Profile: Frisky & Mannish UK Cabaret / Pop / Comedy Duo

				(Photo: Rosie Collins Photography)
				By Jimmy Aquino, Pop Culture Contributing Editor The critically acclaimed and award-winning Frisky & Mannish (aka Laura Corcoran and Matthew Floyd Jones) are a comedy cabaret act based in the UK who first met while traversing the boards at Oxford University (ooh, posh!). In 2008, they were asked to perform a short set of songs for an event and decided to put a spin on it. And it worked! With a swell of support, they put together a more established act and started putting on shows all over, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where they have received massive kudos and accolades. Their hit shows, starting with School of Pop, led to more success and to them doing their very own show in the famed West End of London as well as appearances on major BBC TV and Radio programs. No one seems to know how to describe them, so they’ve come up with their own explanation: “Popmusicy-seriocomic-mashparodic-stereophonic-LOUD-vaudevillian-sketchcabaret-throwbackcurrent-oldfangled-newfashioned-bapsbotty-infotainment.” Which is exactly what this reporter was thinking. F&M sat down with stated’s Jimmy Aquino after their Udderbelly gig in London last month to discuss their meteoric rise from street urchins to comedy cabaret superstars. Enjoy the profile interview and tune into the entire audio version with even more juicy and hilarious F&M fun! We defy you not to fall in love with them as we did! (Call me, guys!)
	BEING AN ARTIST IS…?			MANNISH: …I did a sex noise, sorry. FRISKY: I think that answers all. Seriously, there is no better response to that. No, genuinely. That is, I think, the best response.  MANNISH: “…Being an artist is”…sex noise. FRISKY: Awkward sex moment.
				(Photo: Rosie Collins Photography)
	WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON TODAY?			FRISKY: These two shows [at Udderbelly].  MANNISH: And our TV ambitions.
				(F&M’s “Kate Bash” parody of Kate Nash)
				(Kate Nash’s original video for “Foundations”)
	WHAT INFLUENCES YOUR WORK?			FRISKY: Pop music. And great comic music. MANNISH: Rihanna. She’s hilarious.  FRISKY: See above.
				(Photo: Annabel Staff)
	OF WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU MOST PROUD?			MANNISH: That’s a really good one… I would say, I was most proud of… actually, it’s the Udderbelly. Wherever they’ve been… Us doing this show on the South Bank. The Udderbelly… It’s a massive purple cow tent, and we’ve done three seasons here, and every single one… I just think, generally, our shows at The Udderbelly have been some of my favorite times being onstage.
				(F&M’s “Grime” take on The Carpenter’s “Top of the World”)
	WHAT IS YOUR DREAM PROJECT?			FRISKY: Our own TV show.
				(Photo: Rosie Collins Photography)
	IS THERE ANYONE FAMOUS YOU WOULD LIKE TO WORK WITH AND WHY?			FRISKY: Oooh, all of them. MANNISH: Kate Bush, Kate Bush, Kate Bush, Kate Bush… FRISKY: I just want to enjoy her. MANNISH:…[laughs] Now she’s taken it on… “Kate, can I enjoy you…?” What??!!  FRISKY: Well, I do. MANNISH: Hmm… it’s hard, because… Ya know, sometimes you meet someone who you have always been really inspired by and think is amazing and just in real life… I don’t know. They’re different. And you think, “I love what you do, but I wouldn’t necessarily connect with you…” And then there are people who I get on really well with, but it’s not necessarily like, “I think our work is great,” I just think, “you’re all right.”  FRISKY: I would say the people in pop who seem fun. I think we could have some fun with One Direction.  MANNISH: They have a sense of humor… It’s about sense of humor. FRISKY: I think Rihanna. We need to get our hands on Rihanna. MANNISH: She’d love it.
				(Photo: Annabel Staff)
	IF YOU COULD LIVE/WORK ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD IT BE ?			MANNISH: I love New Zealand. I really love New Zealand. I also loved Sydney. I love New York.
				(Photo: Annabel Staff)
	WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST NON-ART JOB?			FRISKY: Working in a book shop.  MANNISH: I used to work at a theme park. I operated a ride. And I can tell you, don’t go to any theme park ever, because the people who operate those rides are not qualified. They don’t know. If you flew off into a tree and hurt yourself and died, they would go, “Aaaaahhhh!” Because that’s what I would do.
				(Photo: Annabel Staff)
	WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?			FRISKY: Ideas… The thought of Matthew operating a ride… MANNISH: God, I don’t know, really. I have my best ideas late at night. FRISKY: Exactly.  MANNISH: I’ll text her like, “I’ve had an idea….”
	WHAT GETS YOU UP IN THE MORNING ?			FRISKY: Umm…daylight… MANNISH: Someone going, “Get up.” FRISKY: …Having to be somewhere. MANNISH: The embarrassment that it’s one o’clock and you’re still there. Just shame.
				(Photo: Rosie Collins Photography)
	DESCRIBE YOUR WORK IN THREE WORDS.			MANNISH: Silly. FRISKY: Loud. MANNISH: Unnecessary.
				(“Beep (Have a Banana),” F&M’s “original” vaudevillian version of The Pussycat Dolls’ and will.i.am’s “Beep”)
	IF THERE WERE A MOVIE OF YOUR LIFE, WHO WOULD WRITE, DIRECT, AND STAR IN IT ?			MANNISH: Can I say Julia Davis, please? Do you know Julia Davis? She is incredibly amazing. FRISKY: Wonderful, Julia Davis. MANNISH: I was thinking Julian Barratt; husband and wife team to write that. FRISKY: I would like Jack Black to play me.  MANNISH: Yeah. Can I have Michelle Pfeiffer to play me? And who would direct it? Let’s get the guy who did Transformers 3. Michael Bay! What a production. With Jack Black and Michelle Pfeiffer running around in corsets going, “Hey, let’s do Pop!”
				Visit Frisky & Mannish… friskyandmannish.co.uk facebook.com/friskyandmannish @friskynmannish youtube.com/user/LadyFitzFrisky