Still Not Enough Rice Pudding

This week has been a week of letting go and discovering my not so inner child, who I am already calling Violet by dint of a labelling requirement.

Violet came out to play when we went to an interactive play called Flathampton, a show designed primarily for children, but given a big-kid twist on one particular night.

We all had to join a walking 'bus' to get to the place, which was pretty silly to begin with. My friends, Tamsyn and Alex were two of the 'characters', folks who inhabited a 2-D town where everything was laid out flat like a playmat. Then long-lost Kate came back from vibrant London (tsk!) and introduced the Flathamptonians to life in 3D. The audience then helped put the town together from the flat shapes. Then we played! Mixing cocktails, decorating cup cakes, dressing up and a catwalk show, learning to do music mixing, a silent disco, taking photos for the newspaper, visiting the grocer's (who dealt wraps of popping candy!) and if you signed up for a mortgage you got a free head massage and balloon headdress. The hospital gave you prescriptions for Dr Zee's medicine - which were all different kinds of Schnapps. What an amazing night! Every Friday should be like that!

The same weekend, N got to do a bit of competitive stuff when he went dragonboat racing. He was on the team for Northampton Nene Round Table, and was on the team with local MP, Michael Ellis. Mike was wearing a House of Commons cap - who said Tories don't have a sense of humour? He is a nice bloke, though. Thanks to his efforts, there was a team photo in the Chron the next day. Sadly we didn't realise, so no copy of N's pic for our fame file. Ho hum. N's team were thrilled to beat last year's champions!*

This week, we've worked the door for Purple Monkey comedy club at the Nook Cafe a couple of nights, which has enabled us to see the comedic talents of Wil Hodgson and his support, Pat Gallagher. I thought Pat's set was slow burning to start, but picked up a pace and a half in the middle with some great callbacks. N and I probably laughed the hardest when he talked about an awful gig in Shropshire with some 'young farmers'. Oh yes - that was my 6th gig! I lived to tell the tale is all I can say!

Wil Hodgson is less of a punster than a storyteller, and his style is gentle and endearing. He needs no affected quirks - his own personality shines through. His new show, Punkanory is very suited to the art cafe-ambience of The Nook, we think. A pleasant evening was had by all. Good luck in Edinburgh, Wil!

Last night, though, heralded the return of Northampton's own Andrew Collin(g)s. Tickets sold out in advance, and it was pretty cosy in the cafe, with audience spilling out into the terrace-bit. From picking up the empties after, I would say the cosiness definitely helped with the bar sales, so that was good.

If Wil Hodgson's set was endearing, Andrew Collins's show, Secret Dancing: and other urban survival techniques was like a comedy cuddle. Even sections devoted to grammatical pedantry don't come across as sneery, as they may well have done in the hands of another comic; just genuine bemusement at life's inexplicable mysteries. I was pleasantly surprised, as though I am a fan of his podcasts with Richard Herring, Herring does tend to monopolise the opportunities for speaking - and subsequently the humour - in those, so I was not expecting quite so many big laughs. I had expected it to be more story-based, in fact. But Secret Dancing is in fact a rather rounded, fun show, and I expect it will do rather well in Edinburgh - it is really rather good. Go and see it!

I had a brilliant time, not least because Tamsyn pulled me on stage to do some secret dancing with Andrew, and after the gig, we did some not quite so secret-dancing at the post-gig disco. And having joined Weight Watchers last week (lost 3.5 lbs - woot!), I can quite literally say I was dancing my ass off.




Photo: Verity Knight

That's me in the middle. That's me in the spotlight...


* ahem, they still only came 24th