by CHRIS BARRY

Since its debut a little over a year ago, Kiss My Cabaret has developed into one of the most interesting scenes Montreal has to offer. Every six weeks or so, actress and reluctant impresario Danette MacKay assembles an always-eclectic mix of sketch comedians, acrobats, musicians, and performance artists to come do their thing, entirely uncensored, in front of an inevitably packed house of enthusiastic patrons at la Sala Rossa. Admission is never more than a scant five bucks - which all goes to charity.

Of course, once inside, you can never be too sure about what you’ll be getting. A good proportion of the artists showcased at Kiss My Cabaret are among the very finest you will find anywhere, while others… well, let’s just say some of the acts are still in their experimental stages.

Which, for the most part, suits MacKay just fine. “I generally rely on word of mouth and my instincts to choose performers,” she says. “Because as an actress I know that auditioning is hell. And, yes, by not auditioning artists we’ve had a few unpleasant surprises, but this also helps to create an atmosphere in which anything can happen. When I think about it, actually, I guess it’s kind of miraculous that 99 per cent of the time the artists are great.”

MacKay freely admits that circumventing the audition process also saves her a ton of work - Kiss My Cabaret being a labour of love that she does entirely for free. “Yes, it’s a lot of work, but for now it’s like this major, fantastic hobby that just happens to eat up a lot of my time. And it’s so much fun. But if it ever starts feeling too much like work then I could cave. And I don’t want that to happen because I don’t want to let down all the artists who are so enthusiastic about participating in it.”

Claiming not to be the selfless patron of the arts she appears to be, the divine Miss M suggests the reason that she, and all of the talent appearing at the cabaret, work for no money is for the release that complete artistic freedom brings to performers accustomed to doing “stupid voiceover work and TV commercials just to pay the rent.

“Actors do so many soul-sucking things,” offers MacKay, “that to be able to take five minutes to do just anything you want in the cabaret is creatively sustaining.”

Recently, there have been rumours hinting the cabaret might be developed into a late night TV series, but, for the moment, MacKay is hesitant. “There’s a part of me that says I should want to try and make some money out of this, but there’s another part that feels that I’m just going to wreck the whole thing if I do.” :