But what do we mean by a Neurodivergent Cabaret?

On 1st November, myself and South London’s acclaimed Poundshop Songsmith Gary Paradiso run the second edition of Organised Fun, our neurodivergent cabaret night, at Jamboree in Kings Cross. (You can buy your tickets at this link!): https://www.wegottickets.com/event/594477

A question we get asked a lot - not unreasonably - is what we actually mean by a neurodivergent cabaret. We thought we’d try to provide some answers.

Audience

The first thing to say is that it’s a night that welcomes neurodivergent audiences. As with any large group of people, neurodivergent people differ significantly from each other and it’d be reductive and misleading to pretend that our night works well for every neurodivergent person. We don’t want to contribute to the narrative that all neurodivergent people benefit from the exact same adjustments. However we are aiming to make our night as accessible as possible for a wide variety of neurodivergent people, and anyone else who could be considered disabled in terms of the Social Model of disability.?

This includes communicating what to expect in advance, providing captions or transcripts for each act, ensuring our host makes everyone feel welcome and doing all we can to keep things running to time, as well as creating an atmosphere where audiences are free to dance, move around, make noise or simply sit quietly and watch without anyone making any assumptions about whether they are enjoying the night in the “correct” way.

We don’t want to pretend any of this is revolutionary. These are all things that could (and possibly should) be achieved by any grassroots promoter. However, many of these access features that enable audiences’ enjoyment, are still not widely available.? We also believe that many of the adjustments that make our night more accessible for neurodivergent people might just make it more enjoyable for everyone, regardless of whether they identify as neurodivergent or not.

We don’t want to pretend we’re perfect. Ours is a night run by multiple neurodivergent people, who both have our own particular behaviours, traits and preferences. Inevitably both of us will do some things that clash with the needs of other neurodivergent people - sometimes each other! - but we try to counter that by having a neurodivergent access consultant - Purple Pinwheel Accessibility - who we hope will pick up on some of the things we miss.?

Performers

In terms of who we book, we don’t guarantee programming neurodivergent acts only. This is because we don’t want to put anyone in a position where they have to disclose their neurodivergence if they’re not ready to do so, or to exclude anyone who feels they might be neurodivergent but doesn’t feel able to claim that label - especially when there is a two to three year waiting list for assessments for some neurodiverse conditions. What we do instead is try to book acts whose performances reflect the themes of not seeing the world in a neurotypical way and not automatically fitting in with the conventions and expectations you can encounter at many events.?

That said, certainly a lot of the acts we book are neurodivergent, and one of our aims as a night is to promote neurodivergent and disabled talent. If you are a neurodivergent or disabled performer who thinks you’d fit our cabaret night, we’d certainly love to hear from you!

Cabaret?

Perhaps the trickiest part of defining a “neurodivergent cabaret” is explaining what we mean by cabaret. Neither Gary nor I are experts on cabaret so ours is an instinctive definition rather than a strictly academic one. Certainly in my case, my love of cabaret comes from being exposed to it in very unacademic places during my childhood - I was shaped by holiday camp entertainment, Saturday night television and stage musicals rather than the intellectual traditions of French or German satirical political theatre. Gary’s love of cabaret was shaped by similar sources, most notably the End Of The Pier traditions of music hall and vaudeville, as well as his time studying the performing arts at university.

Most importantly, what both Gary and I share is a belief in the value of art as entertainment. When I was growing up, I’d encounter a lot of people - both professional critics and friends or peers - who’d have the idea that anything that was fun and easy to watch was frivolous and trivial, and anything that was challenging to watch and made the viewers’ experience difficult must therefore have some deep, intellectual meaning. As I’ve got older I’ve realised not only is this not the case, but also being entertaining is a form of accessibility in itself - to my mind, the very best pop culture can present profound and challenging ideas in a way that allows anyone to engage with them. Gary agrees with this wholeheartedly, and feels there is an inherent elitism around a lot of art, an opinion best summed up in his (only slightly tongue-in-cheek) belief: “high art is for low-lifes”. He feels cabaret has always been considered one of the “low arts” due to its accessibility and its association with the society’s outsiders, and as such it is the perfect form for the kind of night we want to create.??

To me, the “cabaret” aspect fundamentally means we’re booking acts that seek first and foremost to entertain the audience. We also want to book line-ups that are diverse in multiple aspects -? - both Gary and I have spent a lot of time playing on very similar bills and much of our goal with the night is that we simply want to find some new acts to enjoy and work with performers from different backgrounds and genres.?

The modern identity of cabaret has its routes in people with marginalised identities trying to find a space to perform in which they’d be accepted and - albeit often through innuendo and allegory - let the audience in and their shared experiences.?

In a time when disabled people, neurodivergent people, people of colour, LGBTQIA+ and gender non-conforming people amongst others find their attempts to articulate their shared experiences dismissed as “wokery” or part of a mythical “culture war”, it feels vital to build allyship and performance spaces where people are given a voice to express the ways they don’t fit in, and to try to make sure everyone feels included.? The aim of our Cabaret is to create a space like that - which platforms underrepresented groups in the performance industry. To do so is a work in progress and something we also welcome feedback on as we grow and develop as a night.?

The next Organised Fun takes place on 1st November at Jamboree in Kings Cross, featuring Loose Willis, the Underground Clown Club, Jean Vincent Price and The Awkward Silences.

Secure your ticket at: https://www.wegottickets.com/event/594477

Take a look at the access information at: https://theawkwardsilences.com/organised-fun-access-information