May Show Review…It was Great

Published 13/05/2013 | By admin

Nona Nightmare Cards

Well that’s another Enterteasement been and gone and I think that was our busiest show ever. People keep telling us we have to move to a bigger venue or get more chairs. As The Admiral is just about perfect for us and they have a nice friendly team in place all I can say is that we shall try to source more chairs from somewhere and maybe contemplate opening another night and run twice monthly. Believe it or not each of those stackable chairs are £60 each – so 10 chairs is £600 which is a little out of our budget. We have actually purchased 10 extra chairs but accept we need more and will do our best to source them. For all those that stood – thanks you guys did great and we appreciate that must’ve been a long night on your feet.

The Story

No speeding tickets this month but my printer & laptop were nearly thrown out the window before the show. However both pulled their act together proving I’m either very lucky…or Artificial Intelligence has taken off. After getting the venue set up I inform Star (Stage manager) that she’ll be rolling Stakatto Blue’s Hoops on stage, her face was priceless, she responded with, “I can’t toss a coin, can you get someone else to do it?” But I said no and she reluctantly agreed. First time in a year I’ve seen her panic about something.

Doors Open

Due to IT issues, we were a couple of minutes late on opening but the venue filled up quickly which is always a relief as although we had sold out, there’s still that panic there will be a problem with the trains and nobody will arrive.

As we were mobbed I was a bit a little nervous that conversations would break out and disrupt the night; but, a combination of my moaning and having a great audience that didn’t happen. For the first time ever, I didn’t have to do the ‘No Talk Walk’ Part of me misses the days we used to have to put the microphone up full blast and throw the audience out because they were intoxicated…not a big part but the title of ‘Most Drunken Disorderly Audience’ has been relinquished and can be taken up by anyone who feels their life needs some stress.

The venue filled up, the seats were gone, the benches were gone and it was showtime!

The Show

Michael Redmond (MC)

What a legend! Michael often compere’s at The Stand; but to be honest, when you’ve been in comedy as long as he has I don’t think there’s anything much he hasn’t seen, done or mastered. The audience were a little nervous at first and no one would admit being anywhere else apart from Glasgow or interact with him. I think this comes from the dreaded fear of being in the front row and having the p**s taken out of you for the whole night. However, Michael got round this by jumping off stage and standing in the chairs on the front row making the second row the new first row. Michael is a 60 something year old guy but he jumped up on the chairs and really took ownership of the room and even found out we had someone from as far away as Loch Lomond. Lots of laughs and with the audience warmed up it was time to bring on the first act

Stakatto Blue (Hula Hoop Act)

Stakatto is an amazing Hula hoop artist and there’s nothing she can’t do. We decided to open with her as he act is high Energy and that would bridge the gap between Michael’s dry slow delivery and the next act’s high energy magic.

StakattoBlue

Her act was a comedy hula-hoop routine where she was doing some hula hooping with several hoops, every hoop getting smaller until the smallest hoop was produced from her pocket which was more of a bangle than a
A wee background story: Not only is Kat a performer she teaches Hula Hoop classes and is very well known for her meticulous practice and the high degree of skill of which she possesses. It’s almost quite annoying as in all the times I’ve seen her she’s never made a mistake…until tonight. She’s been sick this week and the Doctors had ordered her to stay in bed so she’d missed a few days practice before she made it to the stage and boom, one tiny mistake and the hoop flew off her hand and hit someone in the front row. It should point out, it was only a wee plastic hoop, there was no harm done and she recovered well and everyone loved her act. Good to see she’s human and we hope you’re feeling better very soon Kat.hoop. At the end of the routine she was spinning all the hoops in the act, one on her neck, one around her leg and the wee mini hoop on her finger. It was all well received, especially to one person who received a hoop to the face!

p.s. Star rolled the hoops on stage no problems at all

Professor Callison (Madness & Magic)

Before we could welcome The Professor on stage, Michael Redmond fancied a shot of the hula-hoop and surprisingly done really well! These multi-talented entertainers make it harder for the rest of us! After showing off it was time to welcome onto stage Professor Callison.

The Mad Professor is in the Tommy Cooper mould of magic. It’s a more entertainment than magic, very easy to watch and lots of fun. The first was a trick where the 9 of heats was selected and found located in the professors crotch, the second was a mind-reading effect where a spectator coloured in a drawing which the professor had not only predicted how the drawings would be coloured in but ended up he was wearing the same clothes as the drawing. The final trick is a popular one where the whole deck of cards is used to tell a story about Jack (one of the Jacks)

This was a new act from The Professor and there were some real gems in there and there were also some parts that need tightening up a bit as it ran ever so slightly over time. However, The Professor sells 25 tickets (at least) for every show so we allow him the odd minute here or there so he can keep his many fans happy.

