VIDEO: Drag Race's Joe Black talks to Phil Hewitt/SussexWorld about his new Brighton adventure

Joe is promising a gin-soaked cabaret extravaganza featuring an array of special guests stars from the world of cabaret, burlesque, drag and musical comedy. April’s guests include Ginny Lemon (RuPaul's Drag Race UK), drag King Beau Jangles, burlesque artist Felicity Furore and creature creator Arran Shurvinton as Nosferatu.

Living somewhere “between the stages of music, theatre and comedy”, Joe is going to take his audience firmly by the hand and guide them to “a place where the strange and unusual reign supreme.”

One of the leading figures in the dark cabaret genre, Joe has toured extensively across the UK, Europe, Australia and America for more than a decade. He was also a contestant on series two of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.

Originally from Portsmouth, Joe has, as he says, found his natural home in Brighton: “I would come here as a teenager at weekends and it was always the fabled place where creativity ran free. I always felt that it was my kind of place and I just feel really at home here. If I go out my door and see someone dressed as a lobster going past on a unicycle, then I think to myself that's why I live in Brighton.

“Post Drag Race, the events have got bigger. I do a big tour and then I disappear and do things here and there but what I really wanted was a down and dirty small place where I could do a nice variety cabaret show, somewhere I could preside over the proceedings. It’s the world I come from, variety and cabaret and burlesque and I've not had my own variety show for a few years. I wanted to come back into the realm of variety and start producing some really nice mixed evenings.

"And Komedia is just perfect. It's a basement which adds an atmosphere with low ceilings, a nice dark room with a nice bar. It is just a really great place to be so I will be the MC and I will be mischievous and impish and I will just whip up the atmosphere for all the great acts. I'll have lots of great acts.

"Some will be known and established and some will be people I've discovered. Komedia have allowed me to run havoc there. They agreed to it, and I will be looking for the acts. It means I can curate a really nice evening.

“There will be four a year. It will be quarterly.

"I think the idea is that you've got to leave people wanting more. There used to be so many of this sort of show in 2007-2013. These shows were popping up all over the place and then it all became drag shows. The focus is on drag. I think burlesque was having a real moment and now drag is having a bit of a moment but I really want to get back into variety. That's not to say there won't be drag acts but definitely the real focus will be on the variety elements.”

https://www.komedia.co.uk/brighton/cabaret/joe-blacks-kleiner-kabarett/ or call 01273 647100.