Frisky & Mannish

Frisky & Mannish
Frisky & Mannish on the South Bank
Background information
Origin	England
Genres	Cabaret, Comedy, Pop music, MTV Generation
Years active	2008-present
Members	Laura Corcoran, Frisky Matthew Floyd Jones, Mannish
Website	friskyandmannish.co.uk

Frisky & Mannish (often written as Frisky and Mannish) is a musical comedy cabaret double act based in London, England.

Formed in March 2008 by writers and performers Laura Corcoran and Matthew Floyd Jones, the duo is best known for a style of pop culture parody that consists of the musical and dramatic rearrangement of well-known pop songs. They have been called "the mad scientists of pop, mixing unlikely solutions from incompatible artists and distilling entire genres into their separate elements."

In 2009, their début show, Frisky and Mannish's School of Pop, was a breakout hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, establishing them on the live comedy circuit. They have twice returned to the Edinburgh Fringe, with the sophomore show, Frisky and Mannish: The College Years (2010), and the third instalment, Frisky and Mannish: Pop Centre Plus (2011). Each of these shows was a significant critical and commercial success, leading to international touring, with performances at the Sydney Opera House, the Melbourne Comedy Festival, the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, the New Zealand International Arts Festival, the Fringe World, and in Singapore.

Also known for their annual Christmas shows at the Lyric Theatre in London's West End, and their summer seasons on the South Bank, Corcoran and Jones have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year Award, the Chortle Award for Best Music and Variety Act, and the Loaded LAFTA Award for Best Newcomer.

The Guardian cites Frisky & Mannish as a rare example of a successful mixed-gender comedy duo: "from Flight of the Conchords to French and Saunders, single-sex double acts are everywhere - but Frisky and Mannish show that more should cross the gender divide."

Origin of the name

Frisky & Mannish are named after two characters who appear in one line of Byron's Don Juan:

Lady Fitz-Frisky, and Miss Maevia Mannish,
Both longed extremely to be sung in Spanish.

—Byron, Don Juan, Canto the Eleventh, LIII.

Genesis and early career

Laura Corcoran and Matthew Floyd Jones, both born in March 1985 in Manchester and Kingston-upon-Thames respectively, met as undergraduate students at Oxford University, where Corcoran studied English literature and Jones read Classics and English. They collaborated on theatrical productions, including Guys and Dolls and Godspell, and wrote comic songs for the Oxford Revue. They have both cited The Simpsons, Tenacious D and Julia Davis as particular shared inspirations. Corcoran trained on the musical theatre course at the Royal Academy of Music. Jones has a diploma in piano from Trinity College London, and is an alumnus of the National Youth Music Theatre. Corcoran's father is musical theatre actor Christopher Corcoran, and her great-grandmother was one of the original Tiller Girls.

Frisky & Mannish in New York City, January 2009

In March 2008, having been asked to perform a short set of music hall numbers at a fundraiser on the Battersea Barge, Corcoran and Jones decided instead to "mess around with a few songs." Surprised by the positive reception, they began to develop the concept more fully, and mounted two solo showcases, the first at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in April, and the second at the Canal Café Theatre in July. During this period, Jones was accepted to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, but deferred the place for a year to pursue his work with Corcoran, eventually turning the offer down.

They established themselves on the cabaret scene with guest performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2008 and the Brighton Festival Fringe 2009, appearances in Berlin and New York, music festival gigs at Lovebox and Camp Bestival, a comedy debate at the Oxford Union, and guest appearances with the Olivier Award-winning variety show La Clique at the London Hippodrome.

They reached the final of the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition in January 2010, and eventually achieved third place.

Major productions

Frisky and Mannish's School of Pop (2009)

Frisky & Mannish with Kate Nash at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2009

From February 2009, Corcoran and Jones began a monthly residency at the Leicester Square Theatre with a full-length show entitled Frisky and Mannish's School of Pop. The school concept emphasized the "educational" aspect of their song parodies, touching upon subjects as varied as British history (TLC's 'No Scrubs' as an example of Tudor foreign policy), English literature (Wuthering Heights from the perspective of Kate Nash), and existentialism in the work of Chesney Hawkes.

