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'Saturday Night Beaver' and
'The Pink Flamingo Lounge'.
 Snuggled
into the latter weeks of the Cabaret Festival reside a couple
of intriguing little shows which seem to suggest - from the
limited information written about them - that they are performances
which promise a great deal but ones that are almost without
a fixed plan. Perhaps that's being a bit harsh, so I caught
up with Director Ross Ganf to find out what was going on in
his fevered imagination.
The two shows, 'Saturday Night Beaver' and 'The Pink Flamingo Lounge' are essentially offshoots from nights which Ganf had run as successful seasons at the now defunct Minke Bar on Hindley St.
That at least explains the presence of Ross Stanley, former proprietor at Minke. "Because Ross [Ganf] had worked at Minke I've come on board to help out with the music aspect of it," says Stanley, pointing to the 'Opera' nights which they'd run.
"Okay, we've got two nights," Ganf picks up the ball, "and when we used to run it down in Minke the idea was to have an opera singer in a nightclub, and to base the whole idea of the night using Helpmann Academy partner students to provide the talent..."
A discussion with programming staff at the Cabaret lead to the resurrection of the concept. "It seemed the most logical thing was to reinvent it," says Ganf with a shrug, clearly of the 'if it ain't broke' mindset. Mind you, they've aimed the concept at the 'hip GP' a bit more, with themed nights.
"We've got a 'Pink Flamingo Lounge' as a Las Vegas night, and 'Saturday Night Beaver' is a disco themed night with Chris Shepherd and Da Whyz Guys, and we've got Steve Sheehan putting together a special disco character for us, which will be delightful."
As a hidden act he also mentions Police Horse - he'll say no
more about it, so I'm none the wiser, but I'm assured it promises
much... and there's well known actor Amber McMahon with a new
character, and dancer Ninian Donald, "and Ms Ima Starr and a
Tom Cruise-esque cocktails demonstration."
In case you hadn't worked it out, this sort of event is a real potpourri, where just about anything can - and should - be expected.
"Totally!!" he says simply when I point out he's intentionally going for some of the most appalling stuff that was ever labeled culture... and agrees it's so hard to work out whether people are having fun or taking the concept seriously. "Yeah, yeah. It'll all be very much tongue in cheek. It's a souped up variety night, you know. I've definitely tried to program my wackiest and kookiest stuff."
An hour and a half show, "plus you get Lucifer's Lounge for free afterwards at the Kool Kat Club, and it's a late show as well." You can tell he's spruiking... "one of the ideas was to aim for a younger demographic than a lot of the Cabaret Festival, and with another show afterward we hope it'll do really well."
The evenings offer small blocks of entertainment so no-one can get too bored too quickly with what's on offer.
"So the second night - if you think the first one was crazy," says Ganf, selling 'Pink Flamingo Lounge' loudly, "we mined some of AM Adelaide's Variety Hour for this one, and we have Con Anthony - Adelaide's longest standing Elvis impersonator - Elvis in his latter days. And we've got Jason Bernards, Mr Australia and some guys from the Powerhouse gym with a bodybuilding demonstration..."
How is all this connecting with Las Vegas as a thematic concept, I wonder? "Ohh, you know?" says Ganf with what I take to be a suggestive laugh. "It's spandex, it's big on entertainment. There's an animal act, snake handlers and different kinds of creepy crawlies which there'll be a talk on, and Dennis Sheridan will do a song or two. It's gonna be the best entertainment value for your dollar."
Alex Wheaton
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'Saturday Night Beaver' is on Sat 19 June only, and 'The Pink Flamingo Lounge' on Sat 26 June only - both shows at 10pm.
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