Break

As breaks go…it was ok, people got drinks and went to the toilet. I decided to mill around the raffle prizes and as I hadn’t eaten anything for a while I thought I would treat myself to one of the chocolates that are for guests…after all, they are for Enterteasement people and I did buy them – where’s the harm in that? Well… a tap on the shoulder later and I was informed that one of the guests had seen the chocolates and thought they were a raffle prize and had bought a ticket on that merit. Then she thought I was eating her prize. Aww bless. So I explained and gave her a free chocolate. I offered her another 1 and she declined….I couldn’t help but think why she wanted to win the whole box so desperately but only wanted 1 chocolate; but who am I to take on the challenge of understanding how the inside of a woman’s mind works?

The lady and her partner told me they had decided to come and see us because of the description on the website, “we hire friendly comedians who don’t attack the front row” This is true, we don’t hire the Frankie Boyle types as we believe it’s more about people celebrating the weekend and having a laugh rather than trying to get some political point across. They then informed me that although that was the description on the website they decided to arrive late so they wouldn’t be sat on the front row. Luckily for me it was time to start the second section.

Michael Redmond

It was time for the show to start back and in the next 7 minutes, something happened that I would never believe if I hadn’t seen it. Michael decided to get people up for some horse riding, I’ll refresh your memories on something – Michael is 62…and he was the horse. Yip, People were sitting on him and I believe someone whipped him with the mic cable. (On writing this I still find myself in a state of disbelief) “Legends are born not made”. It was simply genius!

Sam McInnes (Comedy 5 spot)

From someone who’s been doing comedy for decades to someone who’s performed for 3 months Michael then introduced Samantha McInnes. Sam contacted us to see if she could help out on the door but as luck would have it the next act had said he was more comfortable doing 10 minutes, rather than 15, so we had a 5 minutes to fill. When you start out in comedy you need to beg and plead for 5 minutes on gigs and most of the time it’s in front of 10 people with a sh**ty sound system. However, Sam has good stage presence and material based on sex & a vintage clothing which is fitting to our theme and we decided to take the gamble.

I am really happy to announce the gamble paid off. Sam took to the stage, delivered her material to a very high standard and got lots of laughs. She’s working very hard at comedy and we we’re glad we could help her along her journey to becoming another very funny Scottish female comedian.

A Panda (Comedian)

A Panda is the creation of comedian Gary Black. One day someone said he looked like a panda and something in Gary’s head said, I’m going to invest in a panda outfit, goth make-up and write a set about being an American panda. We were a little bit worried about putting this sort of act on because alternative comedy doesn’t work great for our audience. However, A Panda was very well received and performed well.

As many of you will know we “survey the f**k” out of people (as it was once put to me) but the most common reason people chose Enterteasement is because it was something different. Because of that, we like to keep the line-ups diverse and when we get the opportunity to put a panda on the bill – we’re do the old Captain Piccard and make it so!

Actual Panda was very good, something different and got lots of laughs. We hope you found it educational.

Burlesque

It’s Burlesque time!! Whoop whoop. I’m often asked, “what’s burlesque?” and “what’s the difference between burlesque and stripping?” One of the main fundamentals is that burlesque tells a story. The question I’m never asked is; “What is good burlesque?” The answer to that could be quite clearly demonstrated in our 2 performers Psyclone jack & Nona Nightmare. If you look through some burlesque photographs (it was honestly research) you’ll see the same facial expressions from the dancers. That to me is lack of expression and performance. Anyone new to burlesque or wanting to improve could have learned alot from watching our 2 performers this month.

Psyclone Jack (Burlesque)

Psyclone Jack’s is a burlesque act from USA, She’s been involved in the industry for years and her experience really showed on stage. She performed her interpretation of a story that was based on the film Butterfly from The Grind House, Death Proof. If you haven’t seen the film the contents of the act might have been lost on you. However, what I really appreciated about this act was the minimalist approach to burlesque. I’ve sifted through my fair share of burlesque videos (it’s a hard job I know – no pun intended) and I’ve seen girls with loads of props and clothes struggle to hold the audience’s attention for a 3 and a half minute routine. When Psyclone Jack took to the stage in a just a pair of hotpants and a t-shirt…I was a little concerned. However, although only the t-shirt and the bra came off there was no point where people were thinking “speed it up” She held the attention of the audience really well and had great stage presence. I don’t know many burlesque dancers who could do a routine and hold the audience’s attention by only removing 2 items of clothing. She left the stage with a well deserved massive applause.