In August 2009, the School of Pop was performed at the Underbelly as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The sell-out show received thirteen five-star reviews, from publications such as Time Out, Chortle, The Herald, Edinburgh Evening News and The Mail on Sunday, and was described as "the undisputed hit of the Edinburgh Fringe." The Guardian singled Frisky & Mannish out in their round-up of the year's festival, bestowing upon them a 'Bring Me Sunshine' award. They promoted the show with live performances on BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio Scotland. One performance was attended by Kate Nash, who was herself the subject of one of their parodies. Subsequently, the School of Pop transferred to Soho Theatre in London for a sell-out limited run in January 2010, and in the following month, Corcoran and Jones began an international tour of the show, performing at the Sydney Opera House during the Mardi Gras festival in February, the New Zealand International Arts Festival in Wellington in March, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April, and the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in June. Back in the United Kingdom, the pair embarked upon their first national tour, performing at such venues as the Komedia in Brighton and the Lowry in Salford.

As a result of the wide-ranging success of the School of Pop, Corcoran and Jones were nominated for a Chortle Award in the category of 'Best Music or Variety Act', and featured as 'talents to watch' in both The Independent and The Sun.

Frisky and Mannish: The College Years (2010)

Frisky & Mannish performing at Latitude, July 2010

Corcoran and Jones wrote a second show, entitled Frisky and Mannish: The College Years, as a sequel to the School of Pop. Their new parodies, largely based on a central theme of "collision theory", included an in-depth analysis of the vocal duet, an exposé of Florence and the Machine's musical inspirations, and an up-tempo club dance remix of Radiohead's 'Creep'. The new show was premiered to a "packed out Cabaret tent" at Latitude Festival in Suffolk, followed by official previews at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith in July 2010.

At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2010, Corcoran and Jones enjoyed further critical and commercial success with The College Years, and received a number of five-star reviews from various publications, including Chortle, The List, Edinburgh Spotlight and Fringe Review. The Edinburgh Festival Guide published a list of 'Top-rated shows' at the end of the 2010 festival, in which Frisky and Mannish: The College Years was placed second out of nearly 2500 productions. Corcoran and Jones performed live on radio (BBC Radio 4) and television (STV), and were singled out by comedian Shappi Khorsandi in The Telegraph as one of her favourite acts at the festival. Following the Fringe, Corcoran and Jones toured the United Kingdom in the autumn of 2010 with The College Years, culminating in a performance at the Bloomsbury Theatre. In February 2011, they were invited to the inaugural Fringe World festival in Perth, Western Australia, where they performed in The Famous Spiegeltent and garnered rave reviews.

Frisky and Mannish: Pop Centre Plus (2011)

Corcoran and Jones's third full-length show, entitled Frisky and Mannish: Pop Centre Plus, was structured as a parody of a careers advisory service, and was described by the pair as the final instalment in Frisky & Mannish's "pop-parody trilogy." Among other subjects, Pop Centre Plus looked at the entire genre of grime (with specific focus on the work of N-Dubz), compared and contrasted Adele with Cheryl Cole, and revealed that the Bee Gees have been writing songs for Rihanna.

After a season of previews on the South Bank, Pop Centre Plus was presented at the Udderbelly during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2011. In interviews, they stated: "We've definitely upped the scale of the production," but also "stayed very true to who we are... [and] gone back to our cabaret roots in some ways." The show was another official sell-out for the duo, and received considerable media coverage, including a cover image and feature in The List’s Edinburgh Festival Guide, an interview in Fest Magazine, and a mention in The Independent as Ruby Wax’s must-see show. The critial response to Pop Centre Plus was mixed, ranging from lukewarm responses in The Scotsman and The Evening News, to positive notices in Metro and The Evening Standard. The duo took the show to the Absolut Fringe Festival Dublin in September 2011, and toured across the United Kingdom once more during the autumn. On December 7th, 2011, Frisky & Mannish performed Pop Centre Plus at London's O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, their highest-profile London engagement to date. In February 2012, they returned to the Fringe World festival in Perth, Western Australia, again performing in The Famous Spiegeltent. One reviewer called their material "devastatingly clever" and described the "vocal versatility of the two performers" as "outstanding."

