For those of you who don’t know me, I am a particularly lame human when it comes to horror.
My mother and sister loved the genre; they’d tuck themselves into our basement TV room for entire rainy afternoons watching classics like Children of the Corn, The Shining, and It. They couldn’t get enough of the stuff.
Meanwhile, I would lock myself in my bedroom, on the top floor of the house, and refuse to come out until the last of the VHS tapes were safely in their sleeves on a stack on the kitchen table. They would continue, through the years, inviting me down to their scare-binge sessions, hoping I would grow out of it. I didn’t.
Fast forward almost two decades later, and I’m doing something my six-year-old self couldn’t have dreamed.

I’m in a horror cabaret. Tomorrow night, to be specific.

Local enchantress Voodoo Pixie approached me shortly before the start of the Fringe Festival and asked me to be part of this year’s instalment of Abracadaver, the highly anticipated annual Vancouver horror cabaret.Known for being a creepy blend of magic, burlesque and theatre all wrapped up in a year-specific theme, AbraCadaver is slated to break a new frontier this year and add live music to the mix. Last year’s theme was’Mental Institution.‘ This year’s is ‘Deal with the Devil.’ (Think southern belles tempted by sin …) I’ll be reading a monologue written by local writer Billie Taylor inspired by the story of Faust, from the perspective of the overlooked Gretchen.

Will I be any less scared by the show, watching from the wings? Dear god I hope so. I’m still that lame six-year-old, locked in her bedroom at the first mention of a Stephen King movie.
Event info can be found here, and ticket info here.

See you Saturday!

Savage