La Voix
PalomPhotograph by Ram Shergill, Artwork by Daen Palma Huse
“I started working at Madame Jo-Jo’s in 2004. I was there for about eight or nine years every Saturday, that’s where I really learned cabaret and singing and performing.”
“When I had a birthday party it would always be fancy dress. As cliché as it sounds, I really got into black and white films and music. I used to have a diary and every page would be a portrait of a different 1950s film star and I just thought it was so incredible – all the feathers and the frills.”
“I adore people that do that every day, even if it’s women in the street that always have a bright red lipstick on, even if they just go down to the shop. The fact that they have made that effort.”
“I sometimes explain to the audience what they can do to impersonate someone, little quirks, little physical things that I do. I thought I’d put that in my show and tell them, which is quite funny now.”
“I always worry one day is Shirley going to come and see the show? People have said ‘what would you do?’ and I think she’d love it, I hope she would.”
“Oh my God, that’s those two men I did the make-up on!”
La Voix: Diva Encore
Channelling the Great Ladies of Showbusiness, La Voix starts UK tour in style with Live at Zedel at London’s Crazy Coqs Cabaret.
INTERVIEW BY DAEN PALMA HUSE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAM SHERGILL
SET DESIGN BY DAEN PALMA HUSE USING SAMUEL & SONS
“Anything glamorous is normally French!” – nothing short of a promise, La Voix is all about the voice, the singing and performance. La Voix says “people don’t know what to call me” but likes it because she says it sounds a bit crazy like saying “Tsa Tsa Gabor” or “Dita von Teese.” The Protagonist team had the chance to catch La Voix in-between acts for a glamorous impromptu-shoot and have a tête-à-tête with the celebrated red-headed, gowned and rhine-stoned sensation that La Voix has become.
We photographed La Voix for The Protagonist, emulating the mood of a view behind the scenes at the theatre between curtains and stage props, just before the curtain opens – discovering the immaculately created looks that La Voix wears when entertaining her cheering crowds with clever comedy and a powerful voice both sides of the Atlantic. We know that the performer has a huge stage presence; “If La Voix goes out, she goes out!”
How did you start your career as a stage performer?
I always wanted to be a performer, so I did a drama degree and I went and a postgraduate theatre diploma. I was very much wanting to be the all-singing, all-dancing West-End kid, doing all the shows, and I did! After that I trained as a make-up artist, like many actresses, in between work. I was lucky enough to be picked up by Laura Mercier as she needed someone with lots of personality to help sell the products and the brand. I trained with her and we travelled all around the world! From America to Europe and all over – I was thrown at all these amazing places like Bergdorf Goodman on 5th Avenue doing Q&As for women on make-up, and I felt like I didn’t really know it all at that point!
You know at times when you do something on the side you actually end up being very very good at it. I was lucky enough to work as Pamela Anderson’s make-up artist, I worked with people like David Guest for a long time, and on lots of editorial photo shoots and a runway show.
What were breakthrough-moments of your on-stage career?
I started working at Madame Jo-Jo’s in 2004. I was there for about eight or nine years every Saturday, that’s where I really learned cabaret and singing and performing. It all came together with the songs and the quick changes, that’s where I really really learned that I loved cabaret, I loved the divas. I loved all the Shirley Basseys, Judy Garlands, Liza Minellis and Tina Turners. I aspired to all these big divas and started to get more and more work across the cabaret scene all over the UK from the Vauxhall Tavern to up in Manchester, Edinburgh Festival… and then I went even bigger and started to do a theatre show with a live band. I am still doing the diva songs but on a much bigger scale.
What was your big break into touring on a bigger scale and singing in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie?
The big break that got me into the big theatres was Britain’s Got Talent! I got down to the semi-finals and that was with a big band, what really catapulted me into what I am doing now. And then a year after I did Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, working with Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley and I got to sing in the film which was amazing! It was “Poison Arrow” by ABC, I think it’s one of Jennifer Saunders favourite songs – it was mad to have those filming days!
Blue tassles shown in the image designed by Timothy Corrigan for Samuel & Sons
Going back to when you were a child, have you always dressed up in extravagant ways?
When I had a birthday party it would always be fancy dress. As cliché as it sounds, I really got into black and white films and music. I used to have a diary and every page would be a portrait of a different 1950s film star and I just thought it was so incredible – all the feathers and the frills. Clothes were so beautifully made and so flattering to wear. When I got to a stage in my career where I was starting to be able to buy ridiculous ostrich feathers it became a massive hobby – which luckily is my career! It comes from a passion about this era that we don’t get to see as much. The spectacle, people don’t dress like that anymore, pose like that in pictures anymore, wear their hair like that and wear their shoes like that, it’s just so amazing that you can still create it and the reaction is people saying “Oh my god, I would love to wear something like that, oh I’d like to have my hair like that!” – and you can, everyone can, but people follow the crowd a lot these days. It’s nice to have the ability to stand out!
Have you ever made any clothes yourself?
