Who are you?
I’m Aidan Sadler, a cabaret artist from Gravesend in Kent, now gracing the streets of East London. I’d describe my style as very chaotic. Belty vocals, stand up comedy that gives an insight into my own and an audience’s psyche, bizarre performance art. I started out with 5 quid and an Edinburgh fringe run for my first show, Tropicana. That’s the one what won me an award and got me some 5 star reviews. It pretty much springboarded me onto the circuit (of which I’m still eternally grateful for). Since then I’ve performed all over the shop, festivals, tours, lovely little residencies. It’s been a blast!
What’s your project?
I have a few at the moment! I’m currently working on my next big fringe show which will be a real upscale of the form I usually work with. I think after having such success with my first there’s a lot of pressure to make something worthwhile (curse of the second album!) Anyone who’s seen my show, just know if you enjoyed Tropicana, the next show will blow your socks off! I’m also in the process of starting a radical new equal-stakes production company. It will be specialising in underrepresented voices within the theatre and cabaret industry. There’s a real issue with accessibility in the industry and I hope over the coming months that we can start getting people paid for their work!!!
What’s your gender identity?
I’m from the school of gender anarchy. I’d class myself as non-binary/ gender nonconforming.
How does your queerness influence your art?
I think a lot of my art has an inherent nostalgia that a lot of queer people feel robbed of. Through art we’re allowed to relive and revisit the past but with a brush of optimism, knowing (and hoping) that things will get better. I also feel as though my queerness allows me a unique point of view. When platformed to more heteronormative audiences it makes me a bit of a unicorn!
Has your artistic creation changed through the struggles of the Covid years?
I originally worked in the leisure and tourism industry pre-covid. What I found out over the covid years, other than my own financial instability, was that the work I was doing wasn’t at all self expression. I was taking other peoples words, other peoples characters, and performing them to audiences which I don’t have a lot in common with! So over the pandemic I did heaps of introspection (and breakdowns) to get to where I am now. It was a pretty painful process but now I get to authentically be myself and (sometimes) get paid for it!
When is your next event ( tell us more about it) ?
I’m putting on a fundraiser for the next show on Friday 21st October at The Two Brewers in Clapham. It’s going to be great fun with a lot of my very talented mates lending their skills to dazzle and intrigue!!! If you want to support grassroots theatre (and, quite frankly, the next big thing) come down for the time of your life!
and if you’d like to know more about the dragking Kallum Kiraly click here
