Captain Anchor (old Interview transcript)

How did you get involved with London Burlesque Week?

My burlesque friends had mentioned the festival to me. It seemed like a great way to perform at a showcase in London. I had been trying to get a gig in London for quite a while and it can be difficult to go down as an unknown performer. London Burlesque Week offers me that shop window that I wouldn't have been offered in the usual run of things.

What act are you taking down and what inspired it?

I'm performing an act at the Saturday Jetsetters Ball, and the VIP Awards Ball on the Sunday at Cafe de Paris. At the Jetsetters show I'm performing the Loveboat Theme tune, an act that came from my first self produced show, Hello Sailor! Obviously with a name like Captain Anchor, I'm obsessed with all things nautical. The Loveboat theme tune: it's quite cheesey and over the top. It's almost a comedy song. I'm also doing Rain on my Parade, the Bobby Darin version.

I like doing songs written for women and reinterpreted for men.

I'm inspired by great singers, and Frank Sinatra is one of the best. This is why my final song at the festival will be 'Theme from New York, New York'. It's such a big dramatic song, and a song where I can have fun and change the lyrics to suit the mood. And there is a big finish. I love a big finish!

Why cabaret, and how does it fit with your musical projects?

I see cabaret as a genre of music that fuses jazz, musical theatre and popular music. Cabaret can combine music, art and theatre.  In terms of my own creativity, cabaret allows me to be a musical theatre performer on my own terms. My ambition is to record an album of covers and to record original material.

What other acts are you hoping to see?

I'm looking forward to catching all the International acts that I wouldnt normally get to see. Even the stage names are interesting. There is a performer from Atlanta called Vagina Jenkins, where else but burlesque would you get that? I'm hoping to catch up with some of the Scottish performers also, and just some general mingling and networking!

Do you think that there is any particular style or approach that can be defined as "Scottish cabaret"?

I'm not sure if there is a particular style of cabaret or burlesque in Scotland. Although I first got interested in cabaret and burlesque in Edinburgh. So much so that my own performances will soon to include male burlesque or 'boylesque'. There are'nt many guys doing burlesque, but in some ways it makes things easier. You can make your own path and develop the performances according to your own rules. Boylesque involves dance and I love dance in all its forms.

Scottish burlesque performers are a community of people as much as a section of the entertainment industry. It's quite a close knit community and performers are quite supportive of each other. I'd like to say that everyone is really bitchy and there is so much drama, but I prefer to keep that for the stage.

I think audiences are quite supportive too, It's different to London, where there are shows every other week. I think, for me it's easier to become a big fish in a small pond, as opposed to in a bigger city where everyone is so jaded with the fact that you are a performer.

Edinburgh and Glasgow offer me great opportunities to do shows, and I hope to tour to more Scottish cities also. Cabaret and Burlesque has become so popular that people get it, and you dont have to perform to a burlesque crowd for people to be into it. 

Captain Anchor will be performing at The Voodoo Rooms, Speakeasy, Edinburgh. Thursday May 6th at 9pm.

see www.captainanchor.com for more details.