Melbourne Cabaret Festival: Emily Taylor presents Hello You – A Kamikaze Cabaret

Emily Taylor shows absolute fearlessness as she breaks down the barrier of the fourth wall. Her show Hello You – A Kamikaze Cabaret, playing at the Melbourne Cabaret Festival, quite literally grabs the audience by the hand and guides them through childhood memories, heartbreak and awkward recollections.

Presented by: Melbourne Cabaret Festival
Venue: South Melbourne Town Hall

Thursday, 21 July, 2011

Emily Taylor shows absolute fearlessness as she breaks down the barrier of the fourth wall. Her show Hello You – A Kamikaze Cabaret, playing at the Melbourne Cabaret Festival, quite literally grabs the audience by the hand and guides them through childhood memories, heartbreak and awkward recollections.

It is Emily’s astounding improvisational capability which allows her to so boldly interact with her audience. From the beginning of the show the crowd is paralysed into awareness – they are not simply spectators but rather they are active participants. Whether she is shaking each audience member’s hand or asking direct questions and wittily playing with the answers, Emily takes no prisoners in ensuring that all are involved, transfixed, embarrassed but most importantly entertained.

Accompanied by pianist, Quinn Stacpoole, Emily performs a repertoire of amusing songs and animates each with extraordinarily different characterisations. Within the hour show the audience is introduced to numerous characters, from a scorned lover through to a ridiculously energetic child. Emily demonstrates her expertise as a performer as each character is exceptionally well developed and completely disparate in physical and vocal gesture to the previous.

The show has definite light and shade and was written superbly; the audience was constantly in throws of laughter or silently engrossed by the more serious moments. With many strong comedic elements, one such memorable moment was particularly hilarious and disturbing; who would have thought it possible to nearly drown using only a water-spray bottle? Other moments were the polar opposite to humorous as Emily recounted dark and emotional memories.

Hello You – A Kamikaze Cabaret highlights Emily Taylor’s performance prowess. She elicits a strong audience response through her charming onstage persona and she welcomes, if not obliges, all into her world. The show makes great use of her improvisational skills, singing and acting talent. It is a finely crafted, entertaining and incredibly engaging piece of cabaret theatre.