MULTI-talented performing artist, Marcel Cole likes to think of himself as a “crossline Canberran”.

Crossline, that is, between Canberra and the rest of the world, and between singing, acting and dancing.

Cole recently won two awards for his show “The Ukulele Man”, directed by Mirjana Ristevski, at the Sydney Fringe Festival, but he’ll be home again soon in a new showcase of local cabaret talent put together by Louiza Blomfield and Dave Collins, at ACT Hub Kingston, The Canberra Cabaret Festival, November 16-18.

Cole, who after his year 12 studies at Dickson College won a coveted place at the NZ School of Dance in Wellington, was initially best known in Canberra as an elite dancer, but while at college, he got into drama and acting and took part in a year 12 production of “Orlando” that blew his mind. As well, he appeared in Judith Clingan’s productions, such as “The Lorax.”

He did head for NZ, but after two years of studying purely ballet, called a halt and decided not to progress to third year.

“I knew it was not where I wanted to be, and I have branched out since then,” he says. “I have at the bottom of my emails the word ‘dancer-singer-actor’ and I’m playing around with the word order, but at the moment ‘dance’ is at the bottom.”

He’s always been very interested in comedy, too, so earlier in the year took himself to the London International Mime Festival and Ecole Philippe Gaulier, where he studied the “bouffon” style of the famous French clown.

Back home, he has a few irons in the fire, but is already thinking about a new show, “something physical,” maybe with clowns, or Charlie Chaplin, whom he loves, or even the legendary ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky.

The cabaret show that we’ll see here is his prize-winning “The Ukelele Man”, which looks at the life of legendary English ukulele star George Formby, one of Britain’s most popular entertainers during the 1930s and 40s, a man who entertained more than three million people during World War II. 

He’d first come across him when his uncle gave him as a birthday present the DVD of “No Limit”, a 1935 black-and-white comedy movie, starring George Formby and Florence Desmond, based around the TT motorcycle races on the Isle of Man, a subject dear to his heart.

“We had a lot of fun watching a great comic who played the ukulele and then we forgot about it,” he says.

Four months later, Cole wanted to do a local cabaret show in Canberra, decided to try a World War I song on the ukulele and experienced a lightbulb moment.

“I liked the ukulele because I could put it into my act. It’s like a guitar but rather smaller,” he says. 

He found that Formby, who also played the “Banjolele”, was a virtuoso exponent of the instrument known for his right-hand fast strumming – “250 BPM plus”. He’d died in 1961, but there were plenty of videos left for Cole to watch. 

Then he enrolled in a two-week workshop hosted by cabaret star Queenie van de Zandt at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, which culminated in a “pitch” by students on their own show.

He came up with the idea of a show based on the story of his life in which he would play “a kind of Marcel/Formby hybridster”.

Cole describes it as a very solitary exercise, as he didn’t know if the  story would interest other people, but in hindsight he realises it’s incredibly marketable, especially in the UK where Formby still has a massive following.

“Also, I found there was a special element that was hard to pin down, to do with his stage persona Andy, the happy-go-lucky handyman, a singing clown, an everyman, but light-hearted and fun,” he says.

The persona was of a poor man, but in fact Formby had millions in his bank account, little of which his stingy wife would allow him to access. That’s in the story. 

His mother, the musician Katie Cole, came in on “The Ukulele Man” quite late, when he was doing one of his regular Thursday shows at Smiths Alternative.

“Mum came along and played the bass ukulele. It really worked as an accompaniment and it added so much. It gave me the opportunity for to sing unaccompanied, which meant I could stay as George for the whole show – she could play his wife and a couple of other characters, so it freed me up.”

And will he be keeping mum in the show?

Almost certainly, yes. 

Canberra Cabaret Festival, ACT Hub, Kingston, November 16-18. “The Ukulele Man”, November 17.