AVANT-CABARET SPECTACULAR

Forget what you may think you know about cabaret: a new generation of downtown performers has been redefining the genre with an eye toward edgy comedy and performance art. Time Out New York’s Adam Feldman serves up a tasty sampler of some of the city’s best neocabaret artists, joined by the celebrated songwriter LANCE HORNE on the piano.

ADAM FELDMAN (host)
reviews theatre and cabaret as a staff writer for Time Out New York and is president of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle.

POOR BABY BREE
Bree Brenton has been performing as Poor Baby Bree since 2005 after a lifetime of studying vaudeville and its performers. Her one-woman show Weary River earned awards from Time Out New York and Backstage. Her following show, I Am Going to Run Away, has played at The Club at La MaMa E.T.C. She is joined by Franklin Bruno on piano.

COLE ESCOLA
a.k.a. “the funny guy” (The New York Times), appears regularly as various older women, himself, or some combination of the two all over NYC (including Our Hit Parade, the almost-Broadway production of Yank! and his one-man nightclub act at Joe’s Pub and Feinstein’s at the Loews Regency), as well as on television.

BRIDGET EVERETT
is a singing tour de force known for her funny yet gut-wrenching, outrageous and unpredictable performance work. She has appeared frequently on Time Out New York’s annual list of top cabaret performers. At Ars Nova, she starred in the original musical At Least It’s Pink, based on her life, which she co-wrote with Kenny Mellman and director Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City).

JENN HARRIS
Theatre: Silence! The Musical, Modern Orthodox, (Lucille Lortel Award, Theatre World Award). TV: 30 Rock, Bored to Death, Law&Order, Law & Order: CI, Guiding Light. Boston University School for the Arts, L.A.M.D.A., The Second City (Chicago).

AMBER MARTIN 
is an acclaimed vocalist and comedic performance artist in the tradition of Lily Tomlin, Carol Burnett and Whoopi Goldberg. Her recent projects include the sold-out series Amber Alert!, a collection of vignettes drawn from her toy box of strange and fascinating characters. She was named one of the top performers of 2010 by The New Yorker’s Hilton Als.

MOLLY POPE
is a critically acclaimed cabarettist whose solo shows have played Joe’s Pub and Ars Nova, among other venues. She has been branded a “kicky, neoretro cabaret chanteuse” and hailed for her “shredding alto” (Time Out New York).  She is joined on piano by Tony Award nominee, Obie winner, and Our Hit Parade co-creator KENNY MELLMAN.

YACKEZ
the self-proclaimed “World’s Most Adorable Hip-Hop Duo” is the arty rap group/multimedia collaboration of Jon and Larissa Velez-Jackson, a.k.a. Papi Jon and Twitta. This married hip-hop duo exists as both a celebration and critique of popular culture, politics, urban life and, most notably, itself.