If Eve Ferret in the flesh is anything like Eve Ferret over the blower, audiences had better brace themselves for the full force of this one-woman whirlwind.

The doyenne of the cabaret scene talks at breakneck speed, careering from one subject to another, often mid-sentence, and scattering names like confetti.

The ideas burst out so quickly it’s hard to keep up, but the essence of what she’s saying is what a ‘charmed life’ she’s led.

Having made her name at Covent Garden’s seminal Blitz club during the late 70s and early 80s, she went on to appear in films including Absolute Beginners, with David Bowie, and Gene Wilder’s Haunted Honeymoon, before giving up performing to work as a stylist.

It is now four years since she returned to cabaret almost by accident, performing in a fundraiser for people living in the Pimlico neighbourhood where she was born and bred, and she still can’t quite believe her luck.

“I wanted to go back to singing but didn’t know how. Today everybody’s told they can be a star but for working class people brought up in the 50s and 60s people thought you were showing off if you had those kind of aspirations,” she said.

“My confidence had gone but four years ago there was a benefit night being held to raise money for people in Pimlico and my neighbour, the jazz singer Barb Jungr, said ‘why don’t you sing?’

“I said I didn't have the confidence and she replied ‘if you can’t sing for your friends and neighbours, who can you sing for?’ I did the benefit night over the bridge at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern and my next gig was at Glastonbury.”

Four years later, she is due to launch her first album, Doolally, at the Arts Theatre West End on April 28, when she will also kick off her Don’t Be So Shellfish tour.

The title, she says self-deprecatingly, refers to her own state of mind but also to the rocketing Pimlico property prices. Indeed, the album includes a song about the area’s transformation from slum to sought-after, which is so catchy she can’t help herself breaking into verse.

Before that, she is due to appear tonight at a new quarterly end-of-the-world-themed cabaret evening at Chelsea Theatre, called Come With Me If You Want to Live.

Programmed by Time Out’s former cabaret editor Ben Walters, the line-up features the likes of David Hoyle and Dickie Beau.

“I’ve spoken to Ben and said I might try out some new things. I’m not going to be making it all up on the spot but I’m not afraid to fail,” she says.

“Lots of people can get up on stage and make nice sounds. I don’t want to be a poor man’s Ella Fitzgerald; I want to be the best Eve Ferret I can be and push the performance so something magic might happen.

“I like to think when I’m performing we’re all in the party together and I’m just at the helm.”

Eve’s eccentric and meandering mind, coupled with some loop-the-loop logic, puts me in mind of a female Ross Noble, only with songs.

Acting is very much behind her but it’s hard to imagine Eve ever fitting snugly into the constraints of theatre. Indeed, she admits she rarely felt entirely at home treading the boards.

“When I was in plays, sometimes I wanted to say to the audience ‘the next 10 minutes are really boring so you might want to get a drink’ but you can’t do that because you’re in a (here she mentions a celebrated playwright, before quickly telling me to forget the name) play,” she says.

“I always worried I was going to let everyone else down but my first disaster was when I appeared at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

“We were waiting for one of the cast to come on stage and when he didn't appear someone whispered that he’d collapsed in the green room.

“Everyone else froze because they didn't know what to do but my cabaret grounding meant I was able to think on the spot and give the next actor the prompt to carry on.”

Tonight’s show should see Eve very much back in her comfort zone, but given I’m still recovering from our phone conversation you might want to strap yourselves in as it’s likely to be one hell of a ride.

* Come With Me If You Want to Live is at Chelsea Theatre, in Worlds End Place, next Friday (April 11) from 9pm.