What Good Is Sitting Alone In Your Room?

Last weekend, I was the Mistress of Ceremonies at Cabaret Boris and Natasha at Performance Works Northwest.

Guess whom I took as my inspiration!

No, not Joel Grey.

Nor Liza Minelli.

Not even Boris and Natasha.

Wait, I mean, not even THIS Boris and Natasha:

All of these might have been good sources. But not for me.

Because there is one cabaret show that was truly formative for my generation.

It had the glamor of the performance and the camaraderie of backstage shenanigans.

It was the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational . . . muppetational -- it is what we call the Muppet Show.
In the grand tradition of cornier-than-ethanol-in-August Fozzy Bear, I introduced every single act by telling knock-knock jokes, based on the name of each performer in the act. That would be

• Anne
• Jenn
• Margretta
• Scott
• Jef
• Kelvin
• Chuck
• Bill
• Sunny
• Kaj-Anne
• and what the hell, I threw in Boris and Natasha, too

Early in the show I also made a joke about a sax act - meaning of course saxophone. But the two post-intermission acts emphasized a different kind of saxuality. Both were about queer identity.

You might think that would make the Muppet Show a not exactly apt model. But really, it turns out there was a lot of homuppetry going on in that show.

And I don't just mean these two Quentin Crisp wannabees.

Note the similarities between Portland's very own Kaj-Anne Pepper, as seen in Cabaret Boris and Natasha, and Mr. Elton John, as seen on the Muppet Show.
I don't think it was him and Suzy who were having so much fun, if you know what I mean.

As for Fozzy, well, who knows what he was knock-knockin' around with, once he had on his elegant elbow gloves.