Burlesque

On Friday night a group of us went to/met up at the Bethnal Green Working Man's Club for the final night of Hip Hip. As North Londoners, we don't tend to wander very far - the reason for this foray into East London was that E was a dancer in one of the many off-beat burlesque performances of the night. I, and indeed several others, were prepared to venture out of our local comfort zone to see what the heck this was about.

M, C&D (couple friends) and I arrived, having never been to the venue before, to an exciting crowd of oddly dressed folk - top hats, lounge suits, short dresses, lace, hats...No wonder - the website described the dress code as "Summer Lace vs Circus Chic with a twist of Tassle Tease and a pinch of Sparkle!" Bingo! My kind of night. Also, behind the stage was red curtains and a giant red light up heart. Sultry.

It was a small venue and it wasn't long before E&G found us. They were both in lounge suits - E had a mustache, G had a trilby that M pointed out made him look like a Mormon. Drinks all around and we chatted in various combinations until the show started. We collected L (of K&L) and T along the way.

The show was fantastic - women in lingerie, women in just knickers and nipple tassels dancing with fans, a hairy man doing a Gene Kelly impersonation, and so on. Fantastic. We cheered and whistled at the dancers and laughed a lot. E's group consisted of a pianist, a lady singer, and he and another bloke as back-up dancers acting out a gay parodic scene to the music. It was a grand old time.

The night livened up when L continued on her mission to get M to snog her, trying every trick in the book, including asking me for advice, to which I responded that she should leave it because M is straight. Not to be deterred, L decided to try to make M jealous by snogging a man - first E, when I was sat next to them. E was incredibly uncomfortable, while L was insistent, and I just laughed at the situation - a lesbian snogging the guy I was sort-of sleeping with. L told E that he had to relax and I just laughed harder.

After having a slow dance with G to the last songs of the night, we caught a taxi home, although E insisted on riding his bicycle. G came back to our flat for a nightcap and continued trying to try to get into M's pants, and continued to be unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, I went to bed alone.