Catherine Cohen on new show Come For Me
Skewering cabaret ingenue Catherine Cohen brings her delectable comedy outlook to Scotland for her first new show since 2019
After her Edinburgh Fringe Best Newcomer win and hugely successful Netflix special, The Twist?... She’s Gorgeous – a fabulous spectacle of equal parts self-regard and self-deprecation – Catherine Cohen’s much-anticipated new show arrives in the UK this February. Ditsy, flamboyant – but utterly precise in its satire, the diva-esque narcissism of her persona is very much intact, and the show is similarly studded with big musical numbers. And while The Twist? had its origins in a mid-20s mindset, with a chaotic, hot mess vibe, Come For Me sees Cohen in a more settled place, clearly successful and in a long-term relationship, but wondering why she still doesn’t “feel perfect”.
As with The Twist?, which references her issues with body image, the new show touches upon the social and biological pressures women face. For example, that she “has to decide about having kids in the next 5 years”, which, Cohen says, is “insane, given men get to carry on running around with whoever they want.” Wanting to establish some kind of parity, she talks about freezing her eggs as a way of owning her choices, and quotes a line from the show about the pressure to settle down: “is that what I want or is that the next thing to have?” It’s a theme also explored in the Freeform/Hulu series she’s been filming, What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding, which pits self-discovery and the pleasures of the unknown against the gravitational pull of marriage and children.
Cohen’s relished the “laser-focus” of 14-hour days over the last two months of filming – “it’s been a dream”– but she’s delighted to be returning to live performance, and the UK. She regards Edinburgh, in particular, with real affection: “It’s the best place ever – it’s so magical – there’s nothing like it in the world.” Her first festival run in 2019 was gruelling: she was “nervous of making [it] through a whole month, terrified about talking to anyone – fully in my little scarf just running around being a total recluse”, but 2022 was a blast. Doing a shorter two-week run with her work in progress, more US comics about and more friends on the British scene, Cohen had a lot of fun. “After the pandemic, all of us were so grateful to perform – every night I was just: I’m going to have so much fun out there. In 2019 there were some shows where I wondered how I was going to get through it, but 2022 – let’s do it up”.
With the Fringe in mind, she’s enthusiastic about how much UK audiences value live performance, but Cohen acknowledges the lack of cabaret-style venues she’s used to in the US. The cabaret club vibe, which was such a seductive aspect of her special, remains “a quintessentially New York thing”, while her weekly Club Cumming residency, as well as regular slots at Joe’s Pub, have been integral to her success; “I owe so much to the weekly show – I’ve built everything from that.”
It’s at Club Cumming she works up the songs that are so central to her shows, and collaboration is key to the process. For Come For Me, Cohen worked with composer David Dabbon who, using her ideas about lyrics and melody, gives her a backing track or some chords, “then we’ll play around at Club Cumming until we have something.” In the UK her accompanist is Frazer Hadfield. She describes doing the show in Edinburgh with him as a similarly exploratory process – “in some ways, whoever I’m doing the music with helps direct. Everyone I play with, I feel like we find stuff.” Having someone else on stage gives her something to bounce off, while the songs themselves are “like this cosy blanket,” where she can perform without having to immediately process the audience’s feedback.
Cohen delights in the connection with the audience, though, and there’s plenty of scope for improvisation in the new show with room for it to develop over time. Asked to describe what she does for someone who hasn’t seen her perform, Cohen is hesitant about any labels: it’s “songs and jokes” which are “for everyone”. And when it comes to commentary or feedback, she’s happy with most takes on her work, “as long as it’s – 'wow. That’s something no-one’s ever done before, you groundbreaking goddess'.”
Catherine Cohen: Come For Me, Glee Club, Glasgow, 9 Feb, 8pm, £28
The Twist?... She's Gorgeous is streaming now on Netflix