Joe Black was busking in the street when he was snapped up for a cabaret show that went on to change his life.

Now Joe is one of the country’s hottest cabaret acts, blending music, theatre and comedy in an act he has performed around the world.

Joe joins a glittering line-up at a Halloween special of Bang Tidy Burlesque at the New Bradford Playhouse next week. Other acts on the bill include Lady Wildflower Anna, Bettina Spankenhaus, tap dancer Josephine Shaker and acrobat Tilly Tassle.

The show has been organised by burlesque performer and promoter Heidi Bang Tidy, who has been staging burlesque shows at the Little Germany venue for the past year.

Well known on the cult cabaret circuit, Joe has performed with the likes of Voltaire and Toyah Willcox. The day after his Bradford appearance he’ll be in Whitby hosting the Bram Stoker Festival Vampire Ball.

“There’s going to be an 80s night - and 1880s night,” says Brighton-based Joe, whose act is inspired by burlesque’s roots as musical parody in Victorian music halls.

“Burlesque was all about satire in the UK then in America it was what they called strip shows, because they couldn’t actually call them strip shows. It came back into fashion in the 1980s then acts like Dita Von Teese brought it into the mainstream, but the more comedic side of burlesque often gets overshadowed.

“Satire is at the heart of what I do, I enjoy making people laugh.”

Joe had done some acting at school but by the time he was studying film at university he’d decided he wanted to be a director. “Then I realised I liked being in front of the camera more, and the performing side of me just came out,” he says. “I started as a living statue then I learned to play the accordion and became a busker. I’d played piano as a child and was quite musical. About eight years ago someone saw me busking on the streets and got me into the local cabaret scene. I loved it. I adored those old photographs of 1920s cabarets with powder-faced performers and people sitting around with cigarette holders and martinis. I felt I belonged there!

“I would love to be Emcee in the musical Cabaret. In the film Joel Grey played him with an impish, mischievious quality that I have in my act.”

Audience participation is a significant part of Joe’s act but he insists he doesn’t make fun of his ‘volunteers’.

“Cabaret performers are very self aware and audience members become part of our performance, but they’re not ‘victims’ and we’re not laughing at them. It’s not like stand-up comedy where you feel uncomfortable because people are being made fun of.

“I love bouncing off the crowd. My songs are rehearsed, and the bits in between, but interacting with the audience is a massive part of what I do. Something can happen spontaneously and become an ongoing joke throughout the show.”

Although he’s the only man in next week’s Bradford show, Joe says there are several male burlesque performers in the UK.

“Artists like Dita Von Teese and Immodesty Blaize did a lot for burlesque in terms of raising its profile but they’d be the first to say that what they do is only a part of it. There are many different kinds of performers,” he says.

Bang Tidy Burlesque is at the New Bradford Playhouse, Little Germany, on Friday, October 26. Doors open at 7.30pm for an 8.30pm show and tickets are on (01274) 308727. There will be prizes for the best Halloween-themed fancy dress.