The Questionnaire
The UK’s favourite cult cabaret duo Frisky and Mannish bring their show Cabariot to the Auckland International Cabaret Season. Their success with many sell-out shows, starting with their first show School of Pop, under their belt has lead them to win Best Comedy at Adelaide Fringe Festival, Editor’s Choice Award at Brighton Fringe, and nominated for Best Music and Variety Act at the Chortle Awards. What are you plugging right now? A little show we made that has the very humble and manageable intention of eradicating all injustice in the world as of right now.We call it ‘‘CabaRIOT’’ because it is everything a riot should be: angry and enraged, but you get to enjoy fabulous entertainment, applaud politely and leave in an orderly fashion. What’s your idea of perfect happiness? Eating croque monsieurs that taste amazing but contain no calories, on a beautiful beach that will not deposit sand in every one of your orifices, surrounded by high-powered industrial fans to cool you down, with endless topups on your vodka cranberries, and a live stage production of Dreamgirls to watch. Which living person do you most admire? Lorde, of course. She has it all but then she’s such a normal, downto-earth, ordinary, nonpretentious, balanced, likeable Goth witch from Narnia or whichever-crazy-not-realcountry-she-sprang-out-of. What’s your most embarrassing moment? Not realising that New Zealand was a real country in the previous answer. Sorry. Please come to our show. Ever stolen anything? We literally steal for our jobs. All of our material is brazen parody of existing pop songs. We’re surprised we haven’t yet been jailed for one of two crimes: a) grand theft and vandalism, or b) extreme fabulousness. What life lesson would you pass on to your children? Everything that’s funny gets a laugh. Not everything that gets a laugh is funny. What job would you do other than your own and why? Horse whisperer. No explanation. Just funny to put on your passport, and surely the best dinner party conversation starter? And horses are majestic. And whispering means you can tell them loads of gossip about who’s pregnant and who’s been made redundant. How do you solve rising house prices? We can’t possibly go into it, as it will be a massive spoiler for our show, which contains a 5-minute excoriation on the lunacy of the current housing crisis. What we will say is, in the time-honoured words of some lady character in The Simpsons, ‘‘think of the children!’’ – Mike Alexander
Frisky And Mannish bring their show Cabariot o the Auckland Live International Cabaret Season, September 28 to October 2 at the Concert Chamber, Auckland Town Hall.