What is the strangest acts you know that could fit well in an old-style Cabaret?

Cirque du Soleil has cornered the market a bit. That’s a really difficult question.

Emulsificate a midget

well, the old german cabaret consisted of many transverstite acts which are just now being accepted in north America. Hichcock love the german voyeurism and how you could pay for a few minutes watching two naked women for a nickle ten minutes. LOL> is America ready for this or shall they just settle for the net

you should take a look at The Aristocrats. This question reminded me of it for some reason.

But yeah, Cirque du Soleil seems to have an edge.

Rent The Blue Angel. It’s a 1930’s classic (in German) starring Marlene Dietrich as the seductress in the cabaret. It introduced Dietrich to the world and catapulted her into fame.

She sings “Falling in Love Again…What am I To Do? Can’t Help it.”

http://www.rhapsody.com/marlene-dietrich/falling-in-love-again-mca

Click on “play” at #1. A goose-pimples version.

Any act having to do with bewbies and flammable objects set alight would be a sure-fire (ha-ha) show-stopper!

Trying not to promote, as I know that is not allowed here, but you did ask for an act:

The Shockmeister. The one and only Scotty Baker, who appears at NYC’s Coney Island. From eating fire and glass to pounding nails up into his nostrils – and all with the most original and humorous banter you could imagine. We have worked together in the past – his act is a lost art that is very much alive and well in all of it’s theatrical glory. Check him out.

http://www.coneyisland.com/per.scott.shtml

Damnit, @RandomMrdan, you beat me to it. Of course, I was going to do the whole joke.

I suppose anything that can be done stylishly and perhaps worked into a musical number would be OK. Decide 1st if this is a “18+,or 21+” type show.

Take something traditional and throw in a twist. consider Sexiness, the Bizzare, and Parody.

you could take an ordinary song, turn it into more of a limmerick, and have the performers sing and act it out, that would be one approach.

There was a guy in the French cabaret scene who went by the name Le Pétomane.
He was the without a doubt the world’s finest professional farter.

I saw video of a guy who gave himself paint enima’s and he would shat it on canvas. How about flatlining? Or juggling frozen baby pigs, and then deep frying them and serving them Korean Bar-B-Que style.