BONUS MATERIAL for “Misfit Cabaret”!

Wow. Ok, so when I went to Youtube to share the promo video for Misfit Cabaret, I did not realize I’ve created 4 updated promo videos over the past 4 years. It’s really fun to watch our evolution. As you’ll see above, we’re using clips of our most favorite shows over the past 4 years. But check out the very first promo video we made.

What a ride. Broke-Ass Stuart, SF legendary hipster, asked Twitter yesterday what our 2001 selves would think of what we were currently doing with our lives. I said, “My highschool junior self would be FUCKING DELIGHTED.”

Because yeah. I’m imagining what it would be like to go up to my horribly awkward Abercrombie & Fitch-wearing (OH GOD, I JUST WANTED TO FIT IN SO VERY BADLY) self and say,

“Hi there, younger and fragile Kat, 20 years from now you’re going to be hosting an underground variety show in San Francisco in wigs and platform boots, after going on a singing competition show called “The Voice”. Now let’s sneak up to the art room with a vending machine Little Debbie treat so we can hide from the dreaded lunchroom hierarchy for another day! You’re gonna be alright. Also, don’t go to the prom with the guy who hocked a loogie in your eye after school. YOU WON’T HAVE A GOOD TIME. He’s gonna drive you around in a limo for hours until you beg him to take you to the actual prom and then he’s just gonna drop you off and not even go inside with you. He will also be an hour late picking you up! You don’t need a date. None of your friends have dates. They’re all just going together. Why do you think you need a date? Why can’t you think like your 37-year-old self? UHHHH!”

But I digress.

It’s been a long road, but I love my show and the community that my partner Jordan and I have built around it. At the time of writing this, we’re 10 months deep in a pandemic (remember that, kids? WILD!) and we haven’t been able to put physical shows on. It’s been hard. I miss my Misfit Cabaret family very much. I miss performing on stage with other wonderful musicians. I miss collaborating with beautiful and fantastic performers of all walks of life and various styles of performance art. And if you even came to a show, I miss dancing with you on stage at the end of the evening.

Misfit Cabaret, and the Bay Area, is the first place I truly felt I belonged somewhere. It took 30 years, but I found it.

And we’ll be back on the stage someday soon. And not that I didn’t appreciate the hell out of it before, it’s going to be extra special whenever we’re able to express our truest selves on stage once more.

So, if you’re still reading this and my stream of conscience writing hasn’t forced you into a nap, let me give you some behind the scenes on the lyrics. I won’t do this for every single song I post for my Darling Misfits, but it’s one of those songs where I say a bunch of names and places so it makes sense to do it here. xo

Hey, daddy-o, has life got you feeling low?
Has your story turned a dismal shade of gray? (that's ok)
Come with me, I'll take you far away.
I think it's time for you to open up your mind
And join us- come and play...at Misfit Cabaret.

Come to the party, we promise not to bite
Unless that's what you're into, and if you're not, that's fine (The Bay Area is hella open, and having come from a fairly conservative state by comparison, moving to SF was quite the eye-opener.)
We'll learn a whole new world of things to be accepting of
Like how Jordy's quite the strumpet (Ok, this is actually funny. I thought the word “strumpet” meant a very beautiful and charming young woman. It means “prostitute”! OOOOPS. I called a lovely aerialist friend of mine this once, and another friend who was sitting with us called me out on it, much to my embarrassment. So I thought it would be funny to call my business partner Jordan a strumpet in the song as an inside joke (she is far from it). Her uncle and our first executive producer, Paul Nathan, was very disturbed by the lyrics and begged me to take it out. Jordan insisted that I leave them in. I listened to Jordan.)
Oh, but we're not here to judge
But on your disco dress you got at Mission Thrift (Mission Thrift was (very sadly have to use “was”) a really cool and fairly-priced vintage clothing store in The Mission District of San Francisco. It’s where I bought my first sparkly costume that I wore for the Bowie band that I’m in, The First Church of The Sacred Silversexual. It’s no longer there, which really sucks. A lot of SF’s oldest bars, venues, and stores are biting the dust, and this year has been particularly unkind with the hardest hit being STUD SF, an LGBTQ institution. But they say they’re going to relocate, so I hope I can still go see drag shows in a new location once the pandemic is over.)
And follow as we fashionably trip from grift to grift (I say this as a joke, but the entertainment industry is the weirdest, most backwards industry so far and you have to be a wizard trickster to make it sometimes. You’re constantly having to find new ways to survive in the industry, and this year has been a true testament to that.)

We're all from oppressive towns (Hi, hello, welcome to my therapy.)
They call us lost, but here we've found
A place where we can be ourselves
Whatever that may be

And if you want to, we can do
Whatever you want to
Just as long as you can pay the rent (fuck) (Rent is notoriously expensive in SF, so whenever we do this song, the crowd screams FUCK as loud as they can and it’s a pretty great release.)
We'll burn through this city
No appy-polly-loggies (Nod to “A Clockwork Orange”)
And slink back home when all our money's spent
(But let's not think about that right now)

Aren't you having fun? (Oh, it's oh so shiny)
Stay forever young (I'm invincible)
Swallow back your tears (Cheers!)
(I've never felt so free)

Meine damen, how are you? (Nod to “Cabaret”)
You know we hate to see you blue
But Grace is here to make you woo! (Referring to our first burlesque performer, Grace Bones.)
She's quite a sparkly thing to view
And here's our doll, Noveli (Referring to our first drag darling, Noveli, who has since moved to Colorado.)
Our sister of the night
So fluid in her movement
You have to tip her twice
And, oh, my brother
Have you seen this Gnarling girl? (Referring to Jillian Gnarling, another of our first drag artists.)
She's the grossest with the mostest
No, this liebling's not your pearl

Baby two-faced in red suede
Being poor is all the rage
You can join us down here
If you've got some gauche to spare

And if it moves you, I'll take you
backstage where we undo
If you want to peek behind the veil (gasp!)
You may be surprised what you see with your eyes
And what is life without stories to tell...your mother?

Aren't you having fun? (oh, it's stimulating)
Drink that bottle down (a kaleidoscope)
There's no sorrow here, dear
(I've never felt so free)
Hey, Darling Misfits, give it to me

If you want to we can do whatever you want to
Just as long as you can pay the blessed rent
There may be no tomorrow
So whatcha saving it for?
A flower's meant to bloom
so get your ass up out the door
We're all having quite the ball
in our raucous caterwaul
We'd love to have you come and play
At Misfit Cabaret!