Nona Nightmare (Burlesque)

Nona performed for us back in December and I heard so many glowing reports about her from our hardcore burlesque fans that I was really looking forward to seeing her act. She has a style to her own with lots of music changes in her acts and props to keep the audience on their toes. This routine was described as:

“Fall down the rabbit hole to Underland! You’ll meet many characters on the way, but is it a dream? This twisted tale just became a nightmare!”

She appeared on stage in 1 costume then changed into a rabbit and featured playing cards – This couldn’t have been a better fit for us. What I loved about it though was, well…everything. The Choreography, originality, comedy, teasing, music and the wee subtle things like the wink, cheeky smile or a subtle hand gesture for applause everything about this act was perfect and the audience absolutely loved it.

Nona Nightmare was born for the stage and must be one of the UK’s (if not the worlds) leading Neo Burlesque performers.

Break

Nothing overly eventful happened in the break. It was time for the headline act.

Gary Little (Comedy)

Gary has been at the top of the Scottish Comedy Circuit for years; but, about 8 months ago he went from being great to being a super star. God knows what happened; maybe it’s the big walks up Ben Nevis with his beloved dogs but whatever he’s doing if he keeps doing it there must be a TV show in the pipeline in the not too distant future.

Gary took to the stage and what happened next could only be described as “magic” Laughter has different levels but when you see people rocking back and forward, whipping the tears from their eyes and holding their sides you know the big man is knocking it out the park once again.

Gary had brought some DVDs with him to sell after the show (his own comedy DVDs not like Starwars) and he didn’t go home with any put it that way.

The gig closed, we packed up and all was well. Went upstairs to watch Ricky Burns retain his World Boxing title (it was on the TV, he wasn’t fighting at The Admiral Bar)

We then had a wee chat with Gary Little who had visited the gents toilet and visited urinal 1…we know this because there are 2 urinals and above urinal 2 is a poster of Gary Little. However, he went back in to check it out and I’m sure he had a moment when he thought, “Now I’ve made it! Photo above a bog in The Admiral Bar – Yas!”

Happy thoughts

There was a male audience member who came along to Enterteasement who loved it so much that he has taken up comedy and is fighting his way through the 5 minute spots – love that we’ve inspired someone! Hopefully he’s good and we can get him on the bill at some point. Really hope we do the same with the burlesque.

Big thanks to

The audience, without you guys we wouldn’t have a show!
The person who got whacked with the hula hoop for not suing us
The Admiral Staff for getting the lights put in to make the stage look awesome

My team

My Angels: STAR , MHAIRI, MEL for taking care of everything for me.

IAN the sound guy

WULLY MARR Photography http://www.facebook.com/wulliemarrphotography?fref=ts

The Acts (Please follow them on facebook, share the love folks)

BIG GARY LITTLE http://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-Gary-Little/165133553530227?fref=ts

(Buy his DVD!)

MICHAEL REDMOND: http://www.facebook.com/michael.redmond.9?fref=ts

(Can be seen at the Stand every Sunday)

GARY BLACK / A PANDA: http://www.facebook.com/goteamgaz

SAMANTHA McINNES: http://www.facebook.com/EccentricGenius?fref=ts

STAKATTO BLUE: http://www.facebook.com/Stakatto?fref=ts

(Teaches Hula Hoop workshops in Glasgow)

PSYCLONE JACK: http://www.facebook.com/psyclone.jack.3?fref=ts

(Is part of another burlesque company that has just moved to Glasgow so will be performing lots)

PROFESSOR CALLISON: http://www.facebook.com/ewan.callison?fref=ts

Magician for kids & adult parties…also provides hair products to salons!

The Scottish ShowGirl Sessions for donating burlesque prizes

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Show-Girl-Sessions-Ltd/270962472937119

How Did We Do?

We think we did pretty well and by the photos over in http://www.facebook.com/enterteasement/photos_albums you’ll see some happy smiling faces. If you were at the show please leave a take the quick survey to let us know how we did.

Click here to take survey

Review / Round-up of April Show

Published 16/04/2013 | By admin

Years ago there was a football manager who was asked about his formation. He replied, “I look at the players and then pick the formation” This was very true of the April show. We had a mixed bag of acts available but they weren’t really your normal Enterteasement lot as we had contact juggling, boylesque, comedy music and a sketch troupe to finish the show. But they were all so strong individually that we knew they would work well together and decided to “give it a go” and hoped the football theory that ‘good players can play together’ would work out.

April 13th – Events

Running this show once a month it always amazes me how I forget how all the people involved in the show aren’t mind-readers and need information off me. So the day of the show involves a lot of printing. From the running orders to the stage directions it all needs to be done.