Other shows

South Bank shows

In June 2010, Corcoran and Jones were invited to appear as part of the E4 udderBELLY season in association with the Southbank Centre, continuing their association with the Underbelly. The four cabaret shows, presented under the umbrella title of Frisky and Mannish: Pop Educators, were composed of songs from the School of Pop alongside new material that would be incorporated into The College Years. The Mail on Sunday called the show "unerringly sharp and upbeat from start to finish... a gold-star masterclass in the mechanics and semantics of pop."

From May to July 2011, Corcoran and Jones returned to the South Bank for a follow-up season of shows. The theme of the show was "finding gainful employment. The sort of employment everyone wants, to be a lip-synching, tabloid-dominating star of the 21st century." Metro called the show an "eagerly awaited follow-up to School of Pop and The College Years" and praised the duo as "a constantly evolving force of musical nature." The Evening Standard also reviewed the show favourably, asserting that "Simon Cowell would struggle to fault Frisky and Mannish... Boy, do they do it well."

West End Christmas shows

In December 2009, Corcoran and Jones made their West End début with a variety show entitled A Frisky and Mannish Christmas at the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, featuring The Puppini Sisters and Angelos Epithemiou as guest acts. Chortle described the show as possessing "the spirit of inventive, spangly, silliness, performed with powerful élan, that epitomises Frisky and Mannish at their best."

They returned to the Lyric in December 2010 with a follow-up show, Frisky and Mannish's Christmas Mess...age, featuring Miles Jupp and Abandoman as guest acts. Erotic Review wrote of the duo: "Despite the widely heralded post-Meow Meow, post-La Clique phenomenon of cabaret’s big-time explosion, large venue engagements are still few and far between in London’s perennially underground variety scene. Frisky and Mannish’s brash in-your-face irreverence makes a bold crossover statement, shamelessly seizing the mainstream spotlight with an unmistakable brand of humour both popular and defiant."

Critical reception

Frisky & Mannish have enjoyed significant mainstream attention and near-unanimous praise from the media since their first high-profile appearances in 2009. Among the plaudits, their work has been described as "the most purely entertaining hour to be spent at this year's Fringe" (The Independent), "skilfully layered and musically surprising" (The Guardian), "one of the most upbeat hours of comedy I've seen this year" (The Observer), "pure exhilarating brilliance from start to finish" (Chortle), "clever, inventive, polished, prodigiously talented and extremely funny" (Time Out Sydney), "musically adroit, vocally gifted and brilliant mimics" (New Zealand Herald), and "a global phenomenon" (The Times). They have been particularly acclaimed at the Edinburgh Fringe, where their act was once described as "the most fun you can have without chemicals." One notable exception was the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, at which Frisky and Mannish received mixed, contradictory reviews ranging from "hardly groundbreaking stuff," to "different, refreshing and, frankly, border-line genius."

Many reviewers have confessed that they find it difficult to accurately describe Frisky & Mannish. Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph wrote that "on paper, it’s next to impossible to do justice to what happens during a Frisky and Mannish gig - and gig feels the operative word... the atmosphere is more redolent of a flashy turn by Lady Gaga than your average comedy club night."

Television, radio and online

In January 2011, Frisky & Mannish appeared in the third episode of BBC Two's children's comedy programme, Dick and Dom's Funny Business, performing a Strictly Come Dancing skit featuring Vincent Simone partnered with Lady Gaga. During the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe, they appeared on BBC Three's Live at the Fringe programme, and BBC2's The Culture Show, for which they wrote a new piece looking at the art of the comic song.

