Interview with Andrew Pepper: House of Pepper
You began your career 20 years ago in the West End's first version of Mary Poppins. How did you get into cabaret? And how does it compare to doing a big West End show?
I hired a room and put on a show. And then I just kept doing it. And eventually, some years later, I was able to start paying myself. Cabaret is such a highly personal form of expression that it probably has to be self-initiated in the beginning.
How does it compare to doing a big West End show?
The dressing rooms are smaller! The workload is greater (lots of figurative hats to wear)! But there’s more of a visceral thrill when you’re on stage. Even in an intimate room like The Crazy Coqs (which is much smaller than a West End theatre), the buzz is strong because I’m responsible for steering the energy and focus of the whole audience.
For those new to cabaret, tell us why it's brilliant.
Done well, it’s like theatre on speed. Everything is dialled up to the max. You’re not necessarily tied to story or conventional narrative, so you really can leap off to the most bonkers of terrains and emotional landscapes. It’s like having the key to the TARDIS for an hour or so. It’s immediate and electric. There is absolutely no fourth wall. The performer can see you; they’re talking directly to you. Sometimes, you might even answer back. Just don’t get lairy or the performer might answer back as well.
Which artists inspire you in your work?
When I started out it tended to be people like Bette Midler, Harold Prince, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Victoria Wood and Julie Walters. It still is to a degree, but now I pull from all over the place.
Recently, I’ve become really inspired and besotted with an artist I discovered on Instagram called IsaLu Ishii. Her paintings are simultaneously very real and very abstract, with the most beautifully heightened use of colour. I’m most often excited by work and artists that live in a sort of liminal space, dancing between extremes.
Tell us about your favourite ever gig/performance.
Other people’s? I’ll give you three:
The first time I saw Meow Meow was a pretty life-altering experience. It really changed my idea of what theatre could do; specifically, how audiences could actively engage with the performance. I then spent the next two years pretty much trying to be her until I finally began to lean into my own instincts.
The recent Broadway revival of ‘Hello, Dolly!’ with Bette Midler is high on my list. Two and a half hours of HAPPY!
Peter Brook’s ‘Le Costume’ twenty-odd years ago was also like a bomb going off in my world: storytelling at its absolute purest and simplest. Gorgeous. Made me want to live and work in Paris. Twenty-odd years later, I did!
Of my own, pretty much every show I do ends up being my current favourite, but if I had to commit… a few years ago at The Crazy Coqs, someone got up mid-show to go the toilet. While he was gone, I got half the audience to hide behind the bar. When he returned, I made him think he’d set a precedent and that they’d all gone to the loo too. I was delighted that everyone played along. And that’s why cabaret is so great! It’s genuinely different every night.
You've performed all over the world - where's your favourite place to go when you're not performing?
Bed.
How would you describe your monthly residency at Crazy Coqs?
An audience member recently described me as the love child of Marcel Marceu, Edith Piaf, Bette Midler and Prince. I loved that. So, I’m stealing it.
Well, imagine this love child steering a great big, beautiful, sequin-clad ship each month with two world class musicians manning the deck.
Now imagine that ship sailing an unpredictable sea. The winds are howling, the waves are raging and then - oh - the sun’s come out and the waves are calm. Ooh, now they’re a bit cheeky, tickling the sides of the ship and squirting water in your face.
And now the heavens open, you’re soaked to the bone, blackness descends, you’re being hurled around and you don’t know where you are and… was that a boat full of monkeys that just sailed past?
Then, suddenly, the sun’s back, all is calm; you can see for miles and hear your own breath and… what’s that?
It’s a fuchsia pink pelican and it leads you to dry land. And this dry land is a place that serves the best Negronis and Cosmopolitans and I may have lost the helm of this maritime metaphor.
Come see my show!
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Andrew Pepper: House of Pepper, Crazy Coqs (Live at Zédel), 21 April, 19 May, 16 June, 21 July, 8 September, 7.30pm. Tickets available at www.brasseriezedel.com/events/house-of-pepper
www.theandrewpepper.com / @theandrewpepper on Instagram and Facebook
