Hitting the spotlight today is the charming Chloe Bezer with her most alluring show, “Ruby’s Last Confession”. Less ‘iron fist in a velvet glove’, more ‘Mac the Knife in a tight corset’. From the highest echelons of British Society comes a darkly comic performance of beautifully gruesome songs and hilariously luxurious storytelling. You can see Ruby’s Last Confession commencing on Tuesday 18th May and running for three days to the 20th May. Shows start at 4.00 pm daily at The Laughing Horse @ The Quadrant, but before that a relaxing chat with Chloe….
1. What inspired you to become a theatre practitioner?
I’ve always loved acting. When I left university I joined a theatre company that made new and devised work. After a couple of years I realised that I loved the actual process of making the work too. Now I get the best of both worlds: I make the work that I want to make, and perform in it if I want to!
2. What’s your show about and where are you taking your show after the Brighton Fringe?
The piece is about an aristocratic serial killer called Ruby Corset! The show developed from a 15 minute cabaret act that I was doing and it just grew from there.
Ruby has been touring at a couple of small studio venues in Leeds and London. She will be off to Huddersfield just before the fringe and there are dates in the pipeline for Bradford’s Theatre in the Mill in November, and a return to The Brockley Jack in London (where she sold out earlier this year).
3. What are your funniest and worst experiences performing in front of an audience?
Easiest to remember is the worst! I was doing a show on a barge, only room for 8 audience members at a time, so we rolled the 20-minute piece all night. We’d rehearsed in our studio space in Leeds – first time round on the barge I lost my bearings…and my lines! Couldn’t remember a thing. The only copy of the script was in a storage box that was stowed safely beneath the feet of one of our lovely spectators. That first performance lasted about 5 minutes. I made my director keep hold of the script for the rest of the shows (42 over the course of the next four evenings). He knew the lines as well as I did by the end!
The funniest times are probably during the short gigs I do as Ruby. Sometimes the audience just seems to really get the character, and it’s so much fun to play with them and respond to what they find funny. I love it when their reactions make me laugh.
4. If you had a chance to work with anyone of your choosing, who would it be?
I’m actually already getting some mentoring from one of the artistic directors of a company whose work I really love. Alex Kelly and Rachael Walton at Third Angel (www.thirdangel.co.uk) make beautifully honest and funny work in a wide variety of media and styles. They are amazing, and well worth discovering if you haven’t already!
5. What are you most proud of and what dreams or goals would you like to fulfill?
I never thought I would have the confidence to play my ‘cello and sing, alone‘, in front of a crowd of people – I’m quite proud of that. (Sometimes that crowd of people would rather I had never found the confidence to play and sing, alone, in front of them – but I can’t help that).
My goal is to have a lovely neat database full of lovely people who want to receive updates on when and where I am performing – ooh, and maybe one day, an administrative assistant to send out the emails…
6. Are you a gadget geek or a gadget freak? How do you see technology progressing to assist the marketing of your show in the future?
I once had to ring my husband to ask him to explain how to turn the television on. Does that answer the question?
Actually I think what’s really incredible is all the free marketing you can do online: Facebook, Twitter, your own blog pages and website, direct emails etc… And you can ask your friends to post the details up for you too, so potentially you can reach a lot of people with“nerry a poster or flyer” in sight!
7. Which three famous people would you invite to dinner and why [dead celebrities included]? And what tasty treat would you prepare?
I’d invite David Tennant and J.K. Rowling because they have the power to take me out of this world, and Jessica Hynes – because she’s brilliant.
8. What is the best book or books you have read and why?
One of my favourite books is Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold. It’s a fantastic thriller based in the world of magicians and circus acts. I love the way there is always this threat of risking everything…but ultimately, Carter is consistently one step ahead of the game.
9. Tell us 5 interesting and unknown facts about yourself?
- The ends of my index fingers on both hands turn slightly inwards.
- I lick my knife and clean my plate of all the crumbs when I eat toast.
- I let my cat sleep on my pillow next to my head some nights – it’s unhygienic I know, but she’s so cute I can’t bear to kick her off!
- The early Orange ‘don’t let a mobile phone ruin your movie’ ads often made me laugh out loud.
- I started taking A-level maths and stats in the sixth form. In my first test I got 38%. I switched to French after that.
10. What do you think we can do as an individual to save the planet, if anything?
Don’t buy stuff you don’t need. You’ll only throw it away in a couple of months and then it’ll all go into landfill. (I need to listen to my own advice here…)
3. What are your funniest and worst experiences performing in front of an audience? 
8. What is the best book or books you have read and why?
The worst moment is when an American woman comes up to you in Hereford and tells you your show is an abomination, whilst her husband nods in agreement.
2. What are your two shows about and where are you taking them after the Brighton Fringe?
3. What are your funniest and worst experiences performing in front of an audience?
9. Tell us 5 interesting and unknown facts about yourself?