Interview: Miss Behave

Interview: Miss Behave

18 June, 2010
by: Sjk

Sarah Kendell chats to The Crack's sword-swallowing mistress of ceremonies.

A world away from her vinyl-clad, outlandish alter ego Miss Behave, Amy Saunders is the picture of off-duty casual when we meet in an old-school Italian coffee bar in Soho, her snug hat and big sunglasses covering the telltale signs of the previous evening's overexertion. “Sorry, big night watching the football”, she explains. It's this low, tobacco-tinged purr of a voice that gives the biggest clue to her true identity – sword-swallowing cabaret host, producer of some of the best variety nights in Britain, and the unofficial queen of the fringe-comedy underworld.

Saunders' biggest claim to fame is her cabaret night The Crack, the runaway hit of last year's Southbank Udderbelly Festival and set to be the finale for Latitude 2010. Bringing together drunken hula-hoop performers, rice-obsessed DJ s and some of the alternative comedy circuit's biggest names, from improvisational maestro Phil Kay to brilliant ventriloquist Nina Conti, the travelling variety show has become known as a reliable port in the storm of hit-and-miss events that tend to saturate the cabaret scene. “The Crack got born out of the fact that I wanted to see a comedy show with only the acts that I wanted on”, Saunders says. “I was seeing some really funny people in lots of different genres, and nobody was using them and I didn't understand why.”

Drawn to the decadence of London's alternative scene from a young age, Saunders was working behind the bar at burlesque and fetish clubs when she came across a book on sword swallowing and decided to teach herself. “I thought, 'Well, I'm at a loss for something to do'”, she recalls in amusement. “It was the true hallmark of an angry teenager, and I don't think I could do it now.” After mastering her craft, she began appearing at freak shows but decided it wasn't just the extreme reactions of the audience that she craved. “I got bored of the gross-out reaction that is that sort of level”, she says. “I was more interested in street performers and comedians because they were entertaining.” She began, therefore, to hone a persona that was half physical comedian, half freaky burlesque madam – as Saunders herself puts it, “I ended up like a live cartoon and a drag queen but with a real love of comedy.” Miss Behave was born.

Saunders' outrageous character has appeared in several of the capital's most sophisticated cabaret shows, including the Olivier-winning La Clique, which went on to tour Australia and the dance halls of Paris. “It was the biggest, campest, sexiest spectacle show”, she recalls. Saunders' own show aims to take the best bits of this famous international spectacle and skew it firmly to the left of centre. “What I want this to be and what I've sought out for this to be is absolute mayhem and fucking chaos”, she says.

And chaos it should undoubtedly be, with a few favourites returning and some newcomers set to make things even crazier when The Crack goes to the Edinburgh Fringe later this year. As well as veterans Phil Kay, Nina Conti and the “drunken slag” hula hoop antics of Kalki Hula, there'll also be performance artist John Hicks, who Saunders describes as “the Picasso of the variety world”, and her old mates, Canadian comedy duo Hotnuts n Popcorn. “They've worked in lots of different bits of things, but their training is in improv. But they're not going to get up there and do Theatresports games or I will shoot them in the head.” Unfortunately the crazy rice-throwing Woody Bop Muddy and his Record Graveyard, a Spoonfed favourite, has bowed out of proceedings this year. “I got this close to getting him to Edinburgh”, Saunders laments. “But he rightfully said, 'Oh, darl, I'm too old for that. I'm going to go and hide in the woods for a couple of weeks.'”

Meanwhile Saunders continues to develop her own skills as a performer – and she's not always as in control as her dominatrix-style alias would have us believe. “I did a gig for Just For Laughs and I was wearing a pin-striped rubber suit at the time and wanted the smallest waist possible”, she recalls. “I pulled the corset as tightly as it was physically possible for it to go, but I didn't try swallowing the sword with it on like that. So on live TV, I'm there trying to get the sword down, thinking, 'Idiot!' I looked good though.”

The Crack will be at the Assembly Spiegeltent in Princes Street Gardens from August 5th-29th.

See Emma's review of The Crack
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