Quick-witted, acid-tongued and filthy-minded, the dandy prince of cabaret, Joe Morose is one of the UK’s most sought after comperes and artists. He performs weekly in London’s top cabaret, burlesque and variety venues as well as up and down the country and across Europe. A renaissance man for the snap-chat generation, he is a performer, writer, director, composer and more. A Joe-of-all-trades, if you will. The Stage has called him “irrepressible", the Guardian; “impishly spiteful” and one person on TripAdvisor; “about as funny as syphilis”, but you can’t please everyone.
Although he craves a rags to riches story, Joe didn’t crawl from the gutter to the stage, he just sauntered vaguely towards it and refused to leave. Following in the footsteps of his hero Noël Coward, Joe moved to London, trained at The Italia Conti Academy, worked extensively as a professional actor on London’s West End and then began performing cabaret at The Cafe De Paris, with a few more things and a few less years in between. All that’s left is getting a knighthood, which
although he’s spent a lot of time on his knees in front of queens, isn’t on the cards.
He burst onto the London Cabaret Scene in 2013 and within a year was nominated as Best Compere at the London Cabaret Awards, had residencies at the Cafe De Paris and Proud Cabaret (London’s top two venues) and had hosted the ill-fated show Burlesque: On Ice. How he got involved in the last one, he’s still not sure, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. In the ensuing years, he has become infamous in what is, let’s face it, quite a niche market, but it has brought with it incredible opportunities. He’s played in historic venues such as The London Hippodrome, The Royal Vauxhall Tavern and the now sadly in absentia Madame Jojo’s in Soho. Working commercially, he has hosted corporate events for AX Paris, Sony, Reebok, Bumble, John Lewis, Topshop and Harrods amongst others. In amongst that he has also compered private events for the likes of Alan Carr, Ant and Dec, FKA Twiggs and charities such as CALM, Mind and The British Heart Foundation. He is, in his own words, “excellent at all of it and a right laugh.”
Equally at home in front of 20 drinkers in an underground London bar, or 2000 revellers in Europes most glamorous concert venues, Joe is the perfect combination of the bygone age of vaudeville and a super-sharp comic for today’s modern music-hall.
As an actor he’s appeared on film, television and in theatre both regionally and on the West End, where he originated the roles of The Cat In The Hat in the UK premier of ‘Seussical’ and Ferripoti in ‘NotMoses’. As a composer he worked for Grindstone Theatre on their Jack the Ripper musical ‘RIP’ and scored 5 pantomimes for Such Stuff Productions. He has directed numerous productions including a stint with the world’s longest running sketch show NewsRevue at the Canal Cafe Theatre and the tour of the musical Spring Awakening for Stairway Theatre Company.
He has been Cabaret Director at Bunga Bunga (Covent Garden and Battersea) and was the writer/director of the award winning “The Silencing of Miss Scarlet” which played in London and Brighton for two years. He has been guest curator of a number of shows at Cafe De Paris and has created bespoke shows at numerous venues all across the capital.