From Sport to Stripping in one little post.

This weekend I have done the following:

- Watched a sporting match (rugby) (England vs Wales) without falling asleep, dying inside or asking stupid questions to entertain myself and annoy others (examples: "why is the ball the wrong shape?", "was that a goal?" "why do you care? It's just a game.") I did drink beer, though, which I feel helped. Every so often Bec (Wales fan) would turn to me and tell me useful-but-guaranteed-to-go-straight-over-my-head information about the game and the players and I would look blankly at her and think about shopping until she stopped being useful. We ended up having a really nice afternoon, and we made some new friends in the pub. Three guys, one of whom was really into the rugby, and had conversations with Bec about, like, balls or something, and another of whom had no interest in the game but liked drinking, so we had enough in common to have some good chats. I think that my ability to talk utter shit helps in these situations, and also my fondness for inappropriate jokes mostly goes down quite well. At one point we were discussing the possibility of picnicking on hillsides and how it might work. My position is that as long as you steer well clear of round things (satsumas, for example, or particularly round bread rolls) you'll be ok. This may have been after one or two pints of The Kronenbourg.

- Went to a Sex Variety Cabaret. This is way, way better than rugby. There was wine, as well, of which I am a big fan. My friend Gemma (stage name Lily Dumont) was performing. She is a burlesque performer (those not in the know: burlesque is kind of vaudeville, music hall performance, involving things like nipple tassels and big fans. It is kind of tongue-in-cheek saucy in a Carry-On style, and really, really cool) and she is FABULOUS. Her performance on Saturday night was great: funny, saucy and brilliant. It was at Battersea Arts Centre in a studio-type theatre, and the audience loved her. Her act involved stripping and nipple tassels, as well as comedy. Oh I loved it. The other acts were good (a belly-dancing man and some stand-up being examples) but I am not being biased when I say that Gemma/Lily was the best.

- Tried the nipple tassels. I can TOTALLY do it. Make them twirl. I showed my housemates and Gemma said it was good, so I was rather pleased with myself. I obviously sat down and put it straight on my CV.
I am going to get some of my own, though, and go on a workshop that Gemma is running in London to do it properly. I have toyed with the idea of incorporating burlesque in to my own perfomance-style and I think I'm going to run with it and see what happens. That's not to say that I would do whole burlseque performances and strip all the time, but I would like to add the knowledge of it to my frame of reference and see how I can incorporate it into my singing.

- Had loads and loads of fun. Something fun is happening tonight, as well, but I will tell more about that soon.

If anyone else had a nipple-tassel based weekend I would be fascinated to hear about it. Bet you're not as good as I am, though.

Look! Here is the workshop my friend Gemma (Lily) is running!
I am signing up, definitely.
http://www.sugarsugarburlesque.com/tt_workshops.htm