[A feature to be found in the winter issue of the têtu· magazine, available at your newsstands or delivered to you by subscription.] Each month, Martin Dust’s Dust Cabaret takes over Le Zèbre de Belleville, in Paris. A flamboyant benchmark of the genre for nearly ten years.
“The best cabaret on earth.” At least, that is what Martin Dust sings as he opens his show, propelled by an excellent energetic rock quartet. Welcome to the Dust Cabaret, where artists make “revolution with sucking noises” and send “a little glitter and a lot of anger”, as the master of ceremonies proclaims, all in black from head to toe. Diabolically effective, this opening refrain immediately establishes both the musical and visual universe of the show.
A collection of zebras at the entrance, the obligatory red curtains, retro decoration composed of old amusement-park machines… Two weeks per month, Martin Dust and his crew take over the roughly 200 seats of the ardent and enigmatic Le Zèbre de Belleville, in Paris’s 11th arrondissement, for a moment of artistic sharing with no borders. “If it takes a village to raise a child, it surely takes an entire backroom to keep a cabaret going!” says Martin Dust into the microphone during the thank-you moments. A backroom as warm as can be and often full: recognition for someone who has been active in the cabaret world since his early teens (15-16), and who finally opened his own cabaret nearly ten years ago.
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Sophie Brennan