I have tried, but I haven’t got the patience. Especially with all the stones, Svarowski stones you know… I’d start and by the end of it they’d be everywhere and glue all over the place! I am not skilled enough. When you see how much work goes into it when people do it professionally it’s incredible.
How do you decide on your stage looks?
I tend to wear purely from visuals, I will look at a mixture of runway shows to old Hollywood films to stars that I like – or looking at the Oscars or the MET ball is always great. I’ll say “that’s amazing, that’s amazing, that’s amazing” and just find fabrics to match. I am not imaginative until I see it, when I stand in front of a mirror and I have someone pinning fabric to me and I can see it all coming together, that is how I like to work: when I can see it physically with the fabrics. There are so many fabrics; sometimes you see a fabric and you think it will look terrible but once you see it in the stage light you think to yourself “they look incredible!” There is a lot of theatre costume that close-up can look quite crude and crass but they are beautiful when they are lit.
You love creating elaborate make-up looks, tell us more about them!
I think because I was working in fashion and editorial work I was quite heavy-handed with the make-up and also you wouldn’t have to do as much touch-up. Someone like Pamela Anderson, yes, she would wear a lot of make-up. She liked the big smoky eyes, the base, she liked the lashes. And you would see her close-up and think she was wearing a lot of make-up, but it just worked. She knew I was putting a lot on but it wasn’t looking cakey or too heavy and that’s the key.
Personally, I don’t think I could ever tame it down, do a nude gloss and a tinted moisturiser [laughs] – I think the theatrical finish is so elaborate that I don’t think I’d ever want to lose that. I adore people that do that every day, even if it’s women in the street that always have a bright red lipstick on, even if they just go down to the shop. The fact that they have made that effort.
Did you start singing early?
Singing is not something that came to me naturally, I had to work on it and I still have to work on it. I have lessons a lot and it came from listening and copying a lot of recordings and singing along. I wasn’t one of those people that came from a showbiz family, none of my family can sing, so confidence has come with just doing it and singing and singing and singing. I sometimes listen to recordings and think “well, that wasn’t too bad” – a lot of singing, I believe, is confidence. I you think you can do it you can just go out there and do it! I think anyone can sing. The minute you get nervous about it, things happen vocally and physically and you can’t do it. When you think “I will totally nail this song” the audience will believe it!
Big musical numbers are your specialty. Tell us what you love most about them.
When I started out I don’t think there were many people that would do a song with that level of risk and commitment that Shirley Bassey or Judy Garland put in it, they would sing a song like it was going to be the last song they were going to sing. All the band would collapse down at the end and maybe the note would be a bit off at times, but it would be loud and the audience would jump up. We have become so used to autotuned and “nice” singing and no one would take a risk. People were cancelling tours and concerts because they wouldn’t feel well and I just think that it could just be one of those days where you come out on stage and maybe you can’t sing as well, but you’re there and say “let’s do it!”
I wanted to recreate that a bit and in some of my shows it might not be the most beautiful tone – I am not Katherine Jenkins or anything like that – but I like to believe I create an energy behind every song of saying “I am going to perform this” and I think there’s an appreciation from an audience these days, liking the fact that you’re not totally perfect sometimes but it’s a good show!
Do you think this helps people relate to you and aspire to be a bit like you?
I think we all like people that look a little bit vulnerable. Some of the songs I pick and I feel vulnerable when I start them [laughs]. If someone is too perfect, clean and untouchable there isn’t really that aspiration I think –
Which songs are the kind of songs that leave you feeling a little vulnerable at times?
The big Shirley Bassey numbers Diamonds Are Forever or This Is My Life or Liza Minelli’s version of New York New York is epic. People know them very well, the same with Adele songs, people know how they should sound. So if you are going to do them differently you need to do them well. These songs are always the finales, you want the finale of your show to be the climax, but if you have been singing for two hours it’s the riskiest song, but if you nail that you go home absolutely on cloud nine!
What is your approach when researching songs that have been sung a lot in the past? Do you listen to lots of different versions when you practice?
I tend to listen to one version that I really like. There are so many versions and if I hear a live recording and it gives you goose bumps that’s the sort of recording that I would go to. Sometimes before a performance I listen to those recordings, a key one, that have inspired me over the years. You might not be in the mood, you might have trouble on the way to the theatre, it might be a hot summer’s day or freezing, and listening to those that gets me excited wanting to go out and sing. It reminds me of why I do the songs that I am doing.
You don’t emulate diva’s performances through a full change of clothes, you are La Voix using your voice to produce remarkable performances that make us feel like some of the 20th century’s icons have just revisited the stage before us. However, you do use a short Tina Turner dress with lots of fringe or a large Shirley Bassey feather stole – do these elements help you ‘get into character’?
