M. I. Scoggin, Chanteuse /actress, appeared in Carl Walker's A Cocktail Party at Le Chat Noir. Her most rewarding rôle is as grandmère to four beautiful petits-enfants. (On piano) Matt Scoggin, son of Mary Irene and Guy Scoggin, is a computer expert and a regular performer on the New Orleans music scene. He is the proud husband of Darcy Devine, and father of Mia and Guy Scoggin. (On accordion) Will Robichaux, a Pathologist from Thibodaux, La, studied in France as an undergraduate. Married to M. Christine Nettles, he is the proud papa of Marie-Celeste, Susannah, & Josephine Robichaux.

Running With Scissors is a New Orleans-based theatre troupe that's fast become a city-wide favorite! With numerous successful productions under its belt--including Texas Chainsaw 90210, The Scooby Witch Project, Gilligan's Island Survivor, Kiki le Bonbon's Cabaret Oh-La-La, Camille, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Grenadine McGunkle's Double-Wide Christmas, Hell's Belles, Pop Tarts, I Suddenly Know What You Did Last Summer!, The Andrews Sisters' Hollywood Canteen, Pussy on the House, Sordid Lives, and many more in the works--Running With Scissors aims to present a diverse array of entertainment for Crescent City theatergoers.

Christian Champagne, (RoachOpera) sometimes called the Creole Groucho, is famous for 'Numa, the intellectually challenged spokesperson.'

"Chris Champagne is a Southern Woody Allen," says local columnist Liz Scott. "...one of the most ingenious writers working in the country today." says Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, Walt Handelsman; he is "creating a mythos of New Orleans thereby putting it poetically on the American sound body" quips award winning novelist, Andrei Codrescu.

Born in California, raised in Japan, educated at Yale (where he was a Whiffenpoof), most importantly, Rich Look married a New Orleans girl and now he lives and works here. A true renaissance man, Rich's own songs range from the Latin flavored, Pink Flamingos and Heartbreak Hotel in Japanese (complete with Harikiri), to the romantic Louisiana Moon, title song from his most recent CD.

His production credits include theme songs for Hands Across America, and movie title songs like Happy Birthday Gemini starring Madeline Kahn and Rita Mereno. He did a stint as a soap opera star on Japanese television, and has written Clio award winning commercial jingles. The New York Times even credits him with creating a new, unique style: 'rag 'n roll.' His piano work is sublime; stories even better.

John Simon is a nationally recognized composer arranger, singer/songwriter, producer and musician. John is best know for his work with famous rock bands like Blood, Sweat and Tears, Big Brother and the Holding Company and The Band, and individuals like Simon and Garfunkel, Eric Clapton and Le Chat Noir's own Rich Look. He has albums of his own, including John Simon's Album (1970) and Journey (1972.)

Born in Brooklyn in 1951, Mitch Woods began playing classical piano at eleven, but his real initiation into blues and boogie piano had already been assured at age eight. "My mom would hire this superintendent of the building, a black man, Mr. Brown, to take me to school, and we stopped off at his cousin's house, where somebody was playing boogie-woogie piano. It really hit me."

Wild Bill Dykes
Alright already! Geez...try and get creative! Any way, I've been doing comedy off and on for the last 5 years, won a couple of contests..nothing huge, but the prize money was immediately spent on celebratory rounds of beer. A couple of buddies and I formed the New Orleans Comedy Festival in 1998 to help promote comedy in the Big Easy and other parts of the Gulf South and surrounding areas. My act has equal parts insightfulness, social commentary, self deprecation, and pure hallucinegenic wackiness. You want lots of dick jokes, jokes about airplanes and "my wife sucks" jokes?...well...look somewhere else. Otherwise, jump up here with me on this big ole' mushroom called life , take a big bite, and hang on....things are about to get a little weird!.....

Varla Jean Merman is a creation of Jeffrey Roberson , a native of New Orleans now living and working in New York City. Since 1995 Varlas has starred in Varla And the Man Who Got Away, I, Who Have Nothing (which won the prestigious Bistro Award in 1997), Peel Me a Grape (winner of a 1998 MAC Award), has performed at Le Chat Noir in The Very Worst of Varla Jean Merman (winner of the New England Independent Critics Award) and in I've Got the Music in Me as well as Holiday Ham and the 2004 fabulous circus expose, Under a Big Top. Varla Jean has appeared on Broadway in Chicago, and off-Broadway in Enough About Me: An Unauthorized Autobiobraphy and most recently in The Mystery of Irma Vep at the Hartford Stage in Hartford, Connecticut.

Add to that "most recently" list rave reviews for an appearance in the San Francisco production of Hush Up Sweet Charlotte, a world tour of Girl With A Pearl Necklace and you'll see why The Los Angeles Times calls her, "An indisputable force of nature who displays the dazzling force of a cyclone touching down in a sequin factory!"

Time Out New York calls her, "a delirious synthesis of Divine, Karen Finley, and Montserrat Caballe'."

We should call her for lunch!

Denise Mangiardi, grew up in New York, pursuing her career in the clubs, performing at The Bitter End and numerous other classic city venues and has since been compared to Annie Ross, Shirley Horn and Rickie Lee Jones. A piano/arranging/composition major at Boston's Berklee College of music, Denise has two critically acclaimed CDs Fine Tuning and River of My Own. From the heart of New Orleans she found some of the very best voices to deliver her music.

