The desperate plight of the Long Fork Lady
Audiences may think they know what they’re in for with a one-woman comedy-cabaret show inspired by some of Hollywood’s biggest female stars – but, warns Feast Festival performer Frankie McNair, they’re probably wrong.
A friend of Frankie McNair’s once joked that she has “cabaret energy”.
“I think in hindsight, that might have been an insult, but that’s okay,” jokes the Melbourne-based performer and comedian, who has appeared on Channel 10’s Thank God You’re Here, ABC’s Question Everything, and Just For Laughs Sydney in 2023.
“It hurt because it’s so true,” she says, laughing.
“I have the energy of someone who might just start singing while you’re trying to enjoy a meal, and I’ve just kind of lent into that.”
Leaning in meant becoming engrossed in the stories of the women of Hollywood.
As a result, the leading lady of McNair’s upcoming show at Adelaide’s Feast Festival, An Intimate Evening with Tabitha Booth, is the culmination of some of the greatest women in show business.
“Liza Minnelli, Judy Garland, and like, Gloria Swanson,” McNair explains.
“They’ve all done this insane stuff, and they hit this level of fame where they will never be normal again, and I liked that.
“But then comes the idea of all them being almost discarded – the women of Hollywood. They’ve had that really big moment, and then it’s like, ‘Alright, you’re not needed anymore’.”
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Last chance
The character of Tabitha Booth was also created out of McNair’s last-ditch effort at comedy.
“I wanted to quit,” she says. “I moved to Melbourne, and I just got really stressed about if I was going to make it or not, and I lost the joy for doing comedy.
“And then I was like, ‘Well, I’m going to do one last show’.”
That promise of “one last show” relieved McNair of pressure, and allowed the performer to reconnect with the joy that once brought her to comedy. She went on to create what she says is some of her favourite, and silliest, material, which won her Best Newcomer at the 2022 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
“One of the things I did was a bit called ‘Long fork lady’, and I taped a fork to the end of an antenna. I would just keep making it longer and would sing ‘long fork lady’,” she says.
“Long fork lady” then morphed into Tabitha Booth, the inspiration for the narrative-based show An Intimate Evening with Tabitha Booth.
“She [Tabitha] is known for doing one bit, which is called ‘Long fork lady’, and that’s like, what her entire career has been based around,” says McNair.
“She tried to break off and get away from that and she just could not get any more work, which I thought was a weird, meta exploration of my own fear!
“Tabitha’s just really obscene. I like her a lot, but she’s so desperate. She’s such a desperate character.”
Discarded women of Hollywood
While An Intimate Evening with Tabitha Booth was born out of cabaret beginnings, McNair says it’s more of a mix of a one-woman-show and comedy, with a sprinkle of cabaret energy.
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“It’s like, one of those Barbra Streisand shows where she’s doing a retrospective of her life, and she’s just telling all of these stories from her career and her life, and welcoming people into the stage to join her, but for Tabitha, those people don’t arrive,” says McNair.
The production and design elements of the show are also in line with the discarded women of Hollywood theme.
“I wanted everything to look like someone who is trying to put on this big, elaborate cabaret, but they have no budget, and they’ve clearly made everything in their lounge room.
“The vibe is still that kind of like jazzy cabaret, but like the masking-tape version.”
Off the rails
The play was originally written in 2023 by McNair but, as she puts it, was “gutted’ and re-written with the help of her partner, Riley Bell. While they have a steadfast script now, it isn’t always something they stick to, meaning each audience enjoys a unique version of the production.
“It goes off the rails pretty quickly, which I love,” she says. “It’s such an incredibly silly show.”
‘Silliness’ is the foundation of McNair’s comedy, and all-round personality, and is a crucial determinant of what enables her work to be a success.
“I think that people hear one-woman show and play and cabaret, and they’re like, ‘I know what I’m in for’, and I’m like, ‘No, this is, like, the stupidest thing you could possibly see’, and I mean that in the best way!” she says.
“It’s just so joy-filled, because I love doing it so much and I’m really proud of it.
“I just try to have as much fun as possible. I think it’s really important, and I think that people can feel it when you’re having fun.”
An Intimate Evening with Tabitha Booth is being performed at The Piccadilly, the heritage movie theatre in North Adelaide which is serving as Feast’s hub this year and will also host events from November 22-24 featuring drag artist Spankie Jackzon, comedian Scout Boxall and feminist writer Clementine Ford, as well as the Queer Film Festival. McNair says she is primed for the audiences of Adelaide and, particularly, those supporting Feast Festival.
“Adelaide has got such good crowds. I feel like because of the Fringe Festival, a lot of people have been quite exposed to weird and wonderful things and performing is just finding your audience.
“I think Feast Festival is definitely going to have my kind of audience, which is so exciting.”
An Intimate Evening with Tabitha Booth is at The Piccadilly on November 23 as part of the annual Feast Festival.