A talk with Kelly Nesbitt
By Chris Busby
Kelly Nesbitt, 32, a Portland performance artist and singer-songwriter, is an original organizer of The Casco Bay Cabaret. Begun in 2003, the now biannual variety show next takes place July 27 and 28, at Space Gallery and the former Adams School, in Portland.
The Bollard: What’s the cabaret about?
Nesbitt: Cabaret is basically a community variety show, so it’s open for the public to apply to perform. We do an adults’ show and then we do a matinee kids’ show.
Who applies to perform at these things?
It’s open to pretty much all levels of performers, or someone who wants to try a new idea. It’s for exploration – a seasoned performer could try something that they wouldn’t normally, or someone who doesn’t have all that much experience performing may be able to just get an idea and try it out.
Probably 75 percent of the performers are from the Portland area or Maine, and we tend to always have out-of-state performers come through. There’s a sort of circuit that we have with Philadelphia and Massachusetts – we’ve had a lot of artists come up from these areas.
It’s people doing circus acts, clowning or mime skits, or music or spoken word or film. It’s the whole gamut. Anything’s possible.
What are some examples from over the years?
We had [the bicycle activist group] Cycle Circus of Impending Doom come through. It must have been like 20 performers. They did a tour on bicycles and then they did a circus show, with workshops the next day…
Beth Nixon is a favorite. She comes from Philadelphia. There’s a cabaret in Philadelphia called the Puppet Uprising. They do four shows a year. This is how I was exposed to this whole circuit that was happening in West Philadelphia. Beth Nixon was there, and then I met a bunch of those people and starting doing collaborations with them… She works primarily with puppetry – large-scale and small-scale puppetry. There’s a big puppet circuit.
We’ve had music and, sort of, impersonations. [Folk-blues musician] Micah Blue Smaldone, maybe you least expect to see him do this character, but he played the role of Joey Ramone. He dressed up like Joey Ramone and did three covers of The Ramones, all by himself, with the wig and the ripped jeans and the Converse. It was amazing.
Do you turn anyone down?
We have yet to turn anyone down, but it’s getting to a point where it’s been really difficult, because the last cabaret at Space was five-and-a-half hours long.
Five and a half hours?
[Laughs.] It was an epic night. Part of it, too, is people abused their time slot. Already there were too many performers, but now we’re seeing a trend of, like, people abusing it. Now we have an application process. It used to be just first-come-first-served and you’re in.
How long does each performer get?
Ten minutes.
Aren’t you supposed to have, like, a long cane or something?
We’ve done that in the past. Actually, not in the Cabaret, but [local musician and artist] Colleen [Kinsella] and I used to do shows at The Skinny. We introduced this thing called Story Night, and they were cabaret-style. Colleen caned someone and that person ended up pretty much coming after her the next day, leaving really violent messages on her answering machine.
The cane might come back someday.
What kind of performances have you done in the Cabaret?
I have numerous different skits, but clowning has been the main thing. I’ve emceed as clown characters, and have done specific shows with one character called Ruby, which was one of my first characters. [Ruby] stemmed out of The Stillhouse [performance space].
Ruby (left) and her cousin, Barbara Cox. (photos/courtesy Nesbitt)
How is Ruby?
[Laughs.] Ruby’s good.
What’s she doing lately?
She’s kind of laying low, actually. She’s taking some time off with her cousin, Barbara. [Laughs.]
What’s going on with Barbara?
Babs, she’s actually decided to cast into her alter-ego, named Freckle. Freckle will be making a debut at the Cabaret this time around.
The ninth Casco Bay Cabaret takes place Fri., July 27, at Space Gallery, 538 Congress St., Portland, at 8 p.m. Suggested donation: $5. The kids’ matinee performance takes place Sat., July 28, at the former Adams School, 48 Moody St., Portland, at 5 p.m. Donation requested. Proceeds benefit A Company of Girls, The People’s Free Space, Space Gallery and The Adams School Building Collaborative.
myspace.com/thecascobaycabaret.
Nesbitt’s Web site is kellynesbitt.org.