I sometimes explain to the audience what they can do to impersonate someone, little quirks, little physical things that I do. I thought I’d put that in my show and tell them, which is quite funny now. There would be something physical that I will think of – whether it’s Cher or Tina – the way they are standing, the way they hold their mic, a different way they sing. The minute you create that physical thing, you become them. It’s a strange thing. A lot of it has to do with the costume – people like Shirley Bassey always wears big feathers and something long. If I try and do Shirley in something else and I’d be in a situation where I am wearing a pant suit or I am wearing a short skirt or something, it doesn’t feel right. You find you do things and you find out “Oh, that’s why she does this thing with her arms” because she is trying to get the feathers out of the way – or you realise how many stars have these little physical quirks that we all know because it’s how they are dressed! It’s also Tina with the fringe and the tassles – when you wear that you want to make it shake! The costume has a huge effect on how you feel as that person.
Have you ever done and act that is based on someone that you know personally?
No!! I’ve never done that – I always worry one day is Shirley going to come and see the show? People have said “what would you do?” and I think she’d love it, I hope she would.
Are there any people you would like to impersonate that you have not done so far?
Oh, there is lots of people that I’d love to do that have the vocals of the big divas, like Adele. There are so many singers I would love to do. I am a big fan of people like Cilla Black, I think some of her songs are amazing. It’s an ongoing thing and I change the show every year so every year it’s a new song and a new diva and I look out and see what I can pick. There’s more to come!
Changing a lot probably adds a lot to being perceived as La Voix rather than an impersonating act, what do you think?
We try very hard in the shows that I have songs that aren’t impersonations but that are La Voix – maybe just my favourite songs. Every year I’d be listening to the radio and going to see shows and picking. And I love to hear a song and wonder how it would be if Adele did that song, or Shirley Bassey sang it or Judy Garland! So I’d do a Whitney song but Judy singing it – or Shirley Bassey singing a Meat Loaf song, it’s such great fun playing around with it! I play around with the band and we’d have days of doing that and seeing what works best. If well all laugh we say “that’s got to be in the show!” and if we don’t we tend to say “let’s not risk it” [laughs]
You make people laugh a lot – is that something you discovered when you just did your thing and found out that it is also really funny at times?
Yes, the show initially was just song, song, song and there wasn’t that much in between. I suppose that as I progressed and grew confidence … I mean if you travel around there are so many bizarre situations and I started telling the odd story or an anecdote what happened on the road and people would really laugh and I though I need to do this more. Then I started to describe how I get into the impersonations and that became a really funny thing, and then the comedy just became stronger and stronger and now I have a writing partner that helps me write the comedy. He’ll give me an idea of a theme and I’ll embellish it with stupid things on the top and details. We have great fun – and these are not even stories that are made up! From working with Pamela Anderson to doing the make-up for some robbers that robbed Bond Street!
What was that story all about?
I did the make up for some guys that then did a robbery on Bond Street [laughs]. They told me they did a music video – came to me to have their make-up done to look like old men. I applied all prosthetics and latex pieces on them and they left me, and then the next day I picked up the Metro paper on the tube and on the front page there was a headline and an image of CCTV footage and I thought “Oh my God, that’s those two men I did the make-up on!” and they were obviously wanting the make-up as a disguise. At the time I was working at Charles Fox in Covent Garden and they’d just booked an appointment. They got caught within a matter of days, so my make-up wasn’t that good [laughs again]!
Tassles shown in the image designed by Timothy Corrigan for Samuel & Sons
Tell us a story about working with Pamela Anderson?
Oh gosh, there were so many. We did a shoot with her once in Champneys in the garden in the health spa in the countryside and she had this long flowy dress on. We were wanting her to be running through the fields with all the grass and she was doing cartwheels and the photographer said “run over to that tree over there and then do a handstand and kick your legs up over on that tree!” – so she did it and of course she was wearing this flowy dress and she had no underwear on! The dress dropped and over her head and she was screaming and couldn’t get out… that was hilarious and we had many of these kind of hysterical moments. Once a heel broke at the airport and paparazzi were taking pictures as she was tyring to walk without going up and down as I had the heel in one hand… [laughs] – she’s a lovely lovely woman, she is great!
Would she be upset with you telling these kind of stories?
Oh no, she’d love it! There is Pamela and then there is Pamela Anderson, the brand, the performer, the model – she’s very much a normal mother-of-two when she is outside of it. Same for me, when I am not on stage I have quite a normal life. My work life is a lot of shows and meet-and-greets and all, so my private life is quite quiet and subdued. I think we had a similar thing like that. You knew when she was on, she could be a diva!
What are your plans for 2020?
I have my own radio show, which is on BBC Three Counties Radio that you can listen to in Hertfortshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire. Between that I am on my UK theatre tour again! I do some cruise ships and pantomime as well, it’s a busy year!
Do you have a favourite song to end your shows with?
I don’t have a favourite song, I must tell you. It depends on the show I am doing. At the moment I love doing Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” – that is one of my favourite songs. Everyone knows it on an international level, whether I’m in Europe, the UK or America, that song is iconic. Everyone sings it back so loud, that is one of my favourite songs, without a doubt!
Thank you very much!
La Voix is touring throughout the UK in 2020, for all tour dates please visit www.lavoix.co.uk