Comedy & Cabaret Tent

Roll up roll up to our multicoloured, multitalented Comedy & Cabaret Tent! Laugh yourself silly with our mega comedy line-up, quizzes, cabaret stars and theatrics and don your headphones at the witching hour for the DJ battles of the epic Silent Disco.

Our Comedy line up has been programmed by Get Comedy and stars Andrew Maxwell, Craig Campbell, Marcus Brigstocke, Matt Kirshen, Andre Vincent, Ian Stone and many more. The full A to Z can be found here and is also listed below.

And here's what we have in store for you on the Cabaret tip...

Friday night: Boom Boom Club (pictured)
East London’s purveyors of gin-soaked entertainment are taking over the Cabaret tent on Friday night for a cocktail of hand-picked headline acts, all presented by Boom Boom’s formidable acid-tongued host Dusty Limits. He’ll be joined by Frisky and Mannish, king and queen of the educational pop mash-up, Paul Morocco, the matador king of oral ping-pong, ball juggling and songs, Frayed Knot Circus, chinese pole and acro-balance husband and wife duo, Count Adriano Fettucini, striptease unicyclist gentleman, Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer, banjolele-toting dandy rap superstar, Kitty Bang Bang, daredevil fire performer and unruly showgirl, Kiki Kaboom, versatile character actress and inventor of “chav-burlesque”, Jessie Rose, twists and turns and glows-in-the-dark hula girl, Frank Sanazi, performing big hitting showtunes, just like 1945 all over again, and Michael Roulston, ivory-tickling genius accompianist.

Saturday night: Gay Bingo
Hold onto your hats for Saturday night in the Cabaret tent. Gay Bingo has become ‘the’ underground phenomenon for those in the know (and you don't have to be gay to play…). It’s a fast, furious and fantastically good fun evening of cabaret and bingo playing.  Hosted by cult drag performance artist and raconteur Jonny Woo, Gay Bingo is where cabaret meets bingo and turns the whole idea on its head. Say goodbye to granny and hello tranny!
 
Saturday night: Who’s Talent is it Anyway?
Team Talent, the girls behind one of last years Bestival exclusives, Whose Talent It Anyway unleashed their lovely selves onto the nowadays ever daring public with rave reviews at Bestival 2010, where they found themselves greeted by a full to capacity Cabaret tent, packed to the rafters!

Whose Talent is it Anyway are giving you the chance to shine like the stars you are once more this Bestival with Whose Talent Is It Anyway?

For the second time at they will open their sparkly curtains to the ultimate talent show where you, yes you, are the stars of the show. Whether you can warble like Whitney, shake it like Shakira or pull a disco bunny out of your hat, they need you. If you have the sexy-factor then bring yourself, your talent and your friends and proudly put your talents to the test. All talents are welcome!

Your hosts the fabulous ladies The White One* and The Brown One* and Fairy Tash* will be hamming it up on stage keeping score and the delectable Delilah* will be on the decks. The winner of Whose Talent Is It Anyway will receive a coveted slot to perform on the Plugged In Solar Powered Bestival Bandstand and a VIP ticket for next years Bestival!

Sunday night: Marisa Carnesky's Wunder Kabinet
Marisa Carnesky, modern day show woman and creator of the Ghost Train, will be hosting Sunday night in the Cabaret tent with an exclusive Wunder Kabinet show. Expect performances by the weird and the wonderful, a rag-and-bone style magicians workshop of illusions, mine, drag and surreal acts, with Marisa weaving in her twisted dark comedy in between. This is cabaret, but not as you know it. RASP THORNE
Rasp Thorne is a bard and a barb. Hailing from NYC via New Orleans he is now running amok on the London cabaret and music scene. He stays busy writing, playing piano and performing twisted spoken word monologues and live art along with touring and recording with his band "Rasp Thorne & the Briars".
 
MISHKIN FITZGERALD
Singer/pianist, part of 4-piece band - Birdeatsbaby - not really fitting into any current musical trends, Mishkin steers towards a ‘dark cabaret’ rock sound,  Like a more hyper-active Nick Cave meets a slightly depressed Freddie Mercury, Birdeatsbaby have been described as many things, including ‘a distinctly unhinged brand of burlesque freak-pop’, and ‘Twin Peaks on snuff.’
 
MISSY MACABRE
Dubbed as 'Sideshow Royalty' by British press - Missy is renowned for bringing both class and elegance to the international world of Circus Sideshow and Cabaret. Thoroughly decadent - with a spectacular display of couture costumes, fearlessness and unique stunts such as the 'Bath of Broken Glass' - Missy constantly pushes the creative boundaries of Sideshow art, combining it with dance, theatricality, eroticism and juxtaposition. Making her a highly innovative and admired performer within the genre. Performing a plethora of highly skilled stunts ranging from the Human Blockhead, to the Human Chopping Board on broken glass, she is an extremely prolific fire performer. Missy can easily claim to be one of the most diligent of female fakirs working in Europe today. Her stunts are executed with poise, confidence and skill. Her shows embody the romanticism of traditional travelling circuses of yesteryear, fused with the ethereal glamour of Weimar cabaret of 1920s Berlin. As an international headliner, Missy has toured the globe bringing her unique brand of circus to an impressive list of audiences, and corporate clients world wide.
 
H. PLEWIS
H. Plewis originally trained as a dancer in New York and Chichester but somewhere along the way mutated into a performance artiste of a more undefined nature. Her shows take a crowbar to the glasshouse of contemporary dance, combining singing, dancing and shenanigans.
 
SABRINA SWEEPSTAKES
Sabrina is a performing artist from Canada currently in the UK. She has performed with Ballet British Columbia, in New York at Alvin Ailey and Marisa Carnesky's Dystopian Wonders. She has just completed a three month run at the London premier of New York’s the notorious cabaret club The Box.
 
RYAN STYLES
Styles is a visual artist working in live performance within and outside the genres of live art, mime and drag.
 
MR TEDS
Since 1994 Mr Teds has been creating and performing his humorous, poetic and beautifully twisted shows - such as Stars Up Your Arse, Ivy Drip, Piggy Lee, Expat Butcher and many more- in theatres, galleries, festivals, clubs and dives all over the world.
 
EMPRESS STAH
Stah is an iconic figure on the International Cabaret Circuit. Utterly unique in concept and execution her performances are an exotic mix of Aerial Circus, Neo Burlesque and Live Art. 'Empress Stah in Space' is her current project and she recently completed her first Zero Gravity mission and is in talks with the Russian Space Agency to further develop the project.