It's another busy week for cabaret and burlesque in London so with zip, zero and zilch further ado, here are our zingers of the week.
Zinger Of The Week is tonight when the Royal Vauxhall Tavern hosts the Uke-Off (£5), a battle royale open to allcomers presided over by London’s queen of the ukuleles, Tricity Vogue. If you think you have the sexiest, scariest or geekiest song, drop a line to [email protected] and you could walk away with a weird and wonderful prize.
Wednesday Zingers: Tonight, you have a couple of kinky choices. ArtWank! at the Horse Hospital (£8/£6 student/sex-worker/performer) is Ophelia Bitz’s monthly evening of oldschool porn flicks, cabaret and themed talks (tonight: WI Ladies' Guide to DIY Sex Toys) or you can enjoy a very cheap and very cheerful night out with twisted duo East End Cabaret at CellarDoor, Zero Aldwych. Its free to get in so you have nothing to lose apart from perhaps your dignity should you be asked to duet. So nothing to lose then.
Thursday Zingers: “Thinking women’s burlesque cabaret” trips off the tongue and onto the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club stage in the form of Tricity Vogue and Audacity Chutzpah's the Night Of The Blue Stockings and their International Smothering Day Special (£7/£5/£4). Abi Collins (aka Peggy-Sued) is the evening's queenpin and will be introducing a lineup which includes Ginger Blush, Rose Thorn and Madame Galina Prima Ballerina. Over in the Queen Of The Suburbs, you can watch more than the time disappear at Conjuring at the Court (£10), West Ealing’s long-running magic night which this month welcomes Penn & Teller collaborator Michael Vincent and three other illusionists.
Friday Zingers: If you miss out on London Restaurant Week's annual Free Fish&Chips Friday*, you can make do with Sasha Hall’s Elizabethan cabaret (£3/£2), part of the Telegraph Hill Festival or a tornado of tassel-swinging down at Clapham Junction’s Highlight Club (£10) as a dozen debutants from the Burlesque Baby academy graduate by throwing off more than their mortar boards. Out in Hipsterville, E8, the Tax Deductible Theatre Company celebrate their first birthday at Passing Clouds (£8/£6) with lashings of cabaret, comedy, burlesque and music.
Saturday Zingers: This week's Wam Bam Club (£99 with food/£35 without) is a corker. Juggler extraordinaire Mat Ricardo has toured the world and found a better use for cigars than Monica Lewinsky ever did. Alongside him, there is burlesque and boylesque plus comedy from, amongst others, circuit regulars Moonfish Rhumba. Alternatively, you can head south of the river for Balham's Banana Cabaret at The Bedford for a night in with Adam Bloom and company.
Sunday Zingers: Instead of the usual last-minute gift, think outside the box (of chocolates) and bring your mum along to the special Mother's Day edition of cabaret showcase Finger In The Pie (£12/£10) at Madame Jojo's where she will get in for free and you both get to enjoy the likes of songs from comperes Moonfish Rhumba, Britain's Got Talent finalists Father and Son and Christopher Stone, the comedy mash-up maestros Rayguns Look Real Enough and the BBC's comedy sketch crew Black Sheep before staying on for a spot of clubbing with Groove Sanctuary. Marvellous.
If you want to be proactive, tickets are on sale for next month’s Orphanage Masked Ball (2 April) at The Last Tuesday Society, the Rumpus Spring Ball (8 April) at the Islington Steel Works, White Mischief’s steampunk-themed Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea (16 April) at the Scala and London Burlesque Week 2011(26-30 April). Finally, 29 April sees the start of the new Udderbelly season which kicks off with cabaret spectacular The Alternative Royal Wedding Reception.
Have we missed anything great? Let us know in the comments below.
This week's video is from Moonfish Rhumba who ask "why can’t we be lesbians together?"
* Early April Fools. Bite us.
