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Features
TALK, TALK TALK
Horia Brenciu, singer, entertainer
and impresario

December 2004

The Athenee Palace Hilton has just completed its third round of cabaret shows, as part of its Hilton Nights. Such is the success of the shows that there is talk of putting on the shows every month next year. Vivid talked to Horia Brenciu, the show's star performer, compere and organiser.

The exciting Platinium Dancers, one of the star attractions at the Hilton cabaret nights, in full flow.

Vivid: Let's talk first about riders. I heard that Van Morrison was legendary for the dressing room demands he would make on promoters, who would be asked to equip his dressing room with all sorts of exotic stuff. I wonder, what is on your rider?
Horia Brenciu: Carrots. And now, when they know I'm coming, they don't have to ask any more. They just stock the dressing room with carrots.

Carrots. Is that an indication of the budget of the show?
No; I ask for carrots at every show I do. Here at the Hilton, the PR manager Corina does a fantastic job that way. It's a team effort.

What are the difficulties you face?
The hardest part of the business is to think of something new. The Hilton has given us the capacity to do something brilliant so we need to provide something brilliant. I've been thinking of bringing in Gica Petrescu. Everybody knows Gica Petrescu. He's now 87, it would be wonderful ñ he used to sing lots of stuff from the 1940s, songs like 'Mac the Knife', (singing) 'Heaven, I'm in Heaven', 'Hello Dolly' that sort of stuff. But he'd sing it in Romanian because during communism you weren't allowed to sing in anything but Romanian. The spring of 2005 will be remembered for Gica Petrescu!

And you're thinking of bringing him back now? Yes! Wouldn't it be wonderful! It would be a real happening! Everyone knows him! I've seen plenty of shows here that have experienced at least technical difficulties. Have there been any with these shows? No, touch wood, everything has run extremely smoothly. I think the time has passed when there were technical difficulties. In Brasov, at the Golden Stag Festival, at which artists such as Ray

Horia Brenciu: ''The critical thing is to keep it evolving, to change the shows every time.''

Charles and Tom Jones, James Brown, Dionne Warwick, have performed, the tape stopped three times

during a Kylie Minogue song (sings, Girl you know it's Ö girl you know it's Ö girl you know it's Ö true) But she recovered well. She grew from that.

She 'grew'? But she's only 4'11'' Ö
Sometimes artists get around having to display their height just by putting their face into a videoclip. You make up, you do lips Ö

I saw Kylie Minogue got a 'Lifetime Achievement' award at the Smash Hits. She's what: mid-30s?
That 'lifetime' award is tricky business. I was thinking about Peter O'Toole at the Academy Awards and how the organisers must have been praying that he'll be okay when he took the stage.

To what extent does the Hilton vet the acts? For example do you do a dress rehearsal in front of the Hilton first?
I don't have complete carte blanche, but the Hilton doesn't really vet the acts as such, either. I sit down with Bert Fol, the Hilton's General Manager, and describe them to him. Some acts get knocked out on the basis of price, because it isn't cheap to bring the show to the stage. The only restriction he has put on me so far is to suggest that a performer should change their act if they're going to come back again, because we ñ Bert and I ñ both agree that it's absolutely necessary to continually change, to continually evolve.

One of the acts that I really liked was the drunken waiter. What a wonderfully acrobatic, gymnastic performance.
Yes, he jumps and dances all the time, but I'll need something new in the future. The most important thing is to respect your audience. Changes are made for them alone. The second edition was completely different from the first, the third, which was just completed, was completely different from the second, and the fourth, next April, will be completely different again.

The Platinium dancers are great too. You mentioned a tendency to go back to the roots of entertainment.
Yes. We're lucky to have been born in the twentieth century. Jazz began. Pop began. Rock'n'roll too. It all exploded in the twentieth century. A lot of pain. Wars and madness. Now its time to relax and look back. You can discuss and make conclusions. Right now in Romania is the right time for cabaret, for the real show.

You're suggesting Romanians wouldn't have been interested in cabaret before now?
There is a freedom, a variety, a sense of liberation and letting go about cabaret that Romanians would not have taken to. They just weren't used to that kind of atmosphere. Sinatra, Dean Martin etc: Romanians just wouldn't have been interested. But 15 years after the Revolution, people realise they have a free mind and soul, and they can choose whatever they like.

So what do you feel is the appeal of cabaret?
I've noticed that a lot of people have come to all three performances. They come for the music. Either that or they come because they are sure they will experience a very special evening of entertainment.

And now you are thinking of holding these cabaret evenings on a monthly, rather than a seasonal basis?
Well, that is really only a thought at this stage, and if it does happen monthly, it won't be until October 2005. That will become really challenging. A new show every month, like a machine, a rollercoaster.

It's helping the Hilton too, because it puts the Hilton on the map for promoting local talent.
The Hilton has been wonderful. It is great to know that you are trusted, and I know they trust me. In the summer of 2003, the Hilton asked me, ''What do you think about a show at the Hilton?'' I said OK. We just went from there.

You have more than ten years of experience of performing live.
I'm very disciplined when it comes to the show. In 1993 I was the first host on national television. I must tell you that the beginning was harder than I expected. There were a lot of plums in my mouth, my tongue didn't listen to my brain when I spoke. I was thrilled though.

You were on nationwide television.
Yes. On the only television network in the country. Once I experienced success, everybody knew me. My show was on every Sunday night, prime time.

Was that a variety show?
It was a quiz show. The idea came from England and was called Go-Bingo. We called it 'Ro-Bingo.'

You've been a public figure since 1993.
I was 20-21 at the time. I think I had something the audience liked. And I think that is what has kept me in showbiz since then. I guess it's called charisma.

It's good to see how many people take to you in the Hilton shows.
You know, whenever someone congratulates you, you just get back to work again. You can't afford to just sit back and bask in people congratulating you. I've had shows that have been watched by hundreds of thousands of people ñ at Christmas or on New Years Eve, for instance ñ events of all kinds.

But you're not on television now, are you?
Right now, no. Networks need 'cool', distant hosts now. And the hosts on TV today are like monks.

I know what you mean. Monk-like and formulaic, and they can't go outside those parameters.
Yes, exactly. You know after the last cabaret, someone said to me, ''Horia, this is too small a space for you.'' And I said, ''Maybe, but this is the best place to be performing in Romania today.''

Performing live gives you a whole lot more room to manoeuvre.
The Hilton Cabaret nights are all about connecting with people, getting in touch with them. There is no arrogance in the show whatsoever. There's more humanity there, because you're on the same level as guests. They see that you are human too.

I like the way you simultaneously speak English and Romanian in the show. It engages people in a way that speaking in just the one language couldn't achieve.
Yes, but everyone knows English today, and you can make half the sentence in English and the other half in Romanian. And the foreigners there know enough Romanian too. But its not that they understand my words. They feel what's going on. I just complete the picture.

It's not really straight cabaret, is it? I mean, it's not cabaret as in a scantily-dressed Liza Minnelli character crooning blues in a blue smoky atmosphere with a quiet jazz accompaniment, is it?
The show is a mix of cabaret and variety. People are demanding now, and it's quite likely that a show that was 100 per cent cabaret wouldn't work. You have to give them something to applaud at the end, and I think we succeed in doing that.

Horia Brenciu and Nico belt out a number together.