Born in England in 1945, Trevor Richards recognized early the attraction of New Orleans Jazz, eventually moving to New York in 1966, he studied with Louis Armstrong's famed drummer Zutty Singleton, whose drums he inherited and still plays. Moving on to New Orleans, he became known on the local jazz scene forming the Trevor Richards New Orleans Trio in 1972 which toured for ten years. He recorded numerous albums and accompanied many top jazz names, amongst them Albert Nichols, Benny Waters, Herb Hall, Wallace Davenport, and former members of the Louis Armstrong All Stars. In 1982 he assumed co-leadership of the Original Camellia Jazz Band while maintaining an annual European tour with the Art Hodes Trio from 1981-91 and thereafter with Ralph Sutton. His New Orleans Trio and Band have featured U.S. artists like Red Richards, Charlie Gabriel, Gene "Mighty Flea" Connors, Butch Thompson, Evan Chistopher and Orange Kellin. Richards and his trio have won numerous awards including a Record of the Year from the Hot Club of France.

Beginning a love affair with jazz and ragtime as a child in Marine-on-St. Croix, Minnesota, Butch Thompson started playing piano at age three, then played clarinet in the Stillwater High School band before forming his first jazz group (Shirt Thompson and his Sleeves). While at the University of Minnesota in 1962, he played clarinet in the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz Band, began a series of pilgrimages to New Orleans, where he was among the few non-natives to play at the Preservation Hall during the 6Os and 70s. In 1974, Butch began his well-remembered 12-year run as house-pianist on A Prairie Home Companion. The Butch Thompson Trio was formed for the show in 1978, and, since then, has appeared often as a guest on the show. His CD Thompson Plays Joplin (1998) is the ninth in Thompson's acclaimed solo series for the Daring/Rounder label. He also played on the Grammy-nominated 1997 Verve release Doc Cheatham and Nicholas Payton. Butch Thompson Plays Jelly Roll Morton Piano Solos (1968) was recently reissued on a CD by Biograph.

Evan Christopher was born in Long Beach, California, began musical training on clarinet at the age of 11, was a recipient of the Louis Armstrong National Jazz Award and was one of the first graduates of the prestigious Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts. He continued his studies at the University of Southern California on music scholarships and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor's degree in music from California State University, Long Beach. After moving to New Orleans, he quickly made a name for himself with musicians that ranged from veterans of Preservation Hall and Al Hirt to funk and brass bands like the Nightcrawlers and Galactic. This Side of Evan (1998) is among the many CD's he has recorded under his own name and also as a sideman or guest artist for bands in New Orleans, Texas and California. He has appeared at the Fetes Transmusicales in Rennes, France; the German-American Volksfest in Berlin, Germany; the Tonight Show; and many other music festivals throughout Europe and the US.

Much like her larger-than-life-persona, Judith Owen's music isn't easily categorized. There are elements of rock, pop, blues and soul and she plays a mean piano, all which helped her in creating a major buzz on the London music scene. Moving to Los Angeles to jump-start her career internationally, meeting Shawn Colvin and subsequently guesting on the tune Suicide Alley on Colvin's A Few Good Repairs album, director Jim Brooks then featured Judith's song Hand on My Heart in his film, As Good As It Gets. Judith was introduced to Glen Ballard, hitmaker for Alanis Morissette, who signed her to his Java Records label and says, "Judith has the right combination of the classic singer/songwriter and the most exotic flavor in the cabaret....and she packs an emotional wallop."

With typical British dry wit, Judith describes herself as "...early Elton John meets Annie Lennox."

Banu / Bah-'nu / n (Banu Gibson) 1 Female jazz singer residing in New Orleans. Characterized by a clear, powerful voice and a gutsy, free-wheeling style. 2 Band leader of The New Orleans Hot Jazz - often found performing on stages around the world. 3 Has performed with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, with the Boston Pops for their Millennium New Year's Eve Celebration, and with the St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Phoenix symphonies, to name a few, and heard on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. 4 Internationally acclaimed recording artist who has appeared on Entertainment Tonight , Emmy Award-winning PBS television special Riverboat Ragfest, and Dixieland Jazz from New Orleans. Banu was most recently seen at Le Chat Noir in Jeepers Creepers - the Songs of Johnny Mercer.

Brian O'Connell
Hailing from Minnesota, Brian O'Connell moved to New Orleans nearly twenty years ago and has played alongside the likes of Percy Humphrey, Danny Barker, Louis Nelson and Al Hirt among many other New Orleans greats, and toured with Leon Redbone. He is best known for his recordings with Willie Humphrey, Two Clarinets on the Porch and Doc Cheatham, Swinging Down in New Orleans.

Conrad R. Jones III, born in 1934 in New Orleans, began his musical studies at age 5 on the piano, played bugle in military school in Gulfport, Mississippi, and then trumpet in the school band. In 1951 at age 17, his band the Dixiecats won a battle of the bands on the Paul Whiteman TV Teen Show. In 1952-3 he was with the Basin Street 6 which included Pete Fountain, in 1961 was with Santo Pecora and the Tailgaters. In 1963 he joined Jack Teagarden's last band, in 1966, he toured with Billy Maxted's Manhattan Jazz Band, in 1967 began seven years as lead trumpet with Pete Fountain's Jazz Band in New Orleans, and in 1974 he reorganized and led the Dukes of Dixieland. Then from 1976-83, he organized and led the house band at the Blue Angel on Bourbon Street. Since then, Connie has toured and recorded extensively and, currently, Connie is working aboard the American Queen steamboat on the Mississippi.

Performer James Beaman has been dazzling audiences in the US and Europe for nearly nine years with his realistic impersonations of Marlene Dietrich and Lauren Bacall. His work has earned him the Back Stage Bistro Award and four MAC Award nominations. Show Business Weekly calls Beaman "A master illusionist, a channeler of song and sophistication," and Cabaret Scenes Magazine named him one of the 100 Premier Acts in Cabaret in 2000.