So on headlining to the venue I really was pushed for time and decided to gain some precious seconds I would go a little faster than the silly old 50mph speed limit on the Motorway. However, one driver didn’t like my theory and put on his flashy blue lights and asked me to come into his police car. Note to self, when the cops ask you if you are in a rush…don’t say “yes, and if you could speed this up that would be great” they really don’t like that.

So I arrived at the venue later than normal only to discover that one of my assistants had fallen down the stairs and had to be taken to hospital. Luckily it was only a bad sprain and we’ve sent “Get Well Soon Hugs” over and hope that combined with Paracetamol and plenty of rest she’ll be on the mend soon.

So because we were a man/woman down, the doors opened a little later than normal so we’d like to say sorry for that and thanks for being so reasonable.
Billy Kirkwood had another performance on that night so I knew he’d be arriving just before 8. He arrived at 7:55 and went into the toilet but as the show had to start at 8 and I was introducing the moany but all important:

“Scream at burlesque, don’t talk during the acts and introducing the staff bit”

So I entered the gents and saw one cubicle door shut and said, “Billy, are you in there?” He replied “Yes mate” It might be slightly unprofessional but I just decided to slide the running order under the toilet door and proceed to take to the stage. You might think that’s a bit out of order but I thought since he had been in the bathroom for so long that he might like some reading material.

So, show started, people were a little quiet, the rules confirmed and then Billy’s Head appeared from the Gents and BOOM it was showtime.

The Show.

Billy Kirkwood is one of my all time favourite compere’s. Scotland is blessed with some World Class Compere’s but for Enterteasement Billy ticks all the boxes. He’s fun, playful, his audience interaction is second to none and he does wee party games and things as well. With this show being so different to the other Enterteasement’s I was glad Billy was at the helm and he excelled as always.

Kevin McMahon. I’ve known Kevin for years but I’ve only seen him perform once and that was about 4 years ago. Kevin runs the Edinburgh International Magic Festival. Which runs for a week in June. I run Enterteasement once a month and it stresses me out beyond belief. Kevin has about 20 magicians from all round the world, 20 venues, 40 shows over one week and even packs a proper theatre. So it was a pleasure watching him perform but also nice in that we can share the “event management” chat and I’ll look forward to picking his brains for ideas. http://www.magicfest.co.uk/

So Kevin’s act included a lovely signed card to mouth, the appearance of several objects and he finished with a trick that I first saw performed by Paul Daniels which was the toilet roll over the head. Kevin has taken it to a new level by throwing other things over the head as well. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it but it was a solid original piece that the audience loved.

Cat Aclysmic is the girl we use on our artwork and is one of our regulars at Enterteasement. So we often get that look of “I know her but I can’t think where from”.

Cat took to the stage with one of her signature acts ‘Hanky Panky’. We throw Cat into the deep end at Enterteasement as we still have many people experiencing burlesque for the first time and don’t know how to react. We’re also attracting lots of couples and the men are a bit scared to scream for the burlesque in the first half. Cat is in her 4^th year of the World Burlesque Games and is up and down the the UK performing so she’s seen it all before. She took to the stage in a bright red sparkly dress and performed a classic burlesque routine, very sultry with some moments of comedy. The audience’s cheered at all the right bits so we’re happy and it was a good performance to set up the burlesque in the second half.

Eleanor Morton was making her debut for us and this was also our first music comedy act. Eleanor has a lovely aura about her, very innocent and posh. She’s the type of girl you’d want your son to marry. When she took to the stage the people in front of me said “That’s her from The Stand” I don’t know if the TV show with her on at The Stand has been aired yet but it’s good to see she’s got fame already and I’m sure there will be plenty more TV appearances in her career. Maybe one day someone will say, “There’s her from Enterteasement”. Her act was very well received and her audience control was brilliant. Unlike a lot of comedians she uses silence in her act which is normally a terrifying experience for comedians. However, she scripts in long silences to create tension and relieves the tension with punch lines that you wouldn’t expect from the ‘butter wouldn’t melt’ character portrayed earlier in the act. This is especially true in her hilarious song: ‘Slightly Awkward Situations’. Overall very good, well received and it’s good to know Comedy Music works at Enterteasement and no doubt we’ll have some more on the bill in the not too distant future.

