Variety is their spice

Singer Harding and comedian Mirman plan a night of anything-goes Wonders

John Wesley Harding (left) and Eugene Mirman will be joined by special guests in their variety show-like Cabinet of Wonders. (Matt grady)

'Cabinet of Wonders" has a nice ring to it - like some sort of old-time circus attraction with dark and strange delights that'll cost you 50 cents.

John Wesley Harding, the stage name of English singer-songwriter Wesley Stace, can't promise fire-eaters or bearded ladies, but he's got the next best thing: comic Eugene Mirman and special guests performing in a variety-show format.

The Cabinet of Wonders show, which Harding and Mirman have been performing at Le Poisson Rouge in New York, is hitting the road, including a stop at the Brattle Theatre on Thursday with a cast of musicians, writers, and comedians - all chosen by Harding and Mirman.

The format is loose. Harding, who just released a new album called "Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead," will play a few sets of his own, in addition to duets with the evening's guests, who change depending on the city.

In Cambridge, he'll welcome Tanya Donelly (of Throwing Muses and Belly) and singer-songwriter PT Walkley, writers Tom Perrotta and Rick Moody, poet David Daniel, and comedian Larry Murphy. They'll each get their own shining moment to read or perform and, in some cases, collaborate with Harding or Mirman.

The cross-pollination fascinates Harding, who has also dabbled in multiple genres. In addition to the 20 years he's been releasing albums, he's penned two well-received novels: "Misfortune" (2005) and "By George" (2007).

Mirman, who's fond of telling people, erroneously, that he and Harding grew up together on the Isle of Wight, first met Harding about five years ago at a show in New York.

We caught up with both funny men, on separate occasions, last week on the phone from New York, a night before Rosanne Cash was the special guest at their Cabinet of Wonders.

Q. You seem to know someone in every city you visit. Are you having as much fun with this show as it seems?

A. I'm delighted for my own entertainment because everybody I've invited is pretty much somebody I like. It's a skip through my tastes. Luckily I like people who are attainable.

Q. With a different set of players for your show at the Brattle, how will it differ from the ones you've been doing already?

A. It's exactly the same show that we're doing in New York, except the lineup depends on where the show is. For Boston, I called my oldest musical friend in the city, Tanya Donelly, so we're going to do a few songs together. She and I are of the same vintage, and we like the same people. We'll also have Tom Perrotta, who wrote "Election," and Rick Moody, whom I'm importing from New York and who's my favorite writer. The original idea of the show was to bring together my music life and my writing life; so far it's like being the host of a party that you actually want to be at.

Q. What's the best part of working with Eugene?

A. I'm so taken with how incredibly hard Eugene works on his art. It blows my mind because I don't work very hard on mine, to tell you the truth. (Laughter) But for something like this, I have to work really hard, and I like that.

Q. There seems to be a real sense of spontaneity with this kind of show. What does that do for the spirit of the performances?

A. I've always liked spontaneity, and I'm very fond of the old English music hall tradition. I'm also fond of cross-genre things. . . . I wouldn't make any claims to the originality of what we're doing with the Cabinet of Wonders, but I would say there aren't too many people doing it right now.

Q. With so many people involved and so few rehearsals, does it ever get sloppy?

A. That's a good question. Certainly in my shows, the only times things go wrong are when I feel I owe people a really good show and I try too hard to be pleasing instead of concentrating on what I should be doing.

Q. How did writing your novels change the way you make music?

A. It totally relaxed me about making music because suddenly music wasn't my sole source of income and I wasn't dependent on it to pay my rent and mortgages. Because of that, I was able to be more calm about how my albums came about. And I think this new one sounds like a record made by people who just love music.

Q. Wes tells me you guys might be singing together. Do you have any musical talent at all?

A. No. I really like to listen to music and sometimes I like to jump around to music, but I can't really sing or play.

Q. Would you be comfortable singing at these shows?

A. I would be extremely uncomfortable doing that at these shows. I might try to do something to be a good sport.

Q. So you were never even a band kid?

A. No. I mean, I was in Led Zeppelin, but I guess that doesn't count. I was their flute player. You can't hear it because it's drowned out by the wall of [expletive] awesome guitars.

Q. The nature of the show is pretty collaborative. Do you notice anything the writers, musicians, and comedians have in common?

A. Well, everybody has an award from a genius-grant foundation or has been voted by New York magazine as offering one of the best services in the city.

Q. Will your performances be affected by the different lineups every night?

A. Unlike music, where you can play old songs, with comedy, people want to hear new material. So I mostly try to make sure I have new material for the city I'm in for the people who came out to see me before.

Q. Sounds like anything can happen at the Cabinet of Wonders. Is there anything constant?

A. I can promise this: I will [expletive] destroy the Brattle Theatre with a party like no one has ever seen.