Babes on brownies

>> Take Back the Mike gets high on Women's Day

by AMY BARRATT

A lot of events claim to offer "something for everyone." But Take Back the Mike, a women's cabaret set to raise the roof off the Infinite Space on March 7 and 8, might just deliver the goods.

Organizer and emcee Billie Markus hopes to attract everyone from the stretchy-bellbottom-and-barrette set to the stretchy-pantsuit-and-blue-rinse crowd. Even men are welcome at this International Women's Day celebration, and Markus promises they won't be asked to check their scrotums at the door.

The show features an impressive line-up of musicians, comedians, actors and performance artists, spanning at least two, possibly three, generations. "I wanted to get this 80-year-old dancer, but it didn't work out," Markus says. She did succeed in getting a girl-band, Smiling Politely, composed of three 17-year olds.

The theatrical component of the show includes Titters, the kooky duo of Laura Mitchell and Janis Kirshner, who recently performed their full-length show, Put Another Monologue on the Fire, at the Infinite Festival. This time, sharing the bill with 10 other acts, they will be offering a few choice hors d'oeuvres rather than a full meal. Another festival alumnus, Carolyn Guillet (who appeared in Eden's Moon), will perform an original monologue about the trials and tribulations of being a housewife.

Actress Mary Harvey, a veteran of the North American Fringe circuit, will also do some of her own material. And there will be a comedy set by Regan Cooper.

Singer/songwriters will be well represented by local folk goddess Linda Morrison and Toronto-based Rachel Kane, as well as up-and-comer Lisa Sheppard, 23.

There'll even be a highly secretive (even Markus doesn't know what to expect) performance art piece by Louise Dubreuil, though only on the second night. Then there's C-Section--which, happily, is not performance art. It's three women who met through the Yellow Door Tabernacle Choir and who harmonize a cappella.

"We have a lot of women who have transformed themselves," says Markus, "who have done other stuff, like took time off to have kids, and then came back in another incarnation. Regan Cooper ran a daycare for nine years, then went back to school and became a carpenter, and now she's doing stand-up."

Markus knows a thing or two about transformation herself. In some of her incarnations she has been a journalist, a teacher and a performer in various capacities. She went back to school at 29 to study music, and last year attended clown school. In addition to her hosting duties at Take Back the Mike, she will be bringing along her double bass, an instrument she says all women should play because "it's the greatest vibrator in the world."

And speaking of orgasms, they will be serving--a divinely inspired idea--brownies. Infinitheatre doesn't have a license to sell liquor in its studio space, but Blizzarts is a few doors down on St-Laurent, and you have to go there anyway to buy tickets. Any après-show revelling, if it doesn't spill out into the streets, will likely take place there as well. Tickets will be sold the night of the show only, and it's a small space, so be sure to get there early.

Take Back the Mike Cabaret, March 7 and 8 at 8:30pm at the Infinite Space; box office at Blizzarts, 3956A St-Laurent; $5 for infinitheatre members, $10 non-members (buys you a membership)