The Glitter and Doom Salon Plays Edinburgh Festival Fringe

New late night variety show, The Glitter and Doom Salon opens at the Edinburgh Festival stage this week with an evolving lineup of cabaret and vaudeville artists taking part, making each night a unique experience.

Acts performing this week (4-7 Aug) include comedian Lynn Ruth Miller, musical satirists The Creative Martyrs, award-winning burlesque artist Miss Bettie Bombshell, the founder of Adelaide drag ensemble Crème de la Crème, Kristina Crème and performance artist Jessica McKerlie, led by emcee and The Glitter and Doom Salon host Jennifer Kingwell.

With critically acclaimed Edinburgh, Adelaide and Melbourne Fringe seasons under her belt, Kingwell's Salon features a host of cabaret stars from across the Edinburgh Fringe, including some of Australia's hottest talents, drawing upon her love of showcasing underground talent as well as her love of Tom Waits, to present an evening of breathtaking variety, spontaneity and devilish charm.

Commenting on the Salon, Jennifer Kingwell said: "The twin themes of 'glitter' and 'doom' perfectly capture the decadence, glamour, tragedy and satire of cabaret at its best. With this in mind, I've handpicked artists from across the worlds of cabaret, comedy, burlesque and performance art to present their most glittery or doomy material -or both, if they're up for the challenge!

"I'm thrilled to be bringing this night of raucous debauchery to C Venue's new flagship venue, C Scala, and to Edinburgh itself, a town which is no stranger to both glitter and doom."

IF YOU GO:

Venue: C-scala at Saint Stephen's (cabaret bar),

Address: Saint Stephen's Stockbridge, Edinburgh EH3 5AB

Dates: Every Thurs-Sun of the Festival: 4-7th, 11-14th, 18-21st, 25-28th August

Time: 10:30-12am (2 sets with short interval)

Ticket prices: £5-10.5

Ticket link: edfringe.com

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Kristina Crème

Miss Drag South Australia 2009, Kristina Crème is the founder of Adelaide drag ensemble Crème de la Crème Productions and performs across Australia on gay scenes and on the burlesque and vaudeville circuits.

Jessica McKerlie

Jessica McKerlie is a performance artist based in Melbourne. Jess's work focuses on flipping ideas of gender, femininity and identity on their head. In her Edinburgh Fringe debut show 'Gender Spanner', and armed with a ukulele, spinning plates and more clothes than you can fit in your wardrobe, McKerlie presents an eclectic combination of original music, burlesque and poetry that goes to the core of what it is to be human.

Jet Black Pearl

This fabulous accordion diva from the port of Amsterdam has performed on over a thousand stages all over Europe and the USA while singing, rapping and beatboxing about ecstatic slugs, broody chicken and hallucinating butterflies.

Jennifer Kingwell

Austrailian performer, Jennifer Kingwell is a musician and performer of delicious contrasts - a genre-blending diviner of punk ukulele anthems to lush solo piano compositions, cabaret torch songs to epic alt-pop tracks. Jennifer is a classically trained pianist with a background in computer music and experimental multimedia. Her debut EP The Lotus Eaters, released in 2014 was a PBS FM 106.7 feature album in 2014 with national airplay and her debut solo stage production 'The Lotus Eaters: A Chamber Cabaret' garnered rave reviews of its premiere seasons in Melbourne Cabaret Festival 2015 and Adelaide Fringe 2016.

Lydia Hirst

Lydia Hirst is a dystopian duchess rolling dark political humour and nihlistic sci-fi cabaret all into one. She loves a man in hi- vis and has spent a decade trying to figure out what happened the night before. Chortle describe her as 'A latter day glamorous Jo Brand'.

Dandy Darkly

Dandy Darkly is a satirist, storyteller and cabaret artist. Dandy Darkly has performed internationally at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and London's Royal Vauxhall Tavern and has produced stateside at Stonewall Inn, the Slipper Room, Dixon Place, The Celebration of Whimsy Theater, Under St. Mark's Theater, the Frigid Festival NY and the New Orleans Fringe.

ADDITIONAL ARTISTS TO PERFORM 4-7 AUGUST:

Madame Señorita (Paula Valluerca)

Paula Valluerca is a regular perfomer on the alternative comedy and cabaret circuit in London and Madrid with successful runs at the 2016 Brighton and Prague Fringes. Madame Señorita is Paula Valluerca´s alter ego, a fool who explores the world of women that want to be free and detached from self- consiousness in her shows `Madame Señorita: Who are Tú?´ (2013-2015) and `Madame Señorita: The Expector´. Voted Best Female Act at Bangkok's International Solo Festival in 2013, her performance focuses on the question, what does being a woman involve?

Elena Gabrielle

Elena is an accomplished performer, singer, producer, filmmaker, international performer and diva. Elena has performed in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Sydney Fringe, Melbourne Fringe, and the Australian Burlesque Festival. She received 5 star reviews for her show "The Shuffle Show" and is a world record producer and performer for the Guinness World Record's 'Longest Continuous Burlesque Show', Burleskathon - 24 hours of Tease.