Emerging now from his "glamour gal" impersonations to sing as himself, Beaman says,

I began the impersonations to stretch as an actor and explore my creative possibilities. I feel I have accomplished nearly everything I set out to do as an impersonator, and felt it was time to get back to my roots as a singer/actor. I grew up in a theatre family, enjoying Bricusse's music and the magical films he wrote for. These songs feel like coming home.

Janet Shea is recipient of many honors including the Big Easy and Storer Boone Lifetime Achievement Awards, NOCCA's Teacher of the Year, one of CityBusiness' Women of the Year, and one of the Mayor's Office's Outstanding Women in the Arts. Her stage work runs the gamut from musicals to comedies to dramas. She has directed extensively and, as a very busy actor, is thought to be the only human to have played Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire, Mary Tyrone in Long Days Journey Into Night, and Googie Gomez in The Ritz. She has appeared in Paris and Moscow with Southern Rep., in the films: Blaze with Paul Newman and The Adventures of Huck Finn, and on television in Charity's Daughter and Morgus Presents. She is a graduate of St. Mary's Dominican High School and College, UNO, a student of classical acting at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, and currently teaches at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts-Riverfront and is a memeber of AEA, SAG, and AFTRA.

Michael Cahill has played many and varied roles including Pato Dooley in The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Beefield Productions,) for which he received the Big Easy and Marquee Best Supporting Actor Awards. Michael tours with and appears annually with Janet Shea in A Celtic Christmas at O'Flaherty's Irish Pub. A member of the Screen Actors Guild, he has appeared on USA-TV's The Big Easy as a psychotic murderer, the feature film Lush with Campbell Scott, and Behind The Sun with Billy Bob Thornton. A graduate of Jesuit and Loyola, he recently completed his first play Dorothy and Alan.

Christina Machado has been a lifelong student of the language of music. Her family's Cuban heritage and own native Crescent City define her life experiences and are instrumental to the development of a signature sound skillfully reflected in her self-titled CD (1999). She has performed with and/or opened for both local and national acts including Santana, Nicholas Payton, Jose Feliciano, and Los Hombres Calientes, and as a graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree from American University in 1995, her real-life roles have ranged from Associate Video Producer to theatrical Lighting Designer to actor in theater, feature films and television.

Ricky Graham





Ricky Graham has written and directed And the Ball and All, Our Class Reunion, Out Da Box!; When Ya Smilin, At the Club Toot Sweet, as well as The Black and White Blues and Hollywood Heaven which were both premiered at Le Chat Noir.

mikko is no stranger to Le Chat Noir. mikko presents is the brainchild of mikko Machionne, local director, writer and actor. His work, often hovers between theater and performance art. In the series mikko in a word, (Hollywood, Fear, God, and Lust) audiences learned to expect the unexpected. This is something that can be said for any production in which the mind of mikko has a hand. His credits also include A**hole Monologues and Hurly Burly at Le Chat Noir, just to name two.

Chris Domroe Wecklein, a native New Yorker, has appeared in numerous shows in New Orleans, New York, and Boston. Special engagements include events for Disney Business Productions, Hard Rock Cafe (Elvis), French Quarter Festival, the Houston Yacht Club, and the Greenbrier Hotel. New Orleans shows include Kurt Weill-New Orleans Style (which he also staged), Forever Plaid, At the Club Toot Sweet on Bourbon Street, Heaven'S Bar, and Evita. For the past four years Chris has put together the Christmas Carolers for French Quarter Festivals, Inc. He has done several cabaret shows with Harry Mayronne, Jr. and is heard on the title track of Every Day is Mardi Gras in Heaven.

Harry Mayronne, Jr. (piano) In cabaret he has teamed with Becky Allen, Ricky Graham, and Cynthia Owen, as well as Chris Wecklein in Kurt Weill, New Orleans Style and The Songs of Al Jolson. Original scores: At the Club Toot Sweet on Bourbon Street, Black & White Blues, Hollywood Heaven and Daryl's Perils, for which he received Big Easy Awards and Lana in Love, a Canadian feature film. Musical direction and arrgements: Nighttime Naughties and the Big Easy Awards Show. CD Projects include Every Day is Mardi Gras in Heaven and Black & White Blues, the musical . With his marionette creation Miss Viola he has been seen at le chat noir, the Houston Yacht Club, the Greenbrier Hotel, the Angela Show on WWL- TV, the Big Easy Awards, and the Sheraton Hotel Millenium show.

Mark Morris (drums) spent twenty-four years in the Nashville studio scene recording with artists such as Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and many others. Concert appearances include the Big Bands of Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey and Duke Ellington. He has also played tympani and percussion with the Tampa, St. Louis, and Cincinnatti Symphony Orchestras. Since moving to New Orleans in 1993, he has played with a variety of traditional and modern jazz groups including the Harry Mayronne trio.

Karen Rose (violin) has played with the New Leviathan Oriental Fox Orchestra, Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre, and the Saenger Theatre Touring Broadway Show series (Fiddler on the Roof, Porgy and Bess, etc.). She has performed with Linda Rondstat, Stevie Wonder, and Sammy Davis, Jr., to name a few. Symphonic experience includes the New Orleans/Cincinnati Ballet, the Baton Rouge Symphony and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. Karen made a memorable impression in Kurt Weill-New Orleans Style, performing September Song. .

Jorinda Junius has worked consistently in leading roles for Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre, JPAS, Rivertown and True Brew Theatre since returning from New York. Pursuing her interests as teacher/director-choreographer at Mount Carmel Academy, she is moderator of the Drama & Sailing Clubs and chairperson for the Fine Arts Department. In her spare time she teaches fitness at the Women's Athletic club, Salvation Studio and Franco's of Lakeview.

Russell Hodgkinson, a Big Easy Award winning actor most recently appeared as Ivan in Art. Other roles include Molina in Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Prior in Angels in America and the dentist in Little Shop of Horrors.

