Interview: Frisky and Mannish

Everyone loves a good parody. Nothing brings a classic song to its knees like having it mercilessly but skillfully reworked for a good belly laugh. Masters at this art are London cabaret duo Frisky and Mannish (a.k.a. Laura Corcoran and Matthew Jones, respectively), who since meeting at Oxford University have been as inseparable as they are brilliant. The rest of the world seems to think so too, with critics and audiences raving ad infinitum. Currently touring their new show, The College Years, which is largely based on a central theme of ‘collision theory’ and was was a huge success at the Edinburgh Fringe last year, they can justifiably feel proud, but are still ceaselessly hunting for new parody inspiration in all kinds of unlikely places, as they explain…

SSG: Hello, Frisky and Mannish. What should audiences expect from The College Years?

Frisky: The College Years is an intellectual examination of the great artistic works that have shaped the cultural landscape of modern music. So we’ll, of course, be covering Peter Andre, Florence and the Machine, Busted and Brandy and Monica. There’s not a moment to stop for breath, we’ll have you singing, dancing and screaming before the night is through.

If you could have a day in the life of any popstar, who would you choose, and what would you do?

Frisky: Frisky would probably take on the life of Gaga – the fashion, the music, the videos, and naturally, travelling exclusively by egg.

Mannish: Mannish would be Elton John, who is now so famous he doesn’t even need to sing anymore. He’d just sit and shout at people.

Pop history is littered with famous double acts, good and bad. Do you have a favourite?

Mannish: The aforementioned Brandy and Monica is definitely a highlight. And in a similar vein, Salt n Pepa. They push it real good. But we’ve always rather enjoyed the more random combinations, like Freddie and Monserrat, and more recently, Aggro Santos and Kimberley Walsh.

If Frisky and Mannish had a theme tune, what would it be and why?

Frisky: Well, Frisky does have a theme tune, penned by Tinie Tempah. She has it playing whenever she enters a room. Mannish would want Jessie J to be his composer-in-residence, and come up with a bangin’ in-yer-face tune.

What might we expect to see on your rider? Any interesting requirements?

Mannish: We didn’t have a demanding rider, until we recently travelled and saw that other performers were getting fruit,  savoury snacks, wine, beer, even a Chihuahua. Ours now reads simply: three bottles of water, chilled; three bottles of water, room temperature; three bottles of water, water removed, replaced with gin; three bottles of gin. And a poodle.

With whom would Frisky most like to duet, other than Mannish?

Frisky: Definitely Professor Green. Not only could I lay a mean ‘hook’ alongside his ‘rhymes’, but I do think I’d score highly in the relative attractiveness stakes. No offence to Prof Green at all. I still would.

With whom would Mannish most like to duet, other than Frisky?

Mannish: I’d trio with Justin Bieber and Jaden Smith. I rarely appear mature in comparison to others. Next to them, I’d look like a massive butch man. Which is something I secretly want.

Do you have any celebrity fans, or has anyone that you parody ever been in touch?

Frisky: Kate Nash came to one of our first shows in Edinburgh in 2009, while we were performing our version of her songs mixed with Kate Bush. She was exceptionally sweet and so far has not sued.

You’re famous for your song mash-ups. What is your favourite mash-up or remix?

Mannish: At the end of our first show, we used to walk off stage to a mash up of Metallica’s ‘Sad’ and Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstitious’ by Wax Audio. It’s the only way to send an audience out rocking their faces off.

How do you prepare for your shows?

Mannish: Sushi must be consumed no later than two hours prior to the first note belted and chord bashed. We have a rigorous physical and vocal warm-up routine (rock squats especially), and about 25 minutes in make up. That glitter doesn’t put itself on. We gets the vibe rollin’ with some Ri-Ri.

Tell us about your time spent on the burlesque scene.

Frisky: The first place we found an audience for what we do was in the gloriously welcoming, but democratic, world of burlesque and neo-cabaret. When you just couldn’t take any more boobs, that’s when we’d come in. The backstage areas were both infinitely more glamorous and more graphic than any other in showbusiness. A fond memory is backstage at the Slipper Room in New York, when one girl was shaving her bikini line, while another was on the toilet (with no door) peeing and applying glitter simultaneously, both talking loudly about recipes for pork.

What was your first show like?

