Twisted Cabaret welcomes our friends from the mainstream liberal media elite!
History of Twisted Cabaret:
Twisted Cabaret is the fifth play by Frank Olivier and by far his most ambitious and successful endeavor. Previous plays include Hold That Thought and The Unkle Franky Comedy Hour. The show launched in the spring of 1992 in at the Mason Street Theater in San Francisco where it ran for six months. Since then the show has toured the UK seven times as well as playing short runs in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
The show plays only limited runs due to Frank’s other touring and performance commitments.
The Story:
The story is simple. Frank is an enthusiastic variety theater impresario who has spent his life and his life’s fortune assembling a cast of not only the finest variety entertainers but the most unusual and unique artists as well. It’s opening night. The props are set, the band is ready but the tour bus with all the artists has broken down. The show must go on so Frank Olivier acts as stand in for each of the sixteen acts performing a dizzying array of artistic, comedic, and seemingly impossible routines.
The Cast:
Frank Olivier star as sixteen different variety acts including a juggler, a magician, a knife thrower, and three dancing girls. Since his days touring as the show stopper in Sugar Babies where the Seattle Times called him “An absolute riot”. Frank’s broad range of skills and complete disregard for the word impossible make his every performance a treat.
Paul Nathan is Flynch, Frank’s humble hunchback henchman.
Music by Nolan Gasser, the creative genius behind Pandora.
Interesting Facts:
– Frank spent almost two years learning the art of knife throwing just for this show.
– Tongue Trick Theater was inspired by games he used to play with his friends in school.
– Originally the role of the hunchback was going to be played by the band leader.
– The show has gone through nearly a thousand love dolls.
– During the original run of Twisted Cabaret a morning show sent a camera crew to interview Frank. Frank performed an excerpt of the show that was so extreme that the camera team was in fear of losing their jobs. They were saved however by an overwhelmingly positive reception by the public which was later confirmed by the highest ratings that show had ever garnered. Yes, Frank will be doing that routine in the Seattle show.
Questions & Answers:
An interview with Paul Nathan, Hunchback assistant to Mr. Olivier
What’s it like to work on this show?
Paul: Fun. Frank really cares that we have a good time. He goes to a lot of effort to encourage us to have fun and punishes anyone who does not have fun on the set or in rehearsal.
How does Frank do his tricks?
Paul: Frank is a very singular artist. Most variety performers will learn one or two acts then perform those for their entire career. A very few artists might learn something outside their own discipline, a juggler might learn a couple of magic tricks or an acrobat might learn to juggle a bit but to achieve true mastery takes a lifetime of practice. Frank has mastered skills from a dozen different disciplines and to be honest I don’t know how he does it. Super human abilities perhaps. Or alien intelligence. However he does it I stand in awe every time I watch the show.
What’s the most challenging aspect of working on this show?
Paul: The dice game we play before the show to determine what acts make it into the show. You see, we only have time to perform between twelve and sixteen different acts in any given show but Frank has created more than twenty five routines that he wants to perform and he is learning new skills and creating new routines every day. We just can’t fit it all in the show. So before each show we play a game to determine what acts we will be doing that night. It can be pretty harrowing.