Jessie Terrebonne (Woman #4 in R.J. Tsarov's Mating Habits & Cole/Jenny in Things I've Done) recently received her BA from Loyola University. She is one of the original cast for the long-running Black and White Blues. She was nominated for a Big Easy Award for her 2003 role in All My Sons. Jessie was a leading character in Greece at Le Petit Theatre and in Le Chat Noir's 2003 new play production of Two In The Bush.

Bob Edes, Jr. is a Big Easy Award winner for Dirty Blonde at Le Petit as well as for his roles in Spiritual Gifts and As Bees in Honey Drown, both at Le Chat Noir. Bob is also a three time Marquee Award winner and a Storer Boone Award nominee. Other recent local credtis include Hell, Dolly!, Anything Goes, and the Laramie Project.

Heidi P. Junius spent the past twenty-five years as a singer, dancer, actress, director and choreographer in professional theaters across the country. Owned and operated three dance and performing arts schools in Denver for eighteen years, and directed and choreographed for local theathers, high schools and universities. Was regional director and faculty member for Dance Educators of America. Returned to New Oreleans in 1999 and directed, choreographed and performed in Out Da Box!, When Ya Smilin', And the Ball and All, Nighttime Naughties, Beehive, and Thoroughly Modern Millennium. She is co-director/choreographer for the Black and White Blues.

Cynthia Owen
Cynthia Owen comes from a family of fabulous New Orleans performers and is mistress of many talents. Her many leading lady roles in local theater, cabaret and straight music shows keep this diva who moonlites as a teacher of her craft very busy. A regular member of the Le Chat Noir family, Cynthia has worked her magic as cast member of the cast of Harry Mayronne Jr.'s original Kurt Weill show, one of the three "muskateers" along with Harry Mayronne, Jr. and Chris Wecklein in a great cabaret show and as a stand alone song stylist who moves easily from Broadway to cabaret to pop. Her solo show with Tom Hooks is filled with emotion and humor, not a night to miss.

From Rose on Rose by:
Chris Rose, Columnist,
The Times-Picayune,
author of the smash-hit, A**hole Monologues, and now director of Galatoire's Monologues:

..I got bored. I got a job in New Orleans covering crime for The Times-Picayune. That was 1984 and I never left. Three years ago, I became a columnist. My beat is pop culture, celebrity culture, personalities and the generally offbeat...

...I've got lots of readers, but I'm convinced that's only because, to get to the TV listings and horoscopes, you have to go through me...

In a recent 2002 review, Stephen Holden of the New York Times proclaimed that Ms. Akers is:

...singing better than ever...a perfect balance between cultivated chic and heartfelt expression.

She debuted on Broadway in Nine (Theater World Award along with her first Tony Award nomination) and went on to a second Broadway success in the Tony Award winning musical Grand Hotel.

Her glamourous stage presence and formidable voice have enthralled audiences at the Hollywood Bowl, the Kennedy Center, London's famed Plzza on the Park, and three performances at the White House. She has performed to sold-out audiences at both Carnegie Hall, the exclusive Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, and, in addition to a slew of hit CDs (including her current album, Feels Like Home), Ms. Akers has captured the attention of Hollywood, landing pivotal roles in Mike Nichols' Heartburn and Woody Allen's Purple Rose of Cairo. A cabaret icon, Ms. Akers' first performance at Le Chat Noir, named both Best Performing Artist Venue (City Search) and most recently Theater of the Year (Storer Boone), offered New Orleans a rare and intimate evening with:

...someone special...with a quiet beauty...essential intelligence and dignity...with a voice like a cello ...instantaneously casts a spell that simply makes time stop.

We look forward to her return.

Vali Talbot (singer, songwriter) is a veteran performer of folk, jazz and musical theatre. A native of Arkansas and recent transplant to New Orleans, she is a regular entertainer at O'Flaherty's Irish Pub, has performed throughout the South and in 2000, sang with the national production of Dance of Life in County Cork, Ireland. In fact, Her folk CD, Home of My Heart (August 2000) includes traditional Celtic songs as well as several of Vali's eclectic originals. Agnes Ross, editor of the Dumas Clarion, writes,

...her voice rings as clear as an Irish harp...Vali gives the mists and magic of Ireland a touch of New Orleans spice and fun.

By day, Roy Haylock is a celebrated costume designer and wig/makeup artist, but by night, he is transformed into Bianca Del Rio.

Roy/Bianca's credits include And The Ball And All, Pageant, At The Club Toot Sweet, Cabaret, Bianca's Remote (out of) Control, Grease, Hollywood Heaven and Psycho Beach Party for which his "Marvel Ann" was a Big Easy Award nominee, Best Supporting Actor. He is a ten-time Big Easy Award nominee for Best Costume Design and a five-time winner. TV and video credits include MTV's Mardi Gras Special with Britney Spears and Carson Daly, The Travel Channel's Mardi Gras Unmasked, 2002, and The Official Southern Decadence Video, 1999.

Lyla Hay Owen is a playwright, poet, fiction and nonfiction writer, and lyricist born in New Orleans. She was educated at Rochester Institute of Technology and Columbia University. Owen was awarded an Artist Fellowship in Theater from the Louisiana Division of the Arts (1986 - 1987) and served as poet in schools in St. Charles Parish. Her plays and childrens musicals have been produced in New Orleans and elsewhere. Owen has also contributed poetry, fiction, articles, and interviews in several anthologies and periodicals.

Winston Helling, Jr, first began performing magic at the tender age of twelve. "...the first time I saw the amazement in someone's eyes I knew that magic is what I wanted to do," says Winston. An accomplished close-up magician, named Top Teenage Talent at the 2000 World Magic Seminar held in Las Vegas, he was selected out of hundreds of magicians to appear as the closing act on Lance Burton's Young Magicians Showcase which aired on national television. Throughout his career Winston has been praised by his peers as "...a future GREAT!" and "...truly a professional..." on his way up to becoming the "...very best."

