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Rachel Arieff
THE QUEEN
OF
UNDERGROUND NIGHTLIFE
Rachel Arieff. The North American comedian tells us that before becoming a show-woman, she worked as a secretary in the World Trade Center. Immediately, one imagines her as the ingenue/bad girl protagonist in the movie Secretary (2002), directed by director Steven Shainberg. Rachel Arieff (Milwaukee, 1979) turns out to be funny, scathing, ironic and intelligently frivoluous enough to permit herself the luxury of admiring Carmen de Mairena. But first and foremost, she alone has been capable of creating and converting into a massive success Anti-Karaoke, "the fusion of a rock concert, an underground karaoke, a Broadway musical and an over-the-top party." Now she presents her new show, Cómo ser feliz todo el tiempo, where she offers us, along with other mad proposals, "Ten Reasons to Postpone Suicide".
PB: Do you consider yourself a show woman?
RA: I consider myself a comic and a writer. I don't think of myself as an actress because actors interpret the ideas of others. Truthfully, I don't know if I could be a good actress. I worked for years in comedy clubs in the U.S., but I also sang, played the piano and danced.
PB: Why did you decide to create something like Anti-Karaoke?
RA: Shortly after moving to Spain, I started to feel lonely and depressed. I had no comedy scene here, no colleagues. To pull myself out of that hole, I decided to start an open mic night where anyone could get onstage for a few minutes and do anything they wanted. It was very successfu and it lasted a year. Then I had another idea: a theatrical karaoke show performed by amateurs, with rock-n-roll songs and me as the Mistress of Ceremonies. That's how Anti-Karaoke began, in the Llantiol Theater of Barcelona. Later we moved it to the Sidecar club, and the El Sol Club in Madrid followed that.
PB: By the way, is it possible to be happy all the time, as the title of your show suggests?
RA: Actually, the title of the show is nothing more than a cynical ploy to put asses in the seats. It's completely sarcastic.
PB: Who are your influences? Who or what inspires you creatively?
RA: Music inspires me a lot. I like classic entertainers like Liza Minnelli. She's an artist that has inspired me a lot. Though I'm post-glamour and post-diva, I've always liked the idea of creating shows that generate happiness where there isn't any.
PB: Which of your characterizations are your favorites?
RA: Well, I'm a great fan of the Duchess of Alba, whom I portray with a tulle veil over my head while singing I Wanna Be Your Dog by Iggy and The Stooges. I also like Madonna y Axl Rose. The one I would never, ever parody is Carmen de Mairena. It would be a sacrilege. She is already a great diva the way she is.
PB: Is there something exhibitionistic about your work?
RA: Of course. If my parents had paid more attention to me when I was a child, instead of being a show woman, I'd be a very decent, respectable secretary.
PB: It being so close to Election Day in the U.S., we can't fail to ask you about the difference between Bush y Obama...
RA: Goddammit, we've been stuck for eight years with that chimpanzee Bush!!!
PB: Careful, they might not let you back into the United States...
RA: The question isn't whether or not they'd let me back in, it's where they would divert my flight. To a basement in Afganistan where I can spend the last three years of my life in absolute darkness? Bush senior was also horrible, but at least he was intelligent. This Bush is just a chimp manipulated by evil men like his father. Obama, on the other hand, is truly presidential. It's obvious that he's extremely intelligent.
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"If they'd paid enough attention to me in my childhood, instead of being an entertainer, I'd have been a very respectable secretary."
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