The Desperettes

Daisy (Belinda HAnne Reid), DeeDee (Natasha York) and Delilah (Lisa Woodbrook) present "A Lady's Guide to the Art of being a Wingman". After a sell-out season at Perth Fringe World the Desperettes are girls dressed as boys, using techniques for picking women to pick up men, while wearing pink beehives. These performers take audiences on a hilarious and eye-opening night out with pop hits and daggy dancing. With impressive vocals and tight three-part harmonies, these girls defy gender singing a huge soundtrack of popular artists including Destiny's Child, Mark Ronson and Salt n Pepa, all with a big pink beehive twist.

Lynn Ruth Miller

Lynn Ruth Miller is an 82-year-old stand-up comedian, burlesque performer and writer. Beginning stand up at the age of 70, Lynn Ruth is a unique performer, dubbed 'the new Joan Rivers of Fringe Comedy' at the Edinburgh International Fringe. Lynn Ruth has featured on America's Got Talent 2008, won People's Choice in 2009 Branson Comedy Festival, a finalist in Bill Word's Funniest Female Contest 2009, winner of the Texas Burlesque Festival and the 2013 TO&ST winner for GRANNY'S GONE WILD: best cabaret Edinburgh Fringe.

Miss Bettie Bombshell

Bettie Bombshell is an Australian award-winning burlesque performer. Bettie has been crowned Miss Burlesque Idol Canberra 2016, won the title of Miss Burlesque Victoria 2015 and 'Miss Classic' at the Oregon Burlesque Festival, won a title at the 2014 Australian Burlesque Festival and continues to tour internationally. Bettie arrives in Edinburgh after representing Australian in the largest burlesque event in the world, the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.

Anya Anastasia

Anya Anastasia has a quirky and original blend of darkly-humoured cabaret with a circus and burlesque bent. Winner of the Adelaide Fringe Weekly Awards 2016 Best Cabaret, and nominated best cabaret FringeWorld 2016, Anya's latest show, Torte e Mort, has been directed by two iconic mainstays of the Melbourne cultural scene, Helpmann and multi-Green Room Award winning performer Sarah Ward (Yana Alana), and devisor of circus and physical theatre, Sue Broadway.

Tessa Waters

Multi-award winning comedian from Melbourne, Tessa Waters has been touring her high energy physical comedies 'WOMANz', 'Sexytime!' and most recently 'Over Promises' around the globe to widespread critical acclaim. Her work combining clowning, dance and gurning has won comedy awards Melbourne Fringe, Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne Comedy Festivals. Waters was touted in the TOP 5 Hottest New Things in Comedy by the Sydney Morning Herald in 2015 and her show Over Promises was picked by Laugh Out London as one of the TOP CHARACTER shows to see at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Natasha York

A singer, actress, balloon artist, improviser and cabaret performer, Natasha York has established herself as a unique musical force on the Australian stage. Known for her powerhouse voice, comical timing and uncanny ability to rap on command, audiences can expect a performance that is as outrageous as the size of her untameable hair.

Laurie Black

London-based pianist, singer and general muso, Laurie Black is a classically trained performer who regularly compères shows and performs a tongue-in-cheek cabaret musical comedy act with her piano. She has performed at EastEnd Cabaret's EEC Club, the renowned Best of Burlesque at Edinburgh Fringe and London Burlesque Festival.

The Creative Martyrs

The Creative Martyrs are Weimer influenced satirical theatrical clowning musicians with an unhealthy obsession with the disintegration of society and the end of the world. Longstanding Edinburgh Festival Fringe favourites, the Martyrs have also performed on BBC Radio 4 and T in the Park.

Gillian Cosgriff

Gillian Cosgriff is an Australian musical comedian. Her television credits include Offspring, House Husbands, Fat Tony & Co., and Ricketts Lane, and she was a backing vocalist for Kate Miller-Heidke's 2012 album, Nightflight. Theatre credits include The Pirates of Penzance (The Production Company), A 3-Handed Mikado with Colin Lane (Lano and Woodley) and David Collins (The Umbilical Brothers), Loving Repeating (Vic Theatre Company), and Company (Watch This). Her performance in the improvised web series Written It Down (featured on Funny or Die and ABC's Fresh Blood) saw her win Best Actress at the LA Webfest Awards 2014. Her second solo show This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things won the Best Cabaret Award at Melbourne Fringe 2013 and a Green Room Award for Best Original Songs. In 2014 her cover of Pharrell Williams' song Happy received over 250,000 views on YouTube with Pharrell himself taking to the internet to recommend it.

Pictured: Kristina Crème, Jessica McKerlie, Jet Black Pearl, host Jennifer Kingwell, Lydia Hirst and Dandy Darkly.

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