Myra DuBois! ‘Rotherham’s least celebrated daughter!’ hits Brighton Dome!
Yes, at long last, she’s back, with her usual sharp brutal wit and smothering Northern bosom. Myra DuBois is part of the Brighton Comedy Festival and has her very own new show on Thursday, October 22!
After spending some time as a dominating presence in Rotherham’s thriving bohemian amateur-dramatic scene, Myra moved to the bright lights and over-priced drinks of the capital in 2008, since then she has avoided arrest and startled the London Po Mo Ho Mo cabaret scene with her difficult to categorise very personal take on Deep Northern Drag. She’s a classic, but no cliché.
“One of the sharpest, funniest rising stars of cabaret, DuBois delivers effortless control of a room, killer wit with a sick edge… I don’t think I’ve enjoyed the accomplished performance of flagrant unprofessionalism this much since Meow Meow.” – Time Out London
Since then she has performed at some of the most revered cabaret venues in London, toured the UK, starred in four very adult pantomimes, received almost sycophantic praise at the Edinburgh Fringe and died on her arse in a national competition. You can’t have everything., where would you put it? Myra knows and is willing to share her knowledge and experience and all you have to do it turn up, well and buy a ticket, wash and behave yourself a little too, or else!
You’ll get nothing from her, well nothing but the truth, unvarnished too. She’s great, by Eck.
Eric Page caught up with round the back of the Cap in t’Hook in Bow, and managed to pin her down long enough to get some carbolic scented sense out of her:
What are you grateful for? “I’m grateful for life, for laughter, for birdsong, for inspiration. All that ‘Snow White’ shit.”
Who has been kindest to you? “Daddy, who left us. This rejection at a young age gave me a real stamina for life and because of this, despite never having knowingly met him, I consider myself a daddy’s girl. And may I add that it absolutely did not turn me into a megalomaniac that inflicts her issues on an audience, whatever that magazine may have claimed.”
What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life? “Always make sure your bra matches your knickers in-case, through no fault of your own, you find yourself in a situation where someone has to undress you for bed and always make sure you have paracetamol in your make up bag. These two lessons are unrelated.”
What made you pick the dress you are wearing? “I actually just got out of the bath so I’ll let your imagination do a little work.”
In what ways do you hold yourself back? “I let the competition live. I joke; It wasn’t me driving. We have statements.”
Define the joys of being Northern? “A) the cold never touches you and B) a high-fat diet doesn’t mean a thing. Actually; A may be because of B. We also swear better than our Southern Counterparts and no matter how much money one might make in life, no matter how many flight attendants one has been rude to, no matter how many coloured M&Ms one has made television executives separate; if one is Northern the public will always think of one as a ‘girl next door’. Thank you, accent. It’s life without consequence and it’s wonderful.”
What do you do when not working? “Answer questions for Brighton based homosexual publications, it would seem. I don’t think I’m ever not working. I’m either on stage performing, or experiencing life to present in my art which brings me back on stage. Which means absolutely everything is tax deductible.”
The figure from history who you’d most like to buy a pie and a pint? “I can’t quite put my finger on why but my psychic waters have always hinted that Henry the VIII and I would have hit it off. Who knows; perhaps he made his way through six wives because his perfect women belonged to a future age. Of course, he would be buying me a pie, and I don’t drink pints. So I haven’t really answered your question.”
Barnsley or Doncaster? And why? “Death. I don’t think I need to explain why.”
Who’s your fantasy threesome? “I have enough trouble convincing one person to sleep with me, never mind two of them and at the same time. The only threesomes to enter my evenings are between myself, the sofa and Strictly Come Dancing on the Telly.”
Do you believe in love at first sight? “I didn’t until I clapped eyes on the people of Brighton for the first time (remember to buy tickets for the show).”
Tell us a secret about Lola! “‘Lola Lasagna’ is actually one of the many characters played by comedian Charlie Hides. Not many people know this and it’s true. I’ve seen the empty body suit swinging from a hanger.”
Name something you’re bad at? “I’m always forgetting the lyrics to songs by NWA.”
Can you bake? What do you bake? “Are you asking me where you could buy some marijuana?”
What’s been the hardest moment of your life, and how did you get through it? “Answering these tedious questions is ranking quite high on the list already. I got through the ordeal by thinking of all the lots and lots of tickets we’ll sell off the back of this interview (remember to buy tickets for the show).”
Tell us something about your Grandmother? “She survived the Titanic. Not the boat, the pub in Leeds.”
When was the last time you cried? “When Jackie Collins recently died. I couldn’t believe my luck, I’m just about to finish writing a book and she goes and creates a vacancy.”
Name something you’ve always wanted to try? “A quiet life. I don’t see the opportunity arising, sadly.”
The song that means most to you? “You’re going to want me to say ‘I Know Him So Well’, because Sir Tim (Rice) who wrote the song told the world that my rendition of it on The John Bishop Show was the definitive version (it’s on Twitter if you don’t believe me) but in actual fact, the song that means the most to me is ‘Pretty Woman’, so the young can relate to me.”
The philosophy that underpins your life? “Remember to buy tickets to the show.”
Where’s the best place to get some serious laughter in Brighton this October? “I don’t know, there might be something on at the Komedia if you ask for a broch… OH! My show! At the Brighton Dome! Come to my show at the Brighton Dome on Thursday, October 22!”
For more info or to book tickets for the delightful and abrasively caring Ms DuBois’s show at the Brighton Dome on Thursday, August 22 see here:
Event: Myra DuBois: Self AdMyra
Where: Studio Theatre, Brighton Dome
When: Thursday, October 22
Time: 9.30pm: doors open at 9pm
Tickets: £13/£11 concessions
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