It's the most lovely Lotta's birthday today, many happy returns sweetie! To celebrate on Saturday night, she chose A Warped Variety Show, a production at a church hall, of all places, in Clerkenwell. We weren't sure what to expect from this at all, other than that there was likely to be a bit of burlesque, and that dressing up was generally A Good Thing. Excellent.
What we found was a tiny hall, seating around fifty people on little tables by a micro stage. People in costumes from every conceivable era drifted in, and that was just the audience. Much wine was quaffed on our table even before the acts started. Hilarity was bound to ensue.
The show itself was rather odd - our compere introduced acts and audience-participation games in the guise of a journey through time, which was only mildly funny and at times rather lame. The acts were great: a whip-cracking Wild West cowgirl act, a 1920's burlesque strip from Miss Polly Rae, a 1950's hula hoop display, an 80's-tastic magic show and an incredible futuristic ball balancing act with robot dancing (apparently it's called contact juggling - it's what David Bowie does via juggler Michael Moschen all through Labyrinth, but there's better footage here). But like so many of these shows they didn't give the acts long enough, and so there was a bit too much of the compere and his competitions to win champagne by making the audience do silly things - it was so like The Generation Game that we kept expecting Bruce Forsyth to jump out with a cuddly toy. Most amusing nevertheless, and we got the chance afterwards to bust our killer moves on the stage, in our killer costumes. Here's me in my corset and electric-blue chiffon getup, narrowly avoiding "wardrobe malfunction", with Anna in a top hat stolen from the boyfriend, and Ting in her fab knitted fascinator (photo unashamedly nicked from Lotta):
What we found was a tiny hall, seating around fifty people on little tables by a micro stage. People in costumes from every conceivable era drifted in, and that was just the audience. Much wine was quaffed on our table even before the acts started. Hilarity was bound to ensue.
The show itself was rather odd - our compere introduced acts and audience-participation games in the guise of a journey through time, which was only mildly funny and at times rather lame. The acts were great: a whip-cracking Wild West cowgirl act, a 1920's burlesque strip from Miss Polly Rae, a 1950's hula hoop display, an 80's-tastic magic show and an incredible futuristic ball balancing act with robot dancing (apparently it's called contact juggling - it's what David Bowie does via juggler Michael Moschen all through Labyrinth, but there's better footage here). But like so many of these shows they didn't give the acts long enough, and so there was a bit too much of the compere and his competitions to win champagne by making the audience do silly things - it was so like The Generation Game that we kept expecting Bruce Forsyth to jump out with a cuddly toy. Most amusing nevertheless, and we got the chance afterwards to bust our killer moves on the stage, in our killer costumes. Here's me in my corset and electric-blue chiffon getup, narrowly avoiding "wardrobe malfunction", with Anna in a top hat stolen from the boyfriend, and Ting in her fab knitted fascinator (photo unashamedly nicked from Lotta):
Party animals that we are, the boyfriend and I then headed on to Camden to a house party. It not being a fancy dress party, the reaction of the other guests when we flounced in dressed for burlesque was priceless. Jaws dropped. Well, it needed livening up. Suffice to say it was a very late night followed by the horrors of getting any kind of public transport back from Camden on a Saturday night. Eventually some random strangers enquired as to our direction and proposed sharing a cab with us, which worked out well in the end. Nasty hangover though. A little worse for wear by this photo (nicked from party hostess C1, C2 resting her head on my ample bosom, the boyfriend doesn't mind):
P.S. Spaff the cat is still here - after visiting the vet this evening we've discovered he's not microchipped. Why do people not do this? Next stop is putting up posters and contacting whatever animal charities have lost and found registers. Poor little kitty. Still, he's happily asleep on my feet at the moment so he certainly seems contented enough right now.
2 comments:
You should consider a blog entry fashion show of all your costumes!
Poor cat - if no owner is found, are you keeping him? He seems very sweet.
PS - Cheese curds are junk food - definitely not healthy - not recommended to be consumed more than once a year. The taste depends on the quality of the cheese and the quality of the batter they are dipped in before frying. Those pictured are at the top end of the curd spectrum - especially from a fast food joint.
We don't know what to do with him (or her - how can you tell if it's a neutered male or a female?) but we're pretty sure we can't keep him as we're never in and I'm sure he's already bored. There's no scope for a catflap and our lease doesn't even allow pets. But we'll definitely keep him until we find a new home, we won't subject the poor little thing to a shelter. He is very sweet ;-)
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