Nell Nolan has appeared on the stages of Le Petit Theatre, the CAC, the Saenger, Tulane University, True Brew, and the North Star, twice in the local Tennessee Williams Festival; internationally, in France, in London's West End, and in Tblisi, the Republic of Georgia. She has appeared in The Women, Girls: Native Tongues 3 (directed by Carl Walker) and performed the prologue for Southern Rep's Degas. Most recently she has starred in an evening of her own monologues Monologues and Music for Money, Honey to benefit Strive, Inc. (directed by Carl Walker)

David Stone has appeared at Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre, Tulane Center Stage, Tulane Summer Lyric Theater, the CAC, True Brew Cafe and, most recently, in Native Tongues 3 at Le Chat Noir. On and off for seven years Nell and David have performed Love Letters under the direction of Carl Walker.

Jimmy Murphy, star of An Evening in December. Jimmy recently starred as Captain Hook opposite Amy Alvarez's Peter Pan in the JPAS production of Peter Pan. He received the Big Easy, Storer Boone and Marquis Awards for his portrayal of P. T. Barnum in Le Petit's Barnum. Other roles include: Billy Crocker in Anything Goes, Marvin in Falsettos, Stine in City of Angels at Le Petit; Will Rogers in The Will Rogers Follies at Tulane Summer Lyric; Edward Rutledge in 1776 at Rivertown Reperatory; and Songs for a New World at True Brew.

Amy Alvarez has been featured on a variety of local stages, appearing in both musical and non-musical roles. Most recently, she was seen flying high as the title character in Peter Pan with JPAS, opposite Jimmy Murphy as Captain Hook. Other appearances include Wit (Southern Repertory), 1776 (Rivertown), Fiddler on the Roof (Tulane Summer Lyric), The Mystery of Edwin Drood, City of Angels and Falsettos (all with Le Petit Theatre). Amy was awarded a Big Easy Award for her role as Charity Barnum in Barnum. An Evening in December marks the sixth time Amy has teamed with Jimmy Murphy onstage.

Pat Hazell is America's foremost Pop Culture Anthologist.

...is a comic with a penchant for talking about everyday things. He can find creative fodder in a trip to the grocery store or killing flies.

Originally from Omaha, Pat Hazell first appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1989. He made six more appearances with Jay Leno, going on to become one of the original writers (and studio audience warm-up) for NBC's Seinfeld, then, as a playwright, his first endeavor, Bunk Bed Brothers, with co-writer: Matt Goldman, was turned into the sitcom, American Pie, for NBC Studios. Further writing credits include: Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Showtime's Aspen Comedy Special, and Grounded For Life. On television Hazell has appeared on Seinfeld, Love And War, Evening at the Improv and Showtime's Jonathon Winters Comedy Special. Of the 2002 debut of his original one-man show: The Wonder Bread Years (first seen at the Northstar Theater). David Cuthbert (Times Picayune) said Pat Hazell is a comic 'Wonder' Indeed at Le Chat! ...we don't get to see many smart, thorughly professional , first-rate practitioners of the art of stand-up...And so Pat arrives...like an invigorating breath of fresh air, or maybe a gust of laughing gas. Though far from the madding crowds of Hollywood, he is Proud To Call New Orleans (okay, Mandeville) Home!

Mark Schiff

...is one of the funniest, the brightest, the best stage comics I've ever seen...

Mark Schiff was born in the Bronx so you know he's funny. "...I had a big month and said anything that came to mind." Mark's mother was not very encouraging about his comedy. She was always saying, "You know Mark, you're not funny...", but when he was twelve he saw Rodney Dangerfield. "The light went on. I knew what I was going to do for a living." He worked in New York City going from The Improvisation to Catch A Rising Star to The Comic Strip working along side his friends Jerry Seinfeld, Paul Reiser, Gilbert Gottfried, George Wallace, Eddie Murphy and Richard Belzer, earning a deep respect for his audience, happy doing one thing, making them laugh, and none do it better." I am there to entertain them. I suppose if I could teach an audience anything, it's that they have the capacity to laugh more than they ever knew."

Mark has also shared the stage with Diana Ross, The Pointer Sisters, The Beach Boys, and Tim Allen, has headlined in all the major casinos and clubs across the country and has appeared many times on both The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with David Letterman. He has had both HBO and Showtime specials, and has been the featured act at the Montreal Comedy Festival. He has been in the sitcoms Empty Nest and Mad About You. Mark currently has a cartoon series called Two Stupid Dogs, plus his own sitcom in development.

Steve Kelley served as political cartoonist for the San Diego Union, the San Diego Union-Tribune, was syndicated nationwide and overseas by Field Syndicate and later by Copley News Service, enjoyed publication in The New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, recently joined The Times-Picayune in New Orleans as their editorial cartoonist, and has published two collections of his cartoons.

"Syndication is a godsend," Kelley observes. "Without it, I'd have no way to infuriate people in Wahpeton, North Dakota."

He began writing and performing comedy in his spare time, which led to seven appearaances on The Tonight Show, both with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, he co-hosted a drive time radio show, appeared frequently on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, on CNN, MSNBC, and has performed as the opeining act for Dolly Parton, The Gatlin Brothers, Reba McEntire, Lou Rawls, and Bernadette Peters. He has opened for Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld, and performed at Carnegie Hall with the late Peter Allen. Steve is from Richmond, Virginia and has one son, Hayden, about whom he shamelessly brags.

An avid sailor, Evan Davis knows that comedy audiences, like weather conditions at sea, can be unpredictable. His versatility allows him to tack and jibe at will, making him one of the top comedians working in television, clubs, and corporate events today.

