity (1300 Gerrard Street East), a revitalized vaudeville theatre built in 1914, Lunacy Cabaret attracts a vocal and devoted audience of 200 plus people; every show is a sell out.
This huge undertaking is a volunteer effort with all performers, musicians and staff devoting their time for free. Proceeds from the shows go to support the venue and Circus Without Borders, a non-profit organization.
I’ve attended three events in the past year and always leave amazed at how this crew of 20 or more performers and staff collaborates to pull off such a great show with so few resources. Curious about the inner workings behind Lunacy Cabaret I invited the show’s dynamic clown hosts, Sketchy (above left, Dave McKay) and Fesso (above right, Jeff Krahn) to lunch. These two are always finishing each other’s thoughts and sentences so the comments below have been combined from the two of them . . .
About the performers at these events:
“Most of the performers are multi-talented. We’re not really worried about who we’re going to offend, so the material can push boundaries. We encourage the audience to interact with the cast, and we bring people on stage. There’s been a lot of Fringe shows that have come out of sketches started at the Lunacy Cabaret. We have one of the best stages in the city and we have people lined up to perform. We have one of the best audiences in Toronto.”
“It’s definitely a Toronto-centric thing. All of our performers are Toronto artists. There is a strong Toronto tradition of improvisation and clowning and circus performance. We have this huge comedy tradition here, so we are very comedy focused. We pull from all these different communities as it is a variety show. Some of the burlesque performers are starting to introduce comedy into their shows. It’s very Toronto to share like that.”
The Milk Song:
“Kalen Davidson wrote this song called “Milk”. The song is about a cowboy who is kicking himself because he is crossing a desert and all he has is milk, which is curdling. He played us the song and we said sure Kalen play your milk song. He brought out this outrageous cowboy character and went crazy pouring milk all over himself. The crowd loved it. We had no idea it would be as good as it was.”
The audience telling performers to take their pants off:
“A couple of shows ago we had a stand up comic came out. He announces that it’s his first time being here and the audience as a whole decided to mess with this guy and someone yelled, “Take off your pants!” which he refused to do. The audience basically badgered him to the point where he had to make an agreement with the crowd; after each joke he would have to take off an item of clothing so they would allow him to tell his jokes. They basically got him down to the point where he just had his pants on and the poor guy is just standing there. We decided to save him and pulled him off.”
“We also had a juggler come out and the audience started yelling out take off your pants. So he finally just resigned himself and he dropped his pants. The crowd thought that was the best thing ever. And he lit up after that. He told me he had the time of his life!”
About Sketchy and Fesso and their dynamic:
“Sketchy is an abusive SOB and Fesso is co-dependently his buddy. Sketchy can’t get anything done unless Fesso does if for him. Fesso does all the work and Sketchy gets all the credit. Our roles in the show are the overseers of the action on the stage. We are like carpet clowns, we do a little bit of set up and tear down between acts. We do the sideline stuff. It just sort of evolved organically, a lot of it is spur of the moment. Fesso is shy and naive while Sketchy will stick it in anything that moves. Sketchy is an opportunist, he makes out with a lot of audience members and cast on stage and brings up audience members to fake having sex.”
About the show’s content:
“We try to give the audience sufficient warning that it is going to be offensive in our advertising and before the show starts. We are doing our best to offend everybody. We get some e-mails of complaint. I don’t want anyone to be there who doesn’t enjoy poking fun at everything. Sketchy’s 80-year old mother came and she loved it.”
WHERE/WHEN: Lunacy Cabaret’s five year anniversary show is Saturday, March 27 at The Centre of Gravity (1300 Gerrard St. East); tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. and the show starts at 9:30 p.m. This is a 19+ event, some content may be offensive to some viewers (at least that’s the idea). Visit YouTube to check out previous highlights.
All photos by Sharilyn Johnson, except last shot of Sketchy and Fesso (wearing a beer keg) by Paul Fegan
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wow, this looks and sounds like an amazing show. have to spring for some tix.
SKEEEEEEETCHY! FESSSSSSS-O!