San Francisco Cabaret Concert:This Caneri Can Sing
Manuel Caneri doesn’t believe in labels. Yet, I did spend some time seeing how he fits in the bear community.
“I am old enough to be a daddy,” he says, but doesn’t really feel like one. For us to move on in our conversation, I told him that we should just call him a cub. He’s got enough fur to be enticing and he would look great as a companion to a big bear.
Manny and I had more important things to talk about: his August 31 concert at San Francisco’s Martuni’s. While his show is at 7pm, Martuni’s has its claim to fame, long being a place for theatre people to come after their show when their adrenaline is still high and they need to perform.
Manny often isn’t the person center stage. But he should be. “This is my second show in which I am the sole singer,” he says, having performed with a band last year at Oasis.
This time around, it’s Manny and piano player Nathan Torrento and all of the little people in the dark. If you didn’t catch it, that was a famous line from the movie Sunset Blvd., and appropriate comment as many’s concert is called Ready For My Close-Up! Songs from the movies.
His 90-minute show with a 15-song set list won’t include the classic movie songs we all know. Manny likes to find undiscovered songs and share them with people. “Sure, I am doing two Elvis songs,” he says, “but they aren’t ones you know” unless you know Wooden Heart from Follow That Dream.
Manny says that he likes to tell stories and the songs will do that but he will also weave in some personal anecdotes about his own experiences.
When you see Manny, you’re likely going to say that you know him from somewhere. And you do. He’s often a host of events in shows at Oasis and for years he has been one of the scene-stealers in the drag Golden Girls Chiristmas episodes which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre.
Since Manny isn’t the only scene-stealer in the Golden Girls (which is tough with an extremely talented cast), I did have to ask if he has a rivalry with other scene-stealer Michael Phillis?
“Michael is one of the nicest people you’ll ever met,” Manny says and laughs, “besides, I have a bigger part in one of the episodes and he has a larger role in the other.”
Further, Manny is a big Dolly Parton fan and we spent way too much time talking about her instead of his show. He thought but likely didn’t decide to do the song from her movie Straight Talk. I didn’t dare ask if he considered the duet she sang with Sylvester Stallone in Rhinestone as there’s likely not someone available with a singing voice as bad as Stallone.
But Manny did decide to end the show with – and certainly not the secret gem other songs might be- but Dolly’s 9 to 5 so people can leave feeling as uplifted as I did when I left our chat.
