Bourgeois (George) & Maurice (Liv) are now one of the best-known queer cabaret acts on the London scene. They’re brilliantly bizarre, audaciously aloof and scintillatingly strange.
They’ve had critically-acclaimed residencies and show runs at some of the city’s most well-respected cabaret institutions, including The Soho Theatre, The Glory and The Royal Vauxhall Tavern.
Now they’re back for three special shows at the beautiful and eccentric Wilton’s Music Hall, the perfect backdrop for two beautiful and eccentric performers.
They sat down with Dylan Jones and discussed the bizarre dichotomy between stage performing and real life.
QX: So tell me about your show!
Maurice: Well, it’s called “How To Save The World Without Really Trying”. We’re taking it to Wilton’s Music Hall for three nights, which is really exciting because Wilton’s is LUSH. It’s one of the oldest surviving music halls in London. It’s really beautiful.
Bourgeois: How To Save The World is probably our most produced show. And we’re so excited about taking it to Wilton’s, there’s so much scope to be spectacular there.
You guys were in New York recently…how did you guys go down in America? Because you strike me as an act that Americans might not necessarily get…
B: Well New York is a bit of an anomaly in America. Because they’re quite cynical. And our sense of humour suits that.
M: I think they buy into Britishness! That arch attitude. Well, not arch, but just…we don’t give too many moments of sincerity. Which Americans always tend to do in their comedy. No matter how silly it is, there’s always sincerity.
B: Although actually, this show probably has more sincerity than any of our other ones.
M: Yes it does! But I think we also like to buy into the Britishness ourselves. Like play up to it being British. So that they could understand. That sounds patronising. THEY COULD UNDERSTAND IT VERY EASILY.
So there’s more sincerity in this show than there ever has been?
B: Well, I suppose what last year really showed us, is living in that hall of mirrors bubble that everyone’s paranoid about. Like “is my social media feed just telling me exactly what I wanna hear? And is that how it’s led us to Trump and Brexit?” And we’re very aware, as two performers standing on stage, that we are on some degree preaching to the converted.
Yeah, when you’re downstairs at The Glory you’re definitely preaching to the converted.
B: Exactly! So with the show, we kind of make ourselves aware of that. Bourgeois & Maurice chat to themselves on Facetime, and kind of question themselves. There’s this idea that they’re trying to get outside their bubble, and trying to think about how they can connect with each other. And so they do start to consider the idea of love as a universal way of bringing people together.
M: They abandon that idea.
B: They do. But it touches on the idea of connection, and that sort of shit. So there’s this weird battle throughout the show, as we’re trying to deal with this valid viewpoint of “ok, we really want to connect with everyone. But also, we’re cunts.”
To what extent are Bourgeois & Maurice separate characters from your real personalities as George & Liv?
M: Obviously they come from us. But they definitely are completely different. I don’t like staying in makeup for very long after a show, because with my makeup on, I’m Maurice. And I don’t want to be Maurice after a show. Because Maurice is quite quiet, and aloof and a bit odd. And I want to be sociable. So I definitely find that in that way, I’m very different. But she comes from that part of me, the part that wishes I could just be a bit quieter and a bit cooler. But I can’t!
B: You’d never see Bourgeois & Maurice out in a club, because we can’t interact with people when we’re them. I can’t stay in character too long, it just feels really alien. The stage is kind of like an artificial environment. When the characters leave the stage, they evaporate.
Do you ever find that they involuntarily creep out during a date or whatever?
M: One we were doing a speech together at a friend’s wedding, and we started slipping into the voices. It was so weird!
B: I did it at my OWN wedding. I got married in March, and at the wedding I got on stage and said “thank you so much for coming” and almost sort of slipped into Bourgeois’s weird on stage voice and I was like “OH MY GOD WHAT AM I DOING.” I was talking to my friends and family in this weird nasal transatlantic accent.
So what do you guys think of the London gay scene at the moment?
M: There have obviously been some dramatic shifts in terms of venues and closures, and that’s been really bad. Like Madam Jojo’s, The Black Cap. But there’s also this sense that’s emerged of “we are here, we are the community.” Not that I’m saying it SHOULD have happened, these places closing. But it reminds you, we are here and we need to value our community.
B: There was a period when the gay scene felt a bit desolate. When The Joiners closed, and everything just felt like it was shutting. But now it’s clawing its way back.
Well maybe it was because everyone was on mephedrone.
M: Oh god, mephedrone. That smell.
B: Cat piss.
Would you define yourselves as a drag act?
B: We definitely borrow from drag.
M: There are drag elements. We’re kind of more in the androgynous camp. We’re sort of genderless. But we’re also still male and female. I’m ‘she’ and Bourgoise is ‘he’.
B: I actually think we’re drag kings. And drag kings are finally having a long overdue moment. I suppose that’s sort of opened the playing field to what drag is.
Tell me about how you guys started out.
B: I feel like there’s a period when you’re in your early twenties, where you just say yes to everything. And some things end up turning into something, while others you just forget they ever happened. It was just one of those things we said yes to, and it just kept going.
M: I can’t work out if I was more confident or less confident in my twenties. I definitely feel more content with who I am as a human being now. But I definitely had this sort of blasé arrogance in my twenties. Like “YEAH I CAN DO THAT.” But now I’m maybe a bit more cautious. I think I probably wanted to prove to myself that I could do something.
Finally, what advice would you give to people who want to do what you’re doing right now?
M: Just fucking do it.
B: And don’t stop doing it.
M: And don’t worry about it too much. Don’t overthink it.
B: I remember reading somewhere that if you stick around long enough, eventually people just accept it and think, “oh we’d better give them some shows.” And I think that’s true.
Bourgeois & Maurice are at The Wilton’s Music Hall on the 8th, 9th and 10th of June. Tickets available here
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