Angela Di Carlo’s eyes are glittering when she enters the back room of Sid Gold’s Request Room in Chelsea. A makeup artist by day, Angela has transformed herself into a 1960s cabaret chanteuse, sparkly cat-eye and all. Hair in curlers wrapped in a colorful scarf, she heads behind the venue’s teal velvet curtain to put down her bags, which hold her costume for that evening, a wig, makeup, show notes and, of course, hairspray.
Tonight is Angela’s bi-monthly A.D.D. Cabaret at Sid Gold’s, where in a series of five minute segments she’ll regale the crowd with funny original songs approximately 30 seconds long, ranging from the timely--sadly, she says, she now has a template for sexual assault predators for which she’s been subbing in names O’Reilly, Weinstein, and Cosby--to her regularly requested personal classics like “Matte Black Dodge Ram Rape Van,” “Coke-Fueled Threeway,” and “Dead Baby Graveyard.”
Angela has been doing the deliciously campy, quirky show at Sid Gold’s for two years now, but has also performed in a host of classic New York cabaret venues like Joe’s Pub, Feinstein’s, and the Regency, with upcoming shows at Club Cumming (on December 17) and another at Joe’s Pub (on January 21). Previously, she wrote and starred in a regular Mad Men-inspired show called “The Mad World of Miss Hathaway” for five years, an event that landed her in New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix, The Village Voice, and Time Out New York, lauded by John Cameron Mitchell of Hedwig and the Angry Inch fame and Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. She has also worked as a makeup artist for places like Out Magazine and Vanity Fair, and bands like Fischerspooner and LCD Soundsystem.
After a sound check with her pianist Special K, née Kyle Forester, Angela teases her curls and her wig together so they’re a luscious, voluminous red crown. She spritzes it with hairspray and gives it a few tweaks, fluffing a section here, pulling a section there. She dons her costume, a spangly black evening gown (also sixties-inspired), swirls on some coral lipstick, and adds a rhinestone necklace. Because this is the Cobweb edition of the A.D.D. Cabaret, she adds a teeny, chic pair of black devil horns. “If I don’t look good, you don’t look good,” Angela says later with a laugh. “And I don’t know what that means.”
It’s time to begin, and this A.D.D. Cabaret is dedicated to all things scary, be it our current political climate, wearing leggings as pants, or babies. The room is packed, people leaning against walls, crowded around the piano bar, filling up every booth. To the audience’s delight, she pulls out the classic “Dead Baby Graveyard” in a melody with “Kids on Leashes” and a host of other terrifying baby songs. She closes out with another classic, “Happy Halloween, Bitch Sister,” for which she subs in a different holiday whenever applicable. “I have a hard time writing serious material,” she says later, “because all I wanna do is make people laugh.”
Tonight is Angela’s bi-monthly A.D.D. Cabaret at Sid Gold’s, where in a series of five minute segments she’ll regale the crowd with funny original songs approximately 30 seconds long, ranging from the timely--sadly, she says, she now has a template for sexual assault predators for which she’s been subbing in names O’Reilly, Weinstein, and Cosby--to her regularly requested personal classics like “Matte Black Dodge Ram Rape Van,” “Coke-Fueled Threeway,” and “Dead Baby Graveyard.”
Angela has been doing the deliciously campy, quirky show at Sid Gold’s for two years now, but has also performed in a host of classic New York cabaret venues like Joe’s Pub, Feinstein’s, and the Regency, with upcoming shows at Club Cumming (on December 17) and another at Joe’s Pub (on January 21). Previously, she wrote and starred in a regular Mad Men-inspired show called “The Mad World of Miss Hathaway” for five years, an event that landed her in New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix, The Village Voice, and Time Out New York, lauded by John Cameron Mitchell of Hedwig and the Angry Inch fame and Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. She has also worked as a makeup artist for places like Out Magazine and Vanity Fair, and bands like Fischerspooner and LCD Soundsystem.
After a sound check with her pianist Special K, née Kyle Forester, Angela teases her curls and her wig together so they’re a luscious, voluminous red crown. She spritzes it with hairspray and gives it a few tweaks, fluffing a section here, pulling a section there. She dons her costume, a spangly black evening gown (also sixties-inspired), swirls on some coral lipstick, and adds a rhinestone necklace. Because this is the Cobweb edition of the A.D.D. Cabaret, she adds a teeny, chic pair of black devil horns. “If I don’t look good, you don’t look good,” Angela says later with a laugh. “And I don’t know what that means.”
It’s time to begin, and this A.D.D. Cabaret is dedicated to all things scary, be it our current political climate, wearing leggings as pants, or babies. The room is packed, people leaning against walls, crowded around the piano bar, filling up every booth. To the audience’s delight, she pulls out the classic “Dead Baby Graveyard” in a melody with “Kids on Leashes” and a host of other terrifying baby songs. She closes out with another classic, “Happy Halloween, Bitch Sister,” for which she subs in a different holiday whenever applicable. “I have a hard time writing serious material,” she says later, “because all I wanna do is make people laugh.”
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Purchase tickets for Angela’s show at Joe’s Pub on January 21.
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Purchase tickets for Angela’s show at Joe’s Pub on January 21.
Follow me on Instagram and Twitter.
Subscribe to Miss Manhattan Hangs Out.
