Emmy® nominee and Tony winner Alan Cumming (The Good Wife, Cabaret) will debut his first SHOWTIME comedy special, CLUB CUMMING PRESENTS A QUEER COMEDY EXTRAVAGANZA, with a premiere on Friday, September 2. Cumming hosts this cabaret-style gathering featuring seven up-and-coming queer comedians that represent not only the diversity of the queer spectrum, but also of comedy styling – from stand-up to characters to musical performances.
The 75-minute special features Joe Castle Baker, Julia Shiplett, duo Zach Teague & Drew Lausch, Nori Reed, Pat Regan, and Larry Owens. Streaming September 2 on SHOWTIME.
Alan Cumming: Alan trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, from 1982-85. Before graduating he had already made his professional theatre, film and television debuts and soon found himself celebrated for both his TV work (including the Scottish soap Take The High Road) and his stand-up comedy (the legendary Victor and Barry, which he wrote and performed with drama school pal Forbes Masson). He made his feature film debut in Ian Sellar’s Prague opposite Bruno Ganz and Sandrine Bonnaire, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1992. His introduction to American audiences came with Circle of Friends, followed shortly by Goldeneye and Emma. His first movie shot in Hollywood was Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, and since then he has alternated between blockbusters such as X2:X Men United, the Spy Kids Trilogy, Burlesque and smaller independent films like Titus (opposite Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange) and Sweet Land (which won him an Independent Spirit award as producer). With Jennifer Jason Leigh he wrote, produced, directed and acted in The Anniversary Party, which won them a National Board of Review award and two Independent Spirit nominations. More recently he appeared in George Lucas’ Strange Magic, Travis Fine’s Any Day Now (for which he won great acclaim and numerous Best Actor awards at festivals around the globe), Battle of the Sexes (opposite Emma Stone and Steve Carrell), Neil Jordan’s Marlowe, Katie Holmes’ Rare Objects and Jono McLeod’s My Old School. His many UK television appearances include The High Life (written and performed with his Victor and Barry cohort Forbes Masson), Bernard and the Genie (British Comedy Award), Mark Cousins’ Heavenly and more recently the miniseries The Runaway, Queers (the series of monologues curated by Mark Gatiss to mark the decriminalization of homosexuality) a highly acclaimed turn as King James in Doctor Who and the much loved docu-series Miriam and Alan: Lost In Scotland in which he traveled round his homeland in a van with Miriam Margolyes. In the US he has appeared in Broad City, Sex In The City, Frasier, The L Word, Web Therapy and is also the host of PBS’ Masterpiece Mystery. He played Eli Gold in seven seasons of the CBS series The Good Wife, for which he has received multiple Golden Globe, Emmy, SAG, Critics’ Circle and Satellite Awards nominations, and starred in the CBS series Instinct, which premiered in March 2018 and made history by being the first ever US network drama to have a leading character who was also gay. He was most recently seen in Apple TV+’s Schmigadoon. In 2015 he premiered his cabaret show Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs at the legendary Cafe Carlyle in New York City. The show was described by the New York Times as an ’emotional firestorm’ and went on to tour all over America, Canada, Australia, England and was the hit of the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival – a particular source of pride for Alan as this was where he first performed in cabaret, with Victor and Barry, 32 years earlier! The show was filmed for a PBS special and a live album of the same name was released in February 2016 to coincide with his sold out debut at NYC’s Carnegie Hall. His next cabaret show Legal Immigrant debuted in 2018 and was recorded for Audible, and his most recent show with NPR’s Ari Shapiro, Och and Oy: A Considered Cabaret debuted in August, 2019. Cumming premiered his latest solo cabaret show Alan Cumming is Not Acting His Age at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2021.
Club Cummings: Club Cumming is a gay bar and nightclub in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It frequently hosts cabaret events, Broadway-style shows, dance parties and drag performances. Celebrities, especially Broadway actors, often make pop-up appearances there. The club opened in 2017 and is co-owned by actor Alan Cumming and promoter Daniel Nardicio, who founded it with the owners of the space’s previous establishment. The bar was ordered to temporarily halt its shows in 2018, when it was discovered that its liquor license did not include a provision for live entertainment. The matter was resolved swiftly and with community support. The club was shuttered in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it continued to host cabaret and comedy shows via live stream for most of the year. The venue reintroduced on-site outdoor events in December 2020 and reopened at full indoor capacity in May 2021. Club Cumming has generally been well received by critics, who cite its eclectic entertainment repertoire, its inclusivity and the spontaneity of its atmosphere.