Mannish: Our first show was on the Battersea Barge, 5 March 2008. We’d been asked by a friend to do ten minutes of anything for a Music Hall-themed night. While looking through the usual standard fare, we came across a book of the last twenty years of pop. We picked it up, and started doing the pop songs, but in different styles. It was far more fun than singing ‘Moon River’, so we asked if we could try some out. She said, she didn’t quite know what to expect, so she’d put us on last, after the auction. By midnight, everyone was hammered and barely paying attention, and we went out as very arch, Victoriana-style characters called Lady Fitz-Frisky and Miss Maevia Mannish (a name we’d found randomly in a book the day before). We started, and we could see the penny drop gradually around the room that the aria we were performing was, in fact, ‘Papa Don’t Preach’. As we went through the set, the response got bigger and bigger, and by the end the place erupted. We were offered our first paid gig that night.

What’s been the highlight of your career so far?

Frisky: It would be a toss-up between a couple of things – going to the Sydney Opera House and calling it ‘work’ was pretty unbelievable. It was our first ever Australian performance, and we ran the show there for two weeks. It’s definitely a time we’ll never forget. Similarly, performing our Christmas shows at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue is completely amazing. The last one included an Inbetweener, and we get the chance to book our favourite acts, which makes the whole night both fun and quite special. To be honest, any time we open a paper and see a picture or a mention, we feel very warm in our regions.

What’s your favourite thing about touring?

Mannish: On tour we get the opportunity to meet the audience after the show, and no matter how horrible the journey has been, how awful the service station food, how unhelpful the venue staff or how difficult the show, the people we meet are always  unbelievably lovely, welcoming, and often hilarious. We’re frequently surprised by how varied and remarkable our fans are.

How do UK audiences compare to international ones?

Mannish: The show is rooted in British culture, so no audience gets us quite like a home crowd. We make slight adjustments when we take the show elsewhere, and obviously research a bit about what songs did or didn’t travel, but we try to keep the spirit the same. The more true to our roots we’ve been the better the reaction we’ve had, both in the UK and abroad. We make sure that the music is always the best it can be, and that we find it funny, and that way, there’s always something enjoyable happening for any audience member of any age, nationality, gender, race, religion or persuasion.

What’s been your worst gig experience?

Frisky: New Year’s Eve 2009-2010 was like a sequence from a Richard Curtis film. We’d booked in three shows back-to-back all over London. We had a little red Micra with the piano crammed in the back, and while we got to the first gig fine in Clerkenwell, on our drive down to The Strand, we realised we hadn’t at all accounted for road closures. We ended up leaving the car pretty much where we’d come from and ran down Grays Inn Road, fully be-decked and be-wigged bouncing along like The Wiggles. Much heckling in the street, and two shots later, we were singing to largely uninterested punters in Cellar Door. Another shot on the way out, and back up Grays Inn Road to the car on our way to Kentish Town for the last show, by this time, a good hour behind schedule. We arrived just as the host was getting another act on, but seeing us he practically pushed her off the stage and we scrambled through the packed room, with piano, and desperately tried to set-up as inconspicuously as possible behind him on the brightly lit stage. Seeing a piano on a stand, he introduced us and left us with it, with nothing plugged in or switched on. As Frisky desperately filled, Mannish ran around not unlike a headless chicken, and were it not for kindly audience members we probably wouldn’t have even found the power socket. As we launched hopefully into our first number, to a roomful of bemused and slightly bored patrons, all seemed to be picking up, until Mannish’s mic stand began to slowly droop to roughly chest-level leading to an attractive multi-chin pose. We limped through one more song, and then hastily introduced the host back on so we could get ourselves the hell out of there and to the roof party we were expected at for the midnight countdown. After much packing, dashing, speeding and stair-climbing we made it! With a slightly awkward minute to spare…

Have you had any interesting fan encounters?

Frisky: There have been so many! There hasn’t been an uninteresting one, in truth. There’ve been the flattering ones – the boob-signings (even at Bedales School), the praise (‘You’ve made an old man very happy’), the request for our version of Saturday Night for use as a first dance; and there have been the less flattering ones – ‘I think it’s so great that you feel comfortable with your body, so many women with your figure don’t’, and the time a fan tagged a picture of an off-duty Mannish on Facebook on which someone had commented: ‘Not gonna lie, he’s fitter with make up on.’

Frisky and Mannish perform at the Southbank Udderbelly 26 May, and the 2 ,16 & 23 of June, as well as July 7. For more information visit www.friskyandmannish.co.uk