Engelbert Humperdinck: Sings for Sri Lankans again

Engelbert Humperdinck, part of an American contingent at the sixth annual Adelaide Cabaret Festival, says he's now entering phase two of his long career.

ARNOLD Dorsey on his passport - or Engelbert Humperdinck to his millions of fans - is a singer whose popularity has propelled him into concert-sized venues. But his appeal, characterised by his intimate ballads about lost love, is quintessentially cabaret.

With more fans and one of the best tans in the business, Humperdinck will be one of the stars of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival this weekend. He will perform the following night in concert in Melbourne.

Humperdinck explains from Perth that he is entering phase two of a 40-year career that has churned melodiously on through a series of hits so long that if he sang them all his concert would last all night.

Phase two, he says, has meant changing agents, doing some philanthropy - last year he toured India, Sri Lanka and Manila for the tsunami benefit - and using a new producer, Richard Perry, who has worked wonders with Rod Stewart.

"My new tour is called Totally Amazing and the song itself is pretty much a dance song," he says. "It represents my present style of music but I still maintain the songs that have put me where I am today. I keep them in my show because that's what people come to hear."

During a career that has dogged in friendly rivalry that of Tom Jones, Humperdinck has even crossed over into comedy - his tongue-in-cheek song Lesbian Seagull the theme for the Beavis and Butthead film. He may even have his own sitcom soon.

"They are thinking about a television series for me, and I have just started to make my 77th album, so I am never stopping," he says.

Humperdinck is part of an American contingent at the sixth annual Adelaide Cabaret Festival, which includes the legendary film, stage, TV and musical actor Mandy Patinkin.

Patinkin almost didn't make it to the festival; in a case of life imitating art in the worst possible way, he almost choked to death in a New York restaurant not long after completing the film Choking Man.

Patinkin, who described his ordeal to The New Yorker, said it was a nightmare of reverse Method acting, particularly as he was the only one at the table who knew that the choking was real, and how to execute a Heimlich manoeuvre.

"I'm such a goofball and a kidder, my mind is saying, 'Oh, my God, they think I'm screwing around,' " Patinkin said. "So I stood up and started jumping up and down, like a kangaroo or a rabbit."

At this point a young woman ran over, grabbed him around the abdomen and gave him the Heimlich manoeuvre, which she had seen on TV.

Adelaide Cabaret Festival director Julia Holt says Patinkin's presence - he was described by The New Yorker as a musical force of nature - is truly exciting. As well as giving a concert, Patinkin will run a masterclass for singers and performers.

For the price of a $15 ticket, Holt says, lovers of song can learn more about interpreting and delivering lyrics in two hours than they would in a year. Glamorous Broadway singer Christine Andreas will bring her European-American crossover diva presence and Julie Andrews-like voice to the festival.

British performer Barb Jungr, who won a Perrier comedy award in Britain but who specialises in interpretive singing, will perform the works of Bob Dylan in Every Grain of Sand. She will also perform a concert of '60s and '70s rock songs called Waterloo Sunset and stage a masterclass.

All in, there will be 200 performances, including 10 premieres, with artists from New York, Belgium, London, Ireland, Germany and Australia.

(Australain Age)