Frisky and Mannish are a musical-comedy duo with a hint of cabaret, refreshingly interpreting such classics as ‘Eternal Flame’ and mashing up Kate Bush with Kate Nash, to raucous effect. Leeds Student speaks with Frisky, Laura Corcoran, about their influences and how to make it in such a feisty industry

Frisky and Mannish, or as they’re known to their parents, Laura Corcoran and Matthew Floyd Jones, combine music, comedy and cabaret, to create hilarious blends of songs and pop cultural references we all know and love.

Both Corcoran and Floyd Jones come from quite theatrical backgrounds, as Laura told me, ‘Matthew always said he wouldn’t really be doing anything else, if it weren’t with Frisky and Mannish he would be performing in some way’ and when I asked about her options, she described to me the two quite different career paths she chose between, performing and the police. ‘If it was between the police and stage, it was definitely going to be the stage.’ She and Matthew have been performing as long as they can remember, she tells me.

Meeting at university, through drama and musical projects, the two spent a lot of time performing together, but never just the two of them. ‘The very first show we did at uni together was a production of Guys and Dolls. It was then we realised we shared the same interests’. Laura praises the opportunities available at university, not only through resources of the establishment, but ‘your friends, and your time and creative energy. It can all be poured into whatever takes your whim, which is really exciting.’

On asking how they came round to creating a musical-comedy-cabaret act, Corcoran told me of how when she and Floyd Jones performed together for the first time, they thought about messing around with pop songs and seeing if anyone notices what they are. She describes how ‘the response was so immediate, so thought maybe this was a way to do what we want to do, which is perform.’

Citing Tenacious D and The Simpsons as her and Floyd Jones influences, respectively, Corcoran told me the really great thing about not realising she wanted to go into comedy was that she could just consume comedy as a kid, ‘purely, without any sort of critical mind’, which is perhaps why they are able to bring such confidence to their performance, they do not see the comedians they grew up loving as aspirational figures, but just ones they truly admire.

When I asked about how their act manages to be so popular, whilst being quite particular, I am told of the ‘lucky timing’ Frisky and Mannish have experienced. Corcoran described how the ‘white male dominated, bloke in a checked shirt with a pint talking about what’s funny in the world’ type of comedy was growing tiresome, and how now it is ‘the era of the clown’, reminding me of the storming success of more cabaret and circus acts Dr Brown and The Boy with Tape on his Face, who both received much praise at this year’s Edinburgh festival.

The duos work can poke fun at other individuals at times, but Corcoran reassured me that this is all in jest, ‘we’re quite careful not to be too playground about it, maybe sometimes we go a little close to the wire, but this is often based on how the artist may portray themselves in the media’, and so the teasing can be deserved.

But the musical references are all something one of the pair really loves. Laura tells me, ‘we would never do anything we don’t like, because we have to perform it every night!’ and that she hopes people coming away with a sense that we love this music, and that it doesn’t feel bitchy or cruel.

Their shows are all themed around educating people with their musical mash-ups and interpretations, with this year’s show Extra Curricular set to teach us even more about music we never thought we’d know.

As the double-act is so keen to educate about music, I asked whether she could impart any wisdom on any of us wanting to pursue career in performing. Corcoran told me, ‘be self-sufficient and pro-active’ and ‘if you sit around with your hand in the air waiting to be picked, you’ll be sitting around a very, very long time. At university there is such an opportunity with everything and everyone at your fingertips, you can just make things happen’.