He sings, he dances, he talks a hundred miles an hour and he’s guaranteed to make you laugh.
Blonde, Australian, shiny cabaret star Reuben Kaye has a megawatt smile and unlimited amounts of energy.
And in the great tradition of cabaret – he’s determined to entertain you.
“I think people think of cabaret as being one genre but it’s a mixture of all genres. It could be music it could be comedy, it can be spoken word and it could be all these things together.”
While spontaneity in showbusiness can be faked, Kaye’s act is full of genuine wit and interaction. He often welcomes the audience at the door and works to make a genuine connection with each and every one of them.
This year he’s here with a six-piece band, who he’s named Reuben Kaye and the Emergency Contacts. If you watch the band carefully you’ll be able to tell when he’s gone off script.
“When the band starts laughing that’s when you know I’ve gone off the rails.”
“For me that’s the thing I love about Edinburgh. If you get a long run, you get incredibly varied audiences – and that means every night is going to be different.
Little Reuben Kaye was born in Australia and loved to talk, laugh and entertain from a young age.
“The very first film I ever saw was ‘A Night At the Opera’ by the Marx Brothers which started a life-long love of comedy and vaudeville. I was also surrounded by a family of European Jews who would never shut up.”
He spent a good ten years on the London and UK cabaret circuit, where his performance style evolved.
“I was in London for ten years. It’s an amazing city and I love it.
He worked as a nightclub host, a comic and a singer. It’s no surprise to learn that the elegantly slinky Kaye also trained as a dancer.
“At the moment I don’t know where I live. I’ve been living out of a suitcase for so long.”
As well as performing live shows around the world Kaye has also started popping up on UK and Australian tv shows – which has brought him more recognition – both good and bad.
He recently the Australian Christian right wing, by slipping a joke about Jesus (“I love any man who can get nailed for three days”) into an otherwise anodyne chat show.
“I have had my phone monitored because of the death threats coming in.”
He refuses to tone down his views for television – and always pops up on panel shows with a full face of cabaret drag make up: “I think the difference is with television that you are coming into people’s living rooms. And the press often jump on things and inflate them.
“But I don’t believe it when people say: ‘You can’t say anything these days.’”
He thinks a daring attitude and a willingness to engage with contemporary politics are both essential elements of cabaret. And as a semi native of the UK, he is fully briefed on the current state of the nation.
“What I want when people leave the show is to be a mixture of energised and exhausted. I wasn’t them to walk away and feel like they can scale the building.”
Kaye is back in Edinburgh with two shows – his late night no holds barred variety show The Kaye Hole and his cabaret show The Butch Is Back.
The Fringe has slapped a 16 plus advisory notice on his show – but in Australia and in the UK he’s had young people and teenagers in the audience and he’s happy to welcome younger audience members – although not babies.
He thinks the pandemic has made people hungry for live entertainment – and more appreciative. “I think people are definitely still affected by it. I think people see things as more valuable now.”
Live you couldn’t do much better, Reuben Kaye is an irresistible creature. And he often has people coming up to him and telling him: “You’re not my kind of thing – but I loved it.”
Offstage he’s just as outspoken and vivacious but not always made up the nines. He’s happy to be known as ‘he’. When we chat on Zoom he’s casually dressed and tousle headed but still recognisably Reuben Kaye.
“It takes about an hour to get the make up on so I don’t wear it all the time.”
“I don’t see it as a persona. It is me – but it’s the best of me.”
Reuben Kaye: The Butch is Back
19:50
Assembly George Square Gardens
August 15 – 27
The Kaye Hole
Assembly Checkpoint
23:50
August 4 – 26
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/reuben-kaye-the-butch-is-back
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/kaye-hole-hosted-by-reuben-kaye
