#whoisdanicabs

[danicabs]

A short scene from my final night at Melbourne Fringe. Thank you to everyone who cam and supported and of course all the Tuxedo Cat crew.

[danicabs]

Bare all before the show

As I sit in an friends house in Melbourne after a successful Melbourne Fringe run I have a sudden urge to pick up from where I last left off with this blog…

Kate and I arrived in Adelaide 2 days before my show opened – during these two days we participated in my first ever theatrical clowning workshop with Dr Brown. The workshop was a great opportunity for me to meet some other Fringe performers, but also start to understand what clowning (Gaullier method) is all about. Over two days each and everyone of the students were run through the proverbial ringer, trying to act on impulse time after time in front of each other to hopefully generate some laughter – or even better, make everyone piss themselves. The idea is to break the clown down to the most humble and natural of performers, leaving acting, image, bravado etc. at the door.

After many years of being Mr funny with friends, these two days showed me just how unfunny I could be – it was tough to say the least.

The workshop also allowed me to reflect upon my show from Perth and make some necessary changes before opening. I moved a few things around, cleaned up my slideshow, took out some unnecessary themes (the fake family portrait got canned) and added some stories. Most importantly I started to realize the importance of play and honesty on stage.

Even with the workshop under my belt, and the changes to my show, I was dreading my opening night and run of shows after what happened in Perth. I had my tech run the day of my opening, which proved to be a blessing because as I finished I noticed The Tuxedo Cat was about to hold a popular once a festival cabaret – The Naked Cabaret – and they were short on a couple of performers. Instantly Kate had volunteered my services, suggesting I have a good karate routine that could fill a good 5-7 min spot – after one fly kick demonstration I was in, 3rd on the bill out 12 performers.

It was the 5 year in a row that The Naked Cabaret was running, and what it involves as the name suggests is a variety show of short 5-7 min acts which come together in a 2 hr show. The “Naked” bit refers to the amount of clothes that everyone that is at the cabaret are wearing….yep…performers, bar staff, light and sound techs, stage managers, and audience members all strip off in the first few minutes of the show.

So here we are, close to 200 people naked in a theatre, and I’m up on stage very soon. I’m nervous, not because I’m naked but because I have an audience who’s attention I have to hold with little to no material. To cut a long story shortish, my name was called, I fell dramatically on stage from the front, that generated a little laughter, so I went with it and instead of getting straight up I slowly got to my feet via an awkward downward dog (bare naked rear facing audience), the laughs kept coming, so I took my time with it, and the tension built further. By the end of my bit I had everyone in stitches filling me with confidence for my first show that day.

Later in the evening I as I ordered my knock off drink I was greeted at the bar from a few bar staff as “Mr Nude cabaret” – Dani Cabs had arrived.

[danicabs]

Who Is Dani Cabs?

Who Is Dani Cabs? Boundary Street Markets May 14 - 21 2015 Reviewed by Katelyn Panagiris Performed by Daniel Cabrera

Another review....:)

[danicabs]

[danicabs]

Second review from Adelaide....things are slowly coming together...still a long way to go.

[danicabs]

[Review] Who Is Dani Cabs?

First Review from Adelaide....not so good but great to learn from.

[danicabs]

Days 2 through to 6 - Perth

2. After a somewhat successful opening night, in usual Dani fashion I overthought the process and the pressure to take what I was doing too seriously. Tonight ran ok, but it was somewhat mechanical and ran over time by about 15 mins. Only about 6-8ppl in the crowd. Kate somehow still finds me funny.

3. It was a Thursday night and I had no sales and no one turn up expect for my friend Dan McCabe and his partner Rosie. I know Dan from studying Honours at QCA and he came to see my show since he is living in Perth. I was tempted to cancel and ask Dan and Rosie to come back on Fri or Sat where I would have more crowd but instead I pushed through and used the time as practice.

After 5-10 mins 4 more guys were ushered in by Dave my tech, and what resulted was a relaxed, fun show that had all of us talking for about half an hour afterwards.