In March 2011, a number of Frisky & Mannish songs were featured on The Scott Mills Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 1. The songs proved so popular that the duo were invited to appear in person on the show; they were interviewed by Scott Mills and performed live. The video edit of their live performances on the show made the Most Popular list on the BBC Radio 1 website that week. They have also been featured on BBC Radio 2's The Arts Show with Claudia Winkleman, BBC Radio 4 with Ali McGregor, BBC 6 Music with Lauren Laverne, BBC Radio 7, BBC Radio Scotland, and STV.

In October 2011, to coincide with the eighth series of The X Factor in the United Kingdom, Corcoran and Jones began filming and uploading a series of "VidBlogs" to their YouTube channel, presenting their humorous thoughts on each live final. After a positive response to the first video, the magazine Heat started to sponsor and host the duo's weekly blog, which appears every Monday on the Heatworld website.

Controversies

Britain's Got Talent

On Saturday 23 April 2011, Scottish drama teacher Edward Reid performed a version of Leona Lewis's cover of 'Run' on the fifth series of the television series Britain's Got Talent, replacing the original lyrics with 'Old McDonald Had a Farm' and other nursery rhymes. Reid received a standing ovation from the studio audience, unanimous praise from the judging panel, and was soon installed as favourite to win the competition.

"We'd like to make the point that we by no means believe we 'own' the idea of performing twisted versions of pop songs. We were not the first, and won't be the last. But the strong links and similarities in this instance have been slightly disconcerting."

Corcoran and Jones's statement in The Sun

Immediately afterwards, Twitter users began accusing Reid of plagiarising the Frisky & Mannish song 'Wheels on the Bus', a version of Girls Aloud's 'Sound of the Underground' which also features a nursery rhyme medley and begins with 'Old McDonald Had a Farm'. Corcoran and Jones, initially unavailable for comment, then released a statement to The Sun on 25 April 2011, revealing that they had performed alongside Reid at the Glasgow Cabaret Festival in 2009, at which time his work was "very different" from theirs, and that he had seen their version of 'Wheels on the Bus'.

Following the statement, Corcoran and Jones were reported to have "played down" the situation on their social networking sites, posting a tongue-in-cheek claim that they were "now being counter-sued by Old McDonald." On their official website, the duo made the following observation: "We do not believe we are the first people to do pop parodies. Nor is the irony of the event lost on us, considering our repeated pilfering of the back-catalogues of Britney, Bieber and Busted. Only certain interpersonal exchanges made this an unusual event."

Dannii Minogue and Gotye

In January 2012, prior to their fourth Australian tour, Frisky & Mannish wrote a parody of Gotye's 'Somebody That I Used to Know', re-imagining the song in the style of Dannii Minogue. The track was sent to Scott Mills, who subsequently played it on BBC Radio 1 and mistakenly claimed that the recording was proof that Gotye had produced a cover version of Dannii's original song. Mills caused a small internet furore, with Twitter users and various online blogs either taking the claim to be truth, or vehemently denying it. Eventually, Mills discovered that the song was a Frisky & Mannish recording, and apologised for the confusion.

Awards and nominations

• February 2012, London Cabaret Awards for Best Music-based Act and Best One-off Show (The College Years), longlisted nominees
• November 2011, Loaded LAFTA Award for Best Newcomer, nominees
• August 2010, Edinburgh Spotlight Best Comedy Award, nominees
• May 2010, FringeGuru Editor's Choice Award, winners
• May 2010, Latest 7 Award for Best Cabaret, runners-up
• March 2010, Chortle Award for Best Music and Variety Act, nominees
• February 2010, Leicester Comedy Festival Award for Best Show, nominees
• January 2010, Hackney Empire New Act of the Year, second runners-up
• August 2009, Edinburgh Festival Insider Comedy Award, nominees
• May 2009, Latest 7 Awards for Best Cabaret and Most Groundbreaking Act, nominees
• April 2009, Tuborg Musical Comedy Award, nominees

External links

• Official website
• Frisky & Mannish on Facebook
• Frisky & Mannish on X
• Template:Myspace
• Frisky & Mannish's channel on YouTube
• Frisky & Mannish on The Scott Mills Breakfast Show, BBC Radio 1
• Laura Corcoran at United Agents
• Matthew Floyd Jones at United Agents