Evan's talents were first discovered at Washington State University, where an acting scholaraship kicked off his formal training.

After some fifteen stage plays, he moved on to Seattle where his newfound love of stand-up comedy changed the course of his career. Evan won the Seattle Stand-Up Comedy Competition and progressed to the Nationals, which aired on Showtime. Evan was then invited onto Ed McMahon's syndicated show, Star Search, where he made eight appearances, including the finals. Evan since made over forty television appearances, including Evening at the Improv, the Fox network's Comic Strip Live, and PBS's Comedy Tonight. Most recently, Evan can be seen as a regular performer on NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Evan takes the audience into the palm of his hand...he creates a safe place to experience and look at all the ahaos in your life and in the world.

Having recently captured an Emmy for his outstanding perfomance in the television drama Our Father, Anthony Griffith is quickly becoming a fixture in tinsel town. A multi-talented performer, Anthony's abilities range from intense drama to stand-up comedy.

Anthony earned critical praise for his performance as the Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver in the film Panther directed by Mario Van Peebles. He also stood out in the Spike Lee Production Tales From The Hood and is featured in the soon to be released Charlie's Angels II. On TV he co-starred in the Little Richard Story seen on NBC.

As a comedian, Anthony's rise is in no small part due to his inventive brand of humor. Anthony always presents an energetic and polished headliner's performance.

On the stand-up scene, he has appeared on The Bob Hope Young Comedians Special and made multiple appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He was also one of the comics selected to perfom at the Aspen Comedy Festival as well as on HBO's prestigious 14th Annual Young Comedians Special.

I laughed so hard, it was painful.

In 1975 Jimmy Brogan realized he had a fear of heights and gave up on his dream of becoming a Human Fly. He turned his attention to standup comedy. He did guest appearances on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman.

He starred in a sitcom called Out of the Blue (ABC). He hosted Laffathon (Showtime), Comic Strip Live (Fox) and You Asked For It, Again (Family Channel). The perfectionist that he is, he won't be satisfied until he has been cancelled by all the networks.

Deciding that he could save a few dollars by not hiring a lawyer, he worked for nine years as the indentured servant on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Since leaving The Tonight Show, Jimmy has been busier than ever. Besides doing his standup, he has written two movies and seen three others.

He plays the audience like an orchestra and he creates a symphony.

By 1989 Jack Mayberry was in Hollywood and was appearing regularly on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Since then Jack has appeared on numerous television programs such as, A & E's Evening at the Improv, NBC's Hot Country Nights and has made over twenty-five appearances on the Tonight Show. When Jay Leno began hosting The Tonight Show he asked Jack to appear in a comedy sketch his first week on the air. He asked Jack to portray presidential candidate Ross Perot! Whereas some might not, Jack took this as a compliment and accepted. After the show, Jack went home, watched the videotape and thought, "Yikes! I look exactly like Ross Perot! Now what am I going to do?!"

Well, many more Tonight Show sketches, that's for sure. Eighteen so far! And in addition Jack has "performed" (Or as Jack says, Channeled) Perot for folks from: Pepsico, Texaco, Exxon and Zeneca Pharmaceuticals. And at numerous trade shows and events representing communications giants like: Micom and Nortel. And in addition to his dead on caricature of Ross, his crowds are also treated to his clean and funny stand-up comedy.

Jack Mayberry is doing what he likes doing, Stand-up comedy. And for good measure he's keeping Ross Perot available. And that's gotta be a good deal!

Jack lives in southern California and is also currently working on several writing projects including his upcoming one man show.

Fred Kasten
Kasten, who still plays piano and trombone, grew up in a musical family, became addicted to radio at an early age and now his work at WWNO isn't only on air. He's been influential in developing underwriting and promotions for the station, sort of a ...public radio jack-of-all-trades with a finger on the city's jazzy pulse...and the godfather of Crescent City at Le Chat Noir.

Ronnie Virgets


Virgets has, in his 55 years, been a Bourbon Street Bartender, a journalism professor, a racetrack PR director and a newspaper sportswriter. It has been his more recent visibility on television, however, that has provided the viewing public with an image that many consider to be a true and forthright reflection of the city's charm. The F publication of Say, Cap! The New Orleans Views of Ronnie Virgets now provides the reading public with tangible evidence of that reflection. Virgets has won numerous awards from the New Orleans Press Club for his writings in The Times-Picayune, Gambit Weekly and New Orleans Magazine. His work in television has earned him several awards, including an Emmy.

Astral Project is a band that according to Down Beat is ...one of the most distinctive and cohesive quintets in jazz of the '90s.

Formed in 1978 from the cream of New Orleans' modern jazz scene, Astral Project has remained a unit even while its members explored innumerable other endeavors, including recordings as leaders and sidemen for a wide array of major and independent labels. Through it all, the band known as New Orleans' Premier Jazz Ensemble has always regrouped to reach for the stars. JazzTimes proclaimed Astral Project as ...one of the more adventurous working units in modern jazz today.

Bruce Raeburn
Jazz historian and curator of The William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archives at Tulane University (and son of Boyd Raeburn.) It's on the top floor of the Tulane library. They do incredible work. There's a tremendous number of books and resources. And the staff will help find out anything, regardless of your background.

Sean Patterson (Director of R.J. Tsarov's Mating Habits) has previously directed productions of Christopher Durang's The Actor's Nightmare, August Strindberg's The Stronger, and R.J. Tsarov's Just Sleep. An MFA candidate in playwriting at UNO, he has also written for industrial film radio and the stage. His play Get Planagan was recently featured in Southern Repertory Theatre's Southern New Plays Festival.