4. Kate and I decided to give out 20 free tickets for tonight, tomorrow and Sunday to try and finally get a decent crowd to perform to. This resulted in a crew of Perth bogans for tonight’s show as we rushed to give them away at the pub. It reminded me of being in class teaching a lesson and having students that would rather facebook on their phone than look up, interact and pay attention. I did have one guy during one of my videos shout out “what the fuck is this, you tryin’ to make art or sumfin?” in which I replied “yeah….I am”. Disaster of a show….I didn’t know where to put myself at the end.

5. Saturday night – 20 free tickets given out, but this time to a more welcoming audience. All up there were maybe 15 ppl in the crowd that actually appreciated what was going on. I also felt it was time to change things up a little so I threw out some material and put other stuff in.

My housemates Gabi and Seba came along and in general this would have had to be one of my favourite shows in Perth. What a relief…..still running 10-15 mins over every time though.

6. Out of 20 free ticks given out only 4 ppl showed, and then about 5 mins in I had Noddy, a local from the pub, walk down the centre aisle towards me with two beers in hand as I was looking for a participant. Stupidly I invited him up….what a lesson learnt.

Noddy was pissed beyond belief, his intoxication amplified by the fact he had dumped 4 “dexies” before coming out tonight. He wouldn’t allow my show to run it’s usal path and wouldn’t leave the stage either, so after a few minutes of absolute fear and confusion I decided to not try fight him, but rather go with it. This resulted in:

·      Him lying under me asking me to shit in his mouth.

·      Jumping competition where he fell and cracked his head on a wall.

·      Me delivering a speech in Spanish and him translating (he didn’t speak Spanish)

·      A dick flicking competition

·      Some neck kissing

·      And eventually getting him to strip totally, which made the security come in and escort him out (after dressing him of course)

By the time he was escorted out there was only 10 mins left in the show, the 4 punters left, and I only had Kate, Scott Wings, a friend of his and my tech in the room. I proceeded to break down slightly and hate my life.

Perth was a fucking shit experience…..but in saying that…..it was great!

P.s. Noddy found my number and called me the following evening to apologise for everything.

[danicabs]

Perth so Far...

Show six, the final show of my Fringe World tour is just around the corner, and let me tell you it’s been an interesting experience.

Now I’m not saving lives, transplanting hearts, providing aid, rescuing kitties out of trees or finding the cure for Ebola so what I’m about to say is about the difficulties faced by an artist putting himself out there within a new arts context, one that I’m not trained in, have no experience in, and am self funding. So my problems lie solely within this arts context.

The lead up to Day One consisted of 3 solid days of recording some new Poncho Orange videos and building image content for my slide show and promoting my show through the Mt Lawley and Northbridge precincts by way of flyering.

Tuesday evening arrived and after flyering the Mt Lawley Streets one last time, wearing my Uruguayan Jersey and football socks to mimick my flyer outfit, I finally settled about an hour and a half before my show and sat for a beer with Kate and a friend. The exhaustion and nerves running through my body had combined somehow at this point producing the most wonderful euphoric relaxed feeling. I had realized that at that point all I could do was get up on stage and be myself…after all Who is Dani Cabs?

Day One – Crowd was very small but included a couple of friends that I have not seen in a while, 8-10 ppl sat in front of me as I delivered a raw comedy/theatre/clowning experience for the first time to an audience/venue and city that was foreign.

Like the rookie that get’s his chance in a big game and delivers amazing results simply through pure excitement and enthusiasm I delivered a show that was quite raw, but reached crazy Dani Cabs highs and then found new lows that aren’t usually expressed.

What I found out later, by pure fortune, I was lucky enough to have a reviewer in the audience, who produced this review two days later in the West Australian - https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/full-coverage/fringe-world-2015/a/26279173/review-who-is-dani-cabs/

I have to thank the reviewer for understanding something that I am yet to fully comprehend; I guess this show is still an adventure into self-exploration, pushing the limits trying to understand what my capacities are.