Chat 10 Looks 3 Live

The Adelaide Cabaret Festival continues to surprise: who would have thought we’d witness the ABC’s Leigh Sales AM singing Chicago’s ‘Class’ with the Festival’s director, Virginia Gay? And mighty fine singing it was too, and an excellent opening to a live (and lively!) edition of the popular podcast from Sales and Annabel Crabb.

With guest appearances from Gay, Victoria Falconer, Flo & Joan, and Bert LaBonté, and a detailed conversation about the importance of translators of books from other languages, the show whizzes through a fascinating compendium of music and conversation. It’s funny too: Crabb asks hypothetically if cabaret is an artform for those that can’t choose? And the UK’s Flo & Joan gave a stupendously good rendition of ‘Rest of My Life’ that had us laughing loudly - Crabb was in stitches so much I wasn’t sure she would be capable of resuming conversation.

With Sales, the pair were so relaxed across their multiple couches, their conversations so natural, it almost felt the packed Festival Theatre was intruding on a casual afternoon tea in the lounge of one of them.

As you’d expect from a journalist often told how many seconds she has remaining, Sales keeps time, so we don’t overrun, except when she gets engrossed in a conversation about learning the cello – when Crabb proudly proclaims ‘I’m going to set a timer!’

The good-natured ribbing is evident (in both directions) throughout the whole ninety minutes of conversation, comedy, and music, and everyone – whether on the couches or in the audience – is having a lot of fun.

Falconer had already welcomed the pair to the stage with a piano introduction, and returned later armed with a saw, that she then played with a bow, as if it was a cello rather than a curved cutting tool (she joked that most of them don’t bend enough when asked if she had purchased it at a popular hardware store). Her song ‘Trust in Me’ from Disney’s Jungle Book showed her enormous talent in voice and instrument, and then a supreme confidence in answering questions from someone who has interviewed every living Australian Prime Minister.

Then Bert LaBonté took the stage, joining the conversation with Sales and Crabb on the casting choices for the movie The Fabulous Bakers Boys, and closed the show with a song famously sung by Michelle : in that movie, ‘Makin’ Whoopee’. Even LaBonté’s nickname of the adjacent ‘Dunstan Playhouse’ as the ‘Dunny’ didn’t diminish the appreciation of the audience.

And we made it out on time too.

Review by Mark Wickett

Images: Annabel Crabb, Victoria Falconer, Virginia Gay and Leigh Sales - Chat 10 Looks 3 - Photos by Claudio Raschella