The evening is successor to the tradition of "Salón Paraiso," a variety evening of comedy and song, emceed by and featuring Nicky Paraiso, which started in 2000. It's the show that got Nicky the gig as Cultural Minister of The Club. Ellen Stewart, Founder/Artistic Director of La MaMa, saw that the well-known Filipino-American actor, musician and performance artist, could deliver a boffo lineup. A performance curator was born.

Nicky Paraiso just concluded a very successful revival of his autobiographical cabaret show, "House/Boy," which was presented by The Club at La MaMa as part of the Ma-Yi Theater Company's "Performing Ethnicity" Arts Festival. It was his third autobiographical evening-length solo work with music and mutimedia, dealing with identity, sexuality and the enduring theme of what "home" means to Filipino Americans. Margo Jefferson, writing in the New York Times, described it as a piece about "how children seek their own language, absorb their parents' memories but cast off their parents' lives. On Paraiso's performance, she wrote, "he sings with passionate exactness, from Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson to Paul Simon." Backstage's Ron Cohen declared, "Should Café Carlyle finally be forced to find a replacement for Bobby Short, it might well consider Nicky Paraiso."

Paraiso was a member of Meredith Monk/The House and Vocal Ensemble (1981-1990), touring extensively throughout the US, Europe and Japan. He has also worked with Jeff Weiss and Carlos Ricardo Martinez since 1979 and was an actor and musical director in "Come Clean" and the Obie-winning "Hot Keys." He is also affiliated with Yoshiko Chuma and the School of Hard Knocks, with whom he has appeared in four major productions since 1988. His solo play, "Asian Boys" (1994), was co-produced by Ma-Yi Theatre Ensemble and P.S. 122 and excerpts of it have been published. He is also a frequent performer with Ma-Yi Theatre/NATCO. Paraiso's awards include a 1987 Bessie and a NYSCA Performance Art Initiative Grant. He was nominated for the prestigious Cal Arts/Alpert Award in 1998. His films include "Book of Days," "Fresh Kill" and "Jeffrey."

Little Annie, a.k.a. Annie Anxiety, will be accompanied by on piano by her musical director, Paul Wallfisch (of Botanica, Firewater and Pink Monkey Birds fame, to name a few). Born Annie Bandez, she is an adventuress, chanteuse/lyricist, multi-media artist and postmodern cabaret queen with a long, illustrious and eclectic recording career. Born in New York, with no intention of a career in the arts, she pursued numerous jobs, criss-crossed the continent "earning her poetic license" until she found herself on stage at the legendary Max¹s Kansas City, fronting the atonal, savage dance rhymed band Asexuals at the sneak-in-the-back-door age of 16.

After meeting Steve Ignorant from the band Crass on her doorstep a year later, she went to the United Kingdom for a two-week visit and stayed over a decade. There she recorded her first of many recordings, the still avant-garde "Barbed Wire Halo," a collaboration with Crass drummer Penny Rimbaud for Crass Records. Her musical path took a first of many sharp turns when she met legendary dub genius Adrian Sherwood and his equally brilliant partner, Kishi Yamamoto. The trio crafted Annie's first LP for Corpus Christi Records, "Soul Possession." A long and exciting collaboration was forged. The EP "As I Lie in your Arms" and LP "Jackamo," both produced by Yamamoto, soon followed on One Little Indian Records.

After a short stint with the American-owned major, Atco Records, where she released "Sugar Bowl," which was produced by Ray Shulman, she started working with the moniker Little Annie. She released the LP "Short and Sweet, two ten-inchers, "Bless Those," the widely acclaimed "I Think of You," and the EP "In Dread with Littler Annie, all for Adrain's ON-U Sound Records. Through the years and numerous collaborations (with Wolfgang Press, Crass, the ON-U Sounds stable, Paul Oakenfold, Kid Congo Powers, Current 93, Nurse with Wound, the late Bim Sherman, Coil, Fini Tribe, and Collapsed Lung, and many others), she has refused to be restricted by labels and genres, spanning jazz, reggae, hip hop, torch and avant-garde styles.

She has written three volumes of prose; the most recent is titled "Hell is a Place Where We Call Each Other Darling" and is published by Stride in the United Kingdom. She has appeared in numerous plays, theater pieces, and films, and continues to tour extensively. She resides in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. She is presently recording an LP for David Tibet's Dutro Records, produced by Antony of Antony and the Johnsons and Joe Budenholzer of Backworld. Her last EP, "Diamonds Made Of Glass," composed with Larry Tee (of Ru Paul fame) and Joe Budenholzer, with remix by Christopher Heeman, has just been released by Streamline through Drag City (www.dragcity.com).

Little Annie is a prolific painter and is currently engaged in three series, entitled "Urban Saints," "God and Science" and "September Skyline." A selection of her paintings can be seen on her website, www.brainwashed.com/anxiety.

David Clement last appeared in The Club at La MaMa with Rebecca Moore in March, 2003 in The Club's "Live From the East Village" New Music series. He is a distinctive stylist of what has been called "lyric centered Rock." He mostly now plays with Rob Bailey, whose pop sensibility, classical training, and love for a sonic experiment mix with Erin Hall's cello to make a dreamily driven framework for David's tightly crafted "post-Brechtian-pop/acidfolk" songs.

Kindamusic.net wrote, " With hypnotizing guitar chords and a flair for subtle lyrics, David Clement can be found between REM, Ryan Adams and Eels, deep in the territory of accessible, well-written alternative music. " Independent Songwriter Magazine wrote, "The breathy vocals are a sharp contrast to the hard-driving music. And the tug-o-war between the two elements create a tension that's hard to ignore. The production is so over-original that it technically breaks new sonic ground. It's rare to find such a revelation in original music. Not only are the lyrics deep, but the music, the production, and the vocals all blend in some multi-layered smorgasbord to create a type of complex maze...decipherable only if one allows the subconscious to take control. Hard to believe that humans could operate at such an atmospheric realm. "

Regie Cabico will appear December 16 and 19 only. He performed his "Godiva Dates and a One Night Stand" in The Club on October 29 as part of Ma-Yi Theater Company's "Performing Ethnicity" Arts Festival. He has appeared on two seasons of HBO's Def Poetry Jam. Solo plays include Faith,Hope & Regie and straight out directed by reg e gaines. His work has been featured at Dixon Place, The Kitchen, Theater Offensive (Boston), 2002 NY International Fringe Festival, the 2003 Humana Theater Festival, and New World Theater. He is a company member of the Neo Futurists' productions of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes at the Belt Theater. He has received three New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships for Poetry & Performance Art.