Award-Winning Cabaret Artists Mary Foster Conklin and Amy Engelhardt Will Make Their Own Fun at The Duplex, 6/3 at 7 pm

Mary Foster Conklin and Amy Engelhardt, two of New York City's most unique cabaret artists, return to the Duplex to make their own fun on Wednesday, June 3 at 7 pm. Sprung from different parts of New Jersey's underbelly, these unique storytellers with serious potty mouths recently discovered each other's talents--and are now proud members of a mutual admiration society.

Conklin, co-winner of the 2014 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Award for "Best Jazz Vocalist," says of the show's title, "Why not? I feel like mine is that last age group that was kicked out of the house after Saturday morning cartoons and told not to come home 'til dinner." To which, Engelhardt, winner of MAC's 2011 Dottie Burman Award for Songwriting, adds, "We both grew up in New Jersey. Of course we had to make our own fun!" The two will be accompanied on piano by frequent Conklin partner-in-crime John diPinto in an eclectic evening that will range from the sublime to the ridiculous--and back, a road both performers have long travelled.

Conklin (right) has a talent for uncovering lesser-known treasures of the Great American Songbook, then performing them in non-traditional venues. "Scratch her witty tough-girl-from Jersey patter," wrote The Washington Post, "and you'll find a sensitive artist (but not frail) with a wide-ranging boldly colored voice and an open ear for off-beat material." Conklin has performed throughout the United States and Canada, and can also be seen from time to time singing off various fire escapes as "The Lady in the Red Dress" with the Renegade Cabaret. Her latest project, a tribute to Beat poet Fran Landesman, ("Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most") was praised by the New York Times as "full of salt and vinegar--with the intensity and tough humor of someone who might have lived on the bohemian fringe in the late '40s and '50s, when the word 'hip' meant something." She is currently at work on a new recording.

A multiple BroadwayWorld Cabaret Award nominee for songwriting and performance, Engelhardt (left) last appeared in Harry Shearer's "Christmas Without Tears: Does This Tree Make Me Look Fat?" singing an original piece NPR dubbed, "The funniest Christmas song ever written." Engelhardt is also the Artistic Producer (and creator) of Tune In Time, New York's Olympics of Musical Theatre, which StageBuddy called, "a joyous, hilarious romp." Her cheeky rock score for Bastard Jones was a Top 10 Finalist for the Richard Rodgers Award, the Eugene O'Neill Theater Conference, and the Alec Baldwin Fellowship. A member of Grammy-nominated, vocal quartet of nutjobs The Bobs for 14 years, her favorite review came from the San Jose Mercury News: "A droll, dorky mezzo with a finely honed sense of silliness." Amy is the only honorary female member of the Vienna Boys Choir.

Make Your Own Fun: Amy Engelhardt and Mary Foster Conklin
Duplex Cabaret Theatre, 61 Christopher Street, NYC, NY 10014
$15 Ticket in Advance & 2-Drink Minimum
$20 Ticket at the Door (plus service fee) & 2-Drink Minimum
www.purplepass.com/#26655

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