About seven years ago, a young actor named John Jarboe settled in Philadelphia intent on pursuing a career in the performing arts. And it was about five years ago that Jarboe reassessed where he was going and what he was doing and embarked on a career trajectory more extraordinary, more creative, more queer than many could have imagined. What that trajectory has led him to is the Get Pegged Cabaret.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Jarboe became a devotee of cabaret. He admits that in the past five years, “I have found a real creative home in cabaret — queer cabaret in particular.” However, let’s be clear: What Jarboe means when he talks about cabaret is not what most people mean when they talk about cabaret.
“My interest is in cabaret in its fullest, most dangerous sense,” he continued, making reference as an example to German cabaret of the 1920s and ’30s that strove to be scabrous as well as scandalous — and more than a little queer.
What most people think of when someone mentions cabaret is its more traditional, genteel form with the audience sitting around small tables sipping cocktails while chanteuses like Barbara Cook belt out show tunes and standards. While Jarboe is familiar with this form, it is not the sort of cabaret he is interested in creating; rather, he wants audiences to feel a little insecure and possibly a bit afraid of what they may be subjected to in the course of an evening’s performance.
Jarboe’s current career status follows two completely different trajectories. One is that he is becoming increasingly familiar in Philadelphia as a mainstream actor, having been onstage at some of the city’s largest and most respected venues, such as the Walnut Street Theatre, the Wilma Theater and others on that level. The other is, of course, his cabaret work. Jarboe’s first major success in creating his own shows was his co-founding of the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, whose next show will be at the Fringe Festival later this year.
It was his continuing work with the Bearded Ladies that helped to hone Jarboe’s transgressive voice, so that when the folks at FringeArts contacted him about expanding the role of cabaret at their space, he was ready to take the next step in his evolutionary exploration of the form. He was ready to “re-weaponize it” — that is, come up with shows that are dangerously queer as well as outrageous and fun, and possibly even politically threatening.
Once a month, Jarboe and his roster of guest artists take over La Peg at FringeArts and apply their mad creative alchemy to the space and — voilà! — we have the Get Pegged Cabaret, in search of what Jarboe characterizes as “the poison cookie” — defined by them as material that is “tempting and treacherous, pleasing and perilous.”
Each month’s program is hosted and co-curated (with the FringeArts staff) by Jarboe done up as a sparkly gender-queer emcee from some dark nightmarish scenario dreamed up by Joel Grey on Ecstasy. A different roster of guest artists play every month, consisting of, as Jarboe says, “some of the most talented and dangerous, outrageous and fun performers from Philadelphia, New York and around the world.”
February’s guests include Martha Stuckey (Red 40 fame), local performer Christ Davis and Dena Underwood (a jazz vocalist who performs at Tavern on Camac). March will feature New York’s Carol Lipnik; April will include Bourgeois & Maurice, a neo-cabaret act from London; May will bring singer and drag performer Joey Arliss; and June will feature New York cabaret artist Erin Markey.
Jarboe continues to speak with enthusiasm and excitement about what people can expect to experience at the Get Pegged Cabaret. He notes the crucial word is “experience.”
“People aren’t just going to be passive observers to this show,” Jarboe proclaimed with no small amount of mischievous glee. “They will not be allowed to be passive. They are going to be sung to, danced around, made fun of; their personal space will be repeatedly violated.”
Get Pegged Cabaret, hosted and co-curated by John Jarboe, plays 10:30 p.m. on the third Friday of the month (Feb. 19, March 18, April 22*, May 20 and June 17) at La Peg Brasserie at FringeArts, 140 N. Columbus Blvd. For ticket information, call 215-413-1318 or visit fringearts.com. For La Peg reservations and menu information, call 215-375-7744 or visit lapegbrasserie.com.
*Fourth Friday for this month only.