Captain Clarke C. "Doc" Hawley
He's master of the excursion steamer Natchez in New Orleans and, during the course of his long river career, has not only served as master of the three of the five remaining Mississippi River System steamboats, but has done much to promote river history as a meeter and greeter. He has hosted U.S. presidents, government officials, royalty, entertainment and sports stars, river buffs and countless media people. But there is no passenger more important to him than the one on the current cruise. After most every trip he can be found on deck discussing some aspect of steamboating with passengers. In fact, from 1979-81 he taught a course at Tulane University entitled, New Orleans and the River. He has preserved steam calliope music on several tapes and records and was one of Jane Curry's main sources in her book, The River's in My Blood. He is one of the founders of the National Rivers Hall of Fame, and we hear he plays the caliope!

Ralph Adamo
Poet Ralph Adamo is the author of Hanoi Rose (New Orleans Poetry Journal Press, 1989) and The End of the World (Lost Roads Publishers, 1979). (credits include: Editor of New Orleans Review , assistant professor of English at Loyola University of New Orleans.) Adamo received his B.A. from Loyola and his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas. In addition to the publication of his work in a wide spectrum of journals, Ralph Adamo is the author of two previous collections: The Tiger Who Spoke French and Why We Have Friends. A New Orleans Native, Adamo has edited an anthology of poetry by the city's elders entitled Big Easy and served for a time as editor of Barataria. He has been a music columnist, a scriptwriter for daytime television, and a hard news reporter.

Born Wilson Turbinton, February 6, 1944, Willie Tee came from a musical family, was taught piano at an early age, first recorded Always Accused in 1962 and got his break when Atlantic Records made Teasin' You (number 12 R&B) a national hit in 1965. Later, Atlantic picked up Thank You John/Dedicated To You, then in the 1970's The Gaturs (funk-jazz) achieved cult status with Gatur Bait and Cold Bear. Willie joined United Artists Records in 1976 for Liberty Bell and Anticipation before becaming more involved in the production side, with well-received albums by the Wild Magnolias and Carl Anderson. 1988 saw projects more in a jazz vein including an album with his brother, jazz and R&B saxophonist Earl Turbinton,Jr., called Turbinton Brothers for Rounder Records. Willie Tee - the songwriter behind the Mardi Gras classic New Suit, has been an important part of the New Orleans music scene since 1962, an authentic soul star and a spiritual father to a generation of Crescent City musicians.

Christine Wiltz, a native New Orleanian, is the author of five books, the latest, The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld, the story of Norma Wallace, French Quarter legend, was awarded Book of the Year--2000 by the New Orleans/Gulf South Booksellers Association. Her other four books, Glass House,The Killing Circle, A Diamond Before You Die, and The Emerald Lizard, are novels set in New Orleans.

Prior to co-writing and co-producing the TV documentary Backlash: Race and the American Dream, about David Duke and his followers (PBS-1992), Chris was a Visiting Writer-in-Residence at Loyola and Tulane Universities, a reporter for trade journals, lecturer on New Orleans literature, writer of a screenplay and several film treatments, including The Last Madam, a proofreader in a Los Angeles advertising agency, assistant to a psychiatrist in a drug rehabilitation program, on-the-road costumer for a 1950s nostalgia band, and short-order cook, jobs that taught her discipline, stamina under pressure, and how to put out a grease fire.

Martin Covert most recently impressed audiences with his fine portrayal of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in City Park and the north shore. He has played Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet and received the Storer Boone Award for Best Supporting Actor in a comedy with the characters, Flute/Thisby, in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is a veteran of Dog & Pony Theatre Company and played Jimmy Tomorrow in their memorable production of The Iceman Cometh and turned heads in Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings at Le Chat Noir.

Maggie Eldred is a consummate interpreter of Tennessee Williams women, having portrayed Violet Venable in Suddenly Last Summer, Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie, Mrs. Wire in Vieux Carre' and The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, Mrs. Duvenet in Auto Da Fe, Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Alma Winemiller in The Eccentricities of a Nightingale and Catherine in Suddenly Last Summer. She has also played Jane Sparks in Vieux Carre' and Mrs. Hardwicke Moore in The Lady of Larkspur Lotion. Radio performances have included Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire and Bertha in Hello from Bertha. Her stage performance in Small Craft Warnings was just another feather in her most beautiful cap.

Doug Mundy has worked professionally in Los Angeles, New York, Hawaii and New Orleans. Locally he has appeared in The Bar Mitzvah, finalist in the one-act play competition at Le Chat Noir, Tiger Tail at Le Petit, Psychopathis Sexualis at CAC, and It's a Wonderful Life at the Orpheum. For his work in Filumena at Carlone's he won a Big Easy Award for Best Comedy. He has performed at Southern Rep in Playboy of the Western World and at the Shakespeare Festival at Tulane in Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet, and his Doc in Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings was both amusing and poingiant.

Veronica Russell has been acting professionally for almost ten years since graduating from Stephen F. Austin University with a BFA in theatre. Three years of work in Dallas included productions of La Ronde, Spring Awakening and A Clockwork Orange, among others. Recent performances in New Orleans include April March in Talking With, Bonnie in Hurlyburly and Jill Mason in Equus, that lost girl in Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings, and a principal role in Hershell Gordon Lewis' sequel, Blood Feast 2, in which she appeared with John Waters.

Justin Scalese is a graduate of NOCCA and the British American Drama Academy at Oxford. He has performed a variety of roles in classical, contemporary and musical theatre, including performances of Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream and alternated between Romeo and Mercutio in his own co-production of Romeo and Juliet. He is the recipient of a Big Easy Award for his performance in On Golden Pond. Most recently he directed Shakespeare in the Park's Youth Ensemble in The Tempest and is well known for his creation of the New Orleans Performing Arts on-line network, NOPA. His Bobby in Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings at Le Chat Noir was both smart and sweet.

