Rebecca Carrington

Published Thursday 23 March 2006 at 13:30

You don’t often find classically trained musicians working the comedy circuit or the words ‘funny’ and ‘cello’ mentioned together, but cellist Rebecca Carrington is changing all that. She explains: “I’d never thought about doing it. I was living in Texas and had gone to visit friends in New York and was telling them about my travels. When I tell stories I do all the accents to make it funnier and they suggested I try out for an open-mike night at a comedy club. I did five minutes, completely impromptu. I just made it up and I loved it.”

Rebecca was so impressive that she got two professional slots straight away. And that was the start of it. Fair enough, she comes from a musical family but clearly, the girl has talent. She says: “My Grandmother was also a professional cellist. She was doing very well in the twenties as a soloist, winning competitions, and had a recital at the Wigmore Hall. Then the war came, she got married and she didn’t go back to performing.” But she did teach Rebecca to play and gave her Joe, her cello. “Joe is 225 years old and is very impressive because he’s maintained his wood all that time,” she says cheekily. “He’s been in the family since 1961 and was bought for £65. I think he’s worth a bit more than that now.” Her father had not really taken to the cello but helped found The King’s Singers - who also had lots of comical musical material - whom he was with for 25 years.

Taking up the cello when she was six, Rebecca later won a scholarship to study at the Royal Northern College of Music and did a Masters at Rice University in Houston. She stayed in the States for five years, fitting her comedy gigs at venues such as New York’s Comedy Club and the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, round a full-time job with an orchestra in Richmond, Virginia, but she says: “I was quite restricted by the timetable and there were not a lot of places to do my show.” So she came back to London, went freelance and has since performed all over the world. “Mine is an international act about what it’s like to travel with a cello. Joe and I have been together for a long time and I talk about the way we couldn’t fit into a normal cello life. Basically I’m talking about different cultures and I change the show and the material depending on where we are.”

Rebecca performs her show Me and My Cello in German, French or Italian, and is particularly fond of the Germans. “People are often rude about the German sense of humour but I’d say it’s excellent because they really appreciate mine.”

Luckily she still has a few UK tour dates, including Teffont Village Hall, near Salisbury, on March 23, before she disappears back to Europe.