Tom Harlow: In keeping with the music section we put Tom on stage next. I first seen Tom perform at another burlesque night in Glasgow about a year ago we got in discussions about him performing at Enterteasement. At the time Enterteasement was still breaking in the audience for Burlesque and just wasn’t ready for boylesque. However, I knew I wanted Tom on the bill and if anyone is going to convert an audience it’s Tom. Something you have to understand is that burlesque dancers have it ‘easy’ because men love boobies and women love the whole empowerment thing. So when a women get’s her boobies out the audience will be happy (well that’s the theory anyway). However men / boylesque performers don’t have this luxury and therefore the audience can be left slightly bemused by the whole thing. So to get them introduced to the idea we had Tom sing first of all. Tom has a strong stage presence and a strong voice. He sang ‘All That Jazz’. When he took to the stage there was an aura of “that’s not a burd” but within minutes the audience were singing along to the chorus of “All That Jazz” So not only a good song choice but an excellent performance from Tom.

Star – Happy Birthday

Then to give Tom a few extra minutes to change into his burlesque outfit, we gave Star a Birthday Cake and we sang happy birthday to her. There have been many nights like Enterteasement that have died really badly in the last 2 years and let’s be honest, anyone could book a venue, some acts and put on something similar; but, the one thing we have that no one can replicate is our staff and Star is indeed a wee star. It was a pleasure to present her with a birthday cake (and no Billy, it did not come from the Govan Asda….it came from the Toryglen Tesco and it had friggin Stars on it) Anyhow Star appreciated the cake so much that she left it under a table upstairs but it’s the thought that counts. But once again – Thanks for being a member of the team and for all your hard work. We couldn’t do it without you. We hope when you’re big and famous you remember us!

Cat Aclysmic

Cat is one of the elite burlesque performers in Scotland which is weird because she’s from the USA. But everything she does is to such a high standard that when she told me she wanted to try Contact Juggling at Enterteasement I was happy enough to give her the nod and we weren’t disappointed. She even combined the contact juggling with a bit of burlesque to keep us happy. We owe her an apology though as she used a black ball and we had a black curtain so some of her skills didn’t really show. This was our fault because the lighting wasn’t strong enough but we’ll get that sorted for next month. Sorry Cat. However, considering she’s relatively new to Contact Juggling and having attempted to learn it myself I can confirm it’s a really difficult thing to learn I think she done amazingly well.

Tom Harlow Strip

So it was finally time for Boylesque to take to the stage and I’ll be honest…I was nervous! However, Tom did fantastically well and even some of the hardened men (no pun intended) in the room were clapping and screaming by the end of the act. We’ve even had requests for more boylesque from our audience…how times have changed. Tom did say that 2 of the girls in the audience kept staring at his crotch so if you saw him adjusting himself it wasn’t a Michael Jackson move – he was just making sure the mouse was in the house so to speak.

After a short break we Billy came back to the stage and got some audience up for ‘The Catwalk’. Ah how we love Billy, The Birthday Boy Kev, Dell and The guys house we were going back to all strutted their stuff and that injected that perfect party feel into the room.

The Colour Ham

The combination of Comedy, Magic & Burlesque is a tried and tested formulae…we know this! But, Comedy, Magic & Mind-reading? Well having witnessed it for myself at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe I was really impressed and delighted I managed to persuade The Colour Ham up to be our headline act (it’s amazing what you can get people to do when you kidnap their goat)

Colin McLeod took to the stage and did a mind-reading trick where he asks an audience member to think of a name and he successfully guesses it. I actually know lecturers on Mind-reading that say this can’t be done but having worked with Colin and shared a few car journeys with him (where he still wouldn’t tell me how he does it) I’m putting it down to The Real Deal and I have no idea how it’s done and it amazes me every time. Burn the Witch.

This was followed by Kevin’s “amazing” appearance on stage, the hypnosis sketch with Gavin and An audience member and the Big Finish was with their special celebrity guest.

All of their sketches went very well and it was good to have something different from your normal Comedian to end the show. This was part of their 2012 show but they are actively writing and performing new material for a brand new hour long show which will be appearing at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe – so keep your eyes open for them.

Most notable audience members include; Spikey Hair man, Dell, Craig, The 2 blonde hotties down the front who kept talking during the show (try somewhere else next time ladies) Kevin (the birthday boy) whom I purchased a Gin & Milk for as it was his birthday, Jenniffer, the girl who couldn’t understand English who was from Glasgow and the Fletchers who are mini celebrities in the Magic World. The women up the back who refused seats because they would rather have sore feet and a good view than miss any of the show.

Best comment of the night came from Graham Colvan who is a sound technician who specialises in Magic shows. He’s up and down the county going to similar events and he said to me during the show.

“Why haven’t I been to this before?”

I know that sounds daft ; but, when you have someone in the industry who pays to attend an event and is in a bad mood that he hasn’t attended more of them…you know you’re doing something right.