Frisky and Mannish's School ofPop @ The Banquet Room,Adelaide (26/06/10)

Mon 28th Jun, 2010 in Gig Reviews

In its tenth year the Adelaide Cabaret Festival is showing no signs of slowing down. The closing night of the festival brought UK comedy-cabaret import Frisky and Mannish who served up a delicious slice of pop education to the beautiful Banquet Room in the Adelaide Festival Centre. The sell-out crowd quickly warmed up with the laughter, singing and dancing encouraged by the principals of this fine teaching establishment.

Frisky and Mannish have had a quick rise to comedy-cabaret fame, as they only started performing as their act, just 2 years ago. Their twisted cabaret format in debut show School of Pop has wowed audiences from UK to Australia. A sell-out hit of the hotly contested Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2009, mere months after show development; the charismatic duo finally brought their show down to Australia in 2010 for both Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Melbourne International Comedy Festival. However, they are the perfect fit for Adelaide’s Cabaret Festival. This Saturday night brought an energetic crowd eager to escape the cold by warming amongst the candlelit cabaret tables.

“School of Pop” is one hour of pop education lead by principals Frisky, Laura Corcoran, on stellar vocals and Mannish, Matthew Jones on keys and vocals. Beginning with rapid sweeping spotlights and a backing applause track, the stage was set for an entertaining night. What makes this duo so popular is the clever way they twist popular songs around so their meanings differ or you maybe understand songs for the very first time. After a *N*Sync* inspired opener, the audience was instructed to take part in their first vocal test for the night; not only singing along but correctly annunciating the words to classic tune Twist and Shout with “crisp T’s.” This followed with every audience member up on their feet dancing the mash potato and twists to giggles from all involved.

Drunk hecklers were quickly dealt with like naughty students; “Do I have to split you up?” and then the pop lessons quickly continued after a brief recess with a dance break to The Thong Song. The only lacklustre part of the hour was when audience members were brought up on stage to be sorted into their pop houses ala ‘Harry Potter sorting hat’ style.

Their twisted pop was shown through a song full of famous questions from pop songs set to Destiny’s Child’s Independent Woman; a seaside humour version of Pussycat Dolls’ Beep; and Kate Bush’s classic Wuthering Heights sung by Frisky’s perfect imitation of Kate Nash, which showed the world of difference between the two British Kates. Frisky demonstrates an endless vocal range and an ease at playing an assortment of characters. Mannish is a brilliant support on keys but when given moments to sing solo, he shows a stunning voice.

There were ‘cameos’ from many pop icons from Lady Gaga in a “Dancing with the Stars” inspired sketch, to Lily Allen and Noel Coward singing each other’s songs in their own iconic styles. A highlight was a look at the stranger lyrics in pop music, as depicted by two stoner characters. This included a look at Alanis Morrisette’s Ironic and Joan Osborne’s What If God Was One of Us?

Frisky and Mannish take the crowd through an entertaining and hilarious lesson in pop music, but the real cherry on top is the way they make audiences think about the meanings of their favourite pop tunes while having some altered. I sure won’t think about Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart in the same way again, after the psycho-stalker rendition.

Next time their school bell rings in our Australian theatres, make sure you’re not late for class in Frisky and Mannish’s School of Pop.