He’s a leather man in a cabaret world, and this Midsumma and Mardi Gras, he’s one of the busiest performers around. We catch up with Italian-Australian queer cabaret performer Dean Arcuri about how it all began, and the fun queer stuff he’s doing this festival.

How long have you been a cabaret artist?

Although I have been performing for the past 20 years alongside a bevy of jobs to ‘keep me afloat’ from admin to massage therapist to children’s entertainer, I have been performing cabaret for the past 6 years.

I’ve worked as a producer’s assistant on films, learning the other side of the business, which is when I decided to carve my own niche and combine the things I love – singing and entertaining.

It has taken me a long time to be able to happily acknowledge that I am a “cabaret artist”.

Your cabaret stylings have a particular inclination towards the leather and fetish community. What draws you to that community?

It’s a community that I am very happily a part of here in Australia and overseas. I love the look and smell of leather, and I’m certainly interested in fetish in my personal life. In my work, there is no doubt that I play with the visuals and the relationship between leather, stereotypes and our community, but my leather look and style is actually very much a part of the real me. And that is both liberating and empowering.

When I outed myself on the ABC, I had to make a very quick decision about the kind of person I was going to let the public see and the best answer I could give was to just be me, that was the only way I was going to be truly happy. A lot of people tried to talk me out of combining cabaret and S&M, feeling it either wouldn’t work or would ‘box me in’ as a performer. But it was a great success; because it is fun, honest, and something I both respect and understand.

How would you best describe what you do in your cabaret pieces?

I like to think of them as a collision of musical medleys often comedicly embroiled together. I take a variety of thematic elements and visuals, and nudge them in a direction to give the audience a laugh and shed some new light on ‘an old friend’. All the while making sure to entertain and enthrall. It’s playful, it’s cheeky and fun.

You’re about to host speed dating. What kinds of guys usually take part, and what can people who participate expect from the night?

I love hosting speed dating! The event gets a pretty diverse mix of men and women And it’s not just for singles either! A lot of people wait till the last minute to book tickets incase they ‘meet someone on the weekend’ [laughs] but we have had couples as well as people on holiday come along because it is all about making a connection. Whether your looking for love, laughs, dates or just mates, it’s a fun way to connect with people in a different atmosphere and without an iphone app!

For Saloon Speed Dating I’ll be dressed in my finest cowboy outfit and people will be doesy doe’n from date to date as they will get to mix and mingle with a drink in hand will Dolly playing in the background. I can’t guarantee your going to meet ‘the one’ but you will get to meet and see people in a different light. What you do from there is up to you. It may be fast, but it is all about having fun.

What do you consider to be your career highlights so far?

Id have to say being on ‘Lawrence Leung’s Choose your own Adventure’ on the ABC, and being asked to perform at Glamstand in Sydney for thousands of people are amongst my career highlights… so far!

But really every audience I face is a highlight for me! It’s a chance to entertain and have fun, and get paid to do what I love. Every performance you do is a tightrope and everyone responds in different ways, but when I keep filling houses around Australia, when I keep hearing laughter and when I hear them applaud I’m on my biggest high and I know I’m on the right path. When I first face an audience, I’m always reminded of how lucky I am that I’m doing what I’m passionate about. The other stuff is sugar on top.

Considering that cabaret by it’s very nature is often very queer, how important is a queer platform like the Midsumma Festival to your artform? Why do you choose to be part of it’s program?

Festivals like Midsumma are about highlighting, elevating and celebrating our community and why wouldn’t I want to be a part of that. I’m queer; being gay is a part of who I am, so it inevitably plays into the way I perform. Personally, being a queer artist, I like to bring pieces to queer festivals for queer audiences. You will never be challenged more than with a queer audience; they are diverse, they are opinionated and they make you work like no one else. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Some people volunteer, others donate, while others just go along to things. I give what I can, and what I can do is entertain!

Which artists most inspire your art?

I love music! One can’t do cabaret and not. So not surprisingly music artists are amongst my top inspiration. Artists I admire range from Ella Fitzgerald and Scissor Sisters to Tina Arena and Billy Idol, which is possibly why my shows have so many elements on the go all at once.

Lately I’ve been inspired by still images and photographic works. Maybe it is because I’m living with a photographer or perhaps it’s the fact that I now know how to work Tumblr on my iphone, but it’s the moments captured that challenge me and inspire me to create such moments in my audience.

I’m also a massive comic book geek, and I passionately collect them. They craft stories and ideas that keep me hanging on and that’s what I like to do as well – the hot superheroes in lycra outfits help too!

Dean Arcuri hosts Saloon Speed Dating at Libation Bar on Wednesday 1 February. For full details visit www.midsumma.org.au