F E S T I VA L F E AT U R E S | Cabaret Bar Clockwise from bottom right: Frank Skinner, Lucy Porter, Pleasance Courtyard, Cabaret Bar

<< But what of this year’s ock? Phil Wang has created his own little bit of Cabaret Bar history by selling out his entire run there before the Fringe had even started, and Glenn Moore is receiving rave reviews for Love Don’t Live Here Glenny Moore. ‘I can’t pretend the experience of waiting to go onstage there isn’t intimidating,’ admits Moore. ‘The dressing-room walls are plastered from oor to ceiling in posters from pre-fame household names doing their third, fourth and fth Edinburgh shows. Chris Addison looking “somehow” even younger than normal. Lee Mack with a moustache drawn across his face from another act who’s clearly done it out of spite after having a bad one. Mel & Sue, Noel Fielding . . . the list ends there.’ For Alun Cochrane, giving us Brave New Alun, the backstage area and its signifi ers of a hallowed past are also a special treat. ‘There are faded posters of comedians, some with managements that no longer exist, some with fax numbers proudly listed that are necessary no more, and at least one shows a comic who looks young and full of pep, vigour and fury, who is now stone cold dead. Each night I gaze upon these faces, many daubed by

Hitler moustaches and scribbled graffi ti which questions the act’s sexuality in a way we would no longer deem appropriate, and I somehow feel, “I’m ready”.’  But the act who may well have the biggest insight of those performing there this year is Lucy Porter who is making her third Cabaret Bar appearance. In 1999, she was part of the Comedy Zone alongside Dan Antopolski, Tony Law and Rob Rouse, while she made her solo debut there in 2006 with The Good Life. ‘The thing I love most about it is that it’s called the Cabaret Bar but the stage is way too small to do an actual cabaret: there’s barely room to swing a nipple tassel. When I was younger I loved the Cabaret Bar because I was in awe of all the great acts who’d played there before me. Now I love it because it’s air-conditioned and has its own toilets. I remember seeing Harry Hill’s Pub Internationale show in 1994 and thinking it was the best thing I’d ever seen. Actually, it may well still be the best thing I’ve ever seen.’

For full details of this year’s Cabaret Bar acts, see list.co.uk/festival.

14 THE LIST FESTIVAL 14–26 Aug 2019