Cliff Hanger in Solitary Man, 2015-16
So, to put it mildly, Cliff tore Kyneton a new one with his show Solitary Man in March.. .and here's proof, with his speccy performance of Burt Bacharach's Wives and Lovers from 1963. Cliff's performance was a bit 1963 too, frankly (...in a good way? You be the judge).
Unfortunately his mo' came off halfway through the show, and he was forced to reveal his accursed affliction: upper-lip alopecia. Tragic... |
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Cliff Hanger: A History
The deadline for applications for inclusion in the 2002 Melbourne Fringe Festival arrived and Fiona Scott-Norman, Eddie Perfect and I sat at the Perfects' kitchen table. We wrote a description of a show about a clapped-out Vietnam-vet/pop-star/TV gameshow host named Cliff Hanger. During the subsequent weeks the three of us had a wow of a time devising Cliff Hanger in Catch A Falling Star.
Early photos of Cliff and Eddie don't reveal Cliff's face, mainly because we didn't know what he would look like at the time the shots were taken, some weeks before the season. I was keen to work with Emily Taheny, whom I'd met through her sister (comedian) Fiona O'Loughlin during my time as a Cheese Brother, so we wrote a cameo for her as Cliff's trophy wife Cherise.
Eddie wrote all the original music for the show, but we included a couple of covers: Cliff's signature tune My Boomerang Won't Come Back, an 'Australiana' medley and a medley of Vietnam-inspired tunes. Cliff also performs Meatloaf's Two Out of Three Ain't Bad with his lovely wife, and Cherise rips into Woman In Love in an attempt to seduce Eddie. But it's Eddie's originals that form the musical backbone of the show. Who's Gonna Catch A Falling Star? for example, is a Kurt Weill-esque number summing up Cliff's sadness at being forgotten both personally and professionally. It's beautiful with just the right amount of bitterness. Then there's the vaudevillean swing in Two Dogs and Eddie's compulsive bastardry in I Just Can't Be Nice. Something for everyone.
Early photos of Cliff and Eddie don't reveal Cliff's face, mainly because we didn't know what he would look like at the time the shots were taken, some weeks before the season. I was keen to work with Emily Taheny, whom I'd met through her sister (comedian) Fiona O'Loughlin during my time as a Cheese Brother, so we wrote a cameo for her as Cliff's trophy wife Cherise.
Eddie wrote all the original music for the show, but we included a couple of covers: Cliff's signature tune My Boomerang Won't Come Back, an 'Australiana' medley and a medley of Vietnam-inspired tunes. Cliff also performs Meatloaf's Two Out of Three Ain't Bad with his lovely wife, and Cherise rips into Woman In Love in an attempt to seduce Eddie. But it's Eddie's originals that form the musical backbone of the show. Who's Gonna Catch A Falling Star? for example, is a Kurt Weill-esque number summing up Cliff's sadness at being forgotten both personally and professionally. It's beautiful with just the right amount of bitterness. Then there's the vaudevillean swing in Two Dogs and Eddie's compulsive bastardry in I Just Can't Be Nice. Something for everyone.
We performed the first season and received great press, accepting the Fringe Award for Best Cabaret Show. The next year we received Green Room Awards for 'Most Innovative Use Of Form (Cabaret)'. A season at The Adelaide Cabaret Festival followed but it was not until 2004 that we were able to perform the show at The Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Emily's and my commitments with Comedy Inc on TV prevented us from arranging any earlier seasons.
I continue to perform as Cliff. He's become my standard comedy/cabaret character, and I continue to try to include him in TV pitches I make... I want to get this character on the box. It would be wonderful to reunite the original cast of Cliff Hanger In Catch A Falling Star, more than a decade on, to do the show one last time...
I continue to perform as Cliff. He's become my standard comedy/cabaret character, and I continue to try to include him in TV pitches I make... I want to get this character on the box. It would be wonderful to reunite the original cast of Cliff Hanger In Catch A Falling Star, more than a decade on, to do the show one last time...
Cliff Hanger - "the Vietnam vet Farnsie"
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