Bob Scully played Father Welsh in The Lonesome West (CAC), appeared in Fame and Playboy of the Western World (Southern Rep) and portrayed several characters in the ongoing series of Shakespeare on Trial as well as the bartender in Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings (Le Chat Noir.)

Eric Pollard graduated from SUNY, Buffalo, and has done masters work in deaf education and organizational management. He has taught Theatre and Language Arts, grades 5-12, at the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts and the Alternative High School in Buffalo, NY, and was an instructor in the Apprentice Program at Shakespeare in Delaware Park. He was recently seen in Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings (Le Chat Noir) as both the cop as well as the company's stage manager. Other local acting credits include Salarino in The Merchant of Venice and Kent in King Lear with Dog & Pony, Montague/Apotheary in Romeo and Juliet with New Orleans Classic Theatre, and Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing with Tulane Shakespeare Festival.

Dane Rhodes has worn many hats in the theatre community as actor, director, producer, set designer and technical director. As an actor, some of his favorite characters are Malcolm in Sea Marks, Amos Hart in Chicago, Nick Cricker (Durdles) in The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Drill Instructor Sargent Williams in Tracers. Among his many directing credits are The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Hurlyburly, The Merchant of Venice and The Queen of Bingo.

Rusty Tennant recently moved from New York to New Orleans in order to obtain his master's degree in theatre at UNO. Off Broadway and Regional Theatre credits include Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors, Madison in Strangers, and Ostricke in Hamlet with American Globe Theatre.

Locally, he has worked with the Shakespeare Festival at Tulane and appeared as Michael Brick in The Ritz at Le Petit. Rusty has trained at American Globe Conservatory and Judith Shakespeare Company in New York as well as the English Shakespeare Company in London.

Fred 'Redbean' Plunkett
In his early comedy days da Bean appeared in DramaRama with Eddie Francis in the troupe Loose Cannons, which provided him exposure to directors (like the infamous mikko,) who put him into many other theatrical projects like Times Picayune columnist, Chris Rose's The A**hole Monologues and Galatoire's Monologues. DramaRama 10 featured a one-man advice show called Let The Brother Talk -- The Inappropriate Relationship Therapist, where the 6'4" 300+ pound expert sets us straight on the intricacies of intimacies. "DramaRama has been such a catapult for me," RedBean reflects, "If this show is successful, I plan to travel with it."

The incessantly funny Fred 'RedBean' Plunkett still has those queezy moments. "I always get mixed feelings up until the show like, 'I am going to tear this mutha fucka up,'" Redbean muses, "or 'Oh my goodness, will they like me -- will I insult someone?'"
Gotta love the Big Man.

First of all, C-a-i-n-E spells Caine.
C. Caine Lee.
I am most excited in my real life about getting married to my best friend and soulmate, Jesse Meriwether...and moving to Los Angeles... Have you seen me before? If not, I'm sorry, I'm not going to tell you. What is history...? It's history. I will say this: I smell good...always have and always will...if you smell good, things are going good.

This stage-trained young leading man hails from El Dorado, Arkansas. William Ragsdale was a hit in Fox's cultish sitcom, Herman's Head (91-94) and as the overprotective widower in ABC's family comedy Brother's Keeper (1998-99). Theater credits include the leading role of Eugene in the Broadway production of Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues and the same role in the conclusion of Simon's autobiographical trilogy, Broadway Bound, leading the show's national touring company.

In his best known feature film, the popular teen horror comedy Fright Night (1985), Ragsdale literally plays the boy-next-door--to a sensually handsome vampire (Chris Sarandon) whose bedroom window faces his in this witty amalgam of Rear Window and Hammer horror movies. Ragsdale's other credits include Fright Night, Part II, Mannequin Two: On the Move, Frankenstein: The College Years, Ellen, Grosse Pointe and (with Pat Hazell) American Pie.

Clive Rosengren
Born and raised in South Dakota, my acting career came about quite by accident. I had enrolled at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota as a chemistry, then political science, and eventually English major. I tried out for the chorus of South Pacific, got cast as Seaman Johnson and the bug bit. Nellie Forbush sang like a lark, Emile de Becque was the most dashing baritone imaginable, and Bali Hai on a painted backdrop looked like Paradise on Earth. I went on to get an MA in theatre from North Dakota State University in Fargo.

Acting was put on hold in 1968 when I was drafted and sent to South Korea, where I morphed into a Remington ranger, the "Remington" in question being an IBM Selectric typewriter. Once out, returned to Fargo, then wound up in Minneapolis in 1972 cast as Colonel Pickering in My Fair Lady at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre. Thirty years later I still find myself engaged in a life upon the wicked stage.

The road to Los Angeles began in 1985 when I followed the Great Lakes Shakeseare Festival's artistic director to Santa Maria, California. The following year I landed in Hollywood, and remain to this day, still managing to string together appearances in film, television, and numerous commercials. A mutual friend steered me to Pat Hazell and his three-character play called Bunk Bed Brothers which evolved into a sitcom called American Pie.

For enjoyment, I am a voracious reader, mostly crime fiction, dabble in writing, and have turned my Remington Ranger experiences into a screenplay, and also have my own detective novel underway.

Dalt Wonk is a writer who has lived and worked in New Orleans for the past 28 years. He haa written major feature articles for most local publications, as well as for magazines in New York and Paris. He is currently the regular theater critic for Gambit Weekly and WWNO radio. He teaches graduate play writing at the University of New Orleans.

His plays have been produced in New York, London, Munich, San Francisco (American Conservatory Theater), Atlanta, Minneapolis (Walker Arts Center) and New Orleans. His most recent play, a drama called Spiritual Gifts (produced at Le Chat Noir in 2001), r