Stage Time - An Improv Variety Show

Tonight, second night in a row doing improv with CT, I was at Stage Time - an Improv Variety Show at Shoreditch Balls. Tickets generally available through Eventbrite. Now, it's easy enough to get from where I am to Shoreditch - the #47 goes straight there, in about half an hour. Eating was another matter - I didn't know of anywhere decent to eat around there. Still, looking at the map, I saw The Blues Kitchen nearby - I'd been for drinks there before, remembered it as good, and saw they do food as well. So, off I went.

The bus dropped me nearby, and I went in - seems they have a dining section cordoned off, and they have space for walk-ins. I located a staff member - not so easy, with them all in t-shirts! He told me I could have a table till 7 - perfect, I'd need to be leaving around then anyway! And so, I got a table near the bar:

I have to commend the service - it wasn't superfast, but it was efficient, and unfailingly polite. I - slightly nervously - chose the buttermilk chicken, which is basically fried chicken, but is described as coming with "cajun spice rub" or something. I had fries with it. What I got, to my delight, wasn't really spicy at all, but was instead the most succulent chicken I've had in years! I think there was more spice on the fries, which were dusted in it - but quite manageable. Large portion of chicken, too - I was well fed. And when someone saw I'd finished my glass of wine, she offered me another - which I took her up on. Interestingly, it was another fellow who reassured me that "she'd be along soon".. but if it was her who brought the second drink, she'd grown a beard in the meantime! ;-) I might have had dessert, but didn't have time - wow though, yay, I know finally know a decent (and decently priced) eatery in Shoreditch!

Before I left, I visited the toilet - worth it, just for the eclectic decor. They're downstairs, where there's a karaoke room (with a code lock on the door), and a downstairs bar:

The stairs are lined with decorations - as I took this photo, a guy coming up from the toilets offered to take one of me on the stairs, but I passed!

At the back of the main bar, they have a trailer that you can use as a private booth!

Yeah, cool place! And just a minute away from Shoreditch Balls - which gets its name from having an indoor golf course. I grabbed a drink at the bar first:

The venue is downstairs, and I went straight down and took a seat - beside a table to the side, handy for resting my drink on. In contrast to last night, tonight's show was a combination of various acts, each of whom got a quarter of an hour to do their stuff. I have to say, they were better than I expected - all pretty good, with a well-defined plan for how they were going to work this, in combination with audience suggestions. Having said that - the funniest part of the night was when the last pair asked for someone in the audience to volunteer their story of an old friend. The guy who did so, and his lady friend, were sitting right beside me - and jeez, the performers must have hit the nail on the head, because she was in absolute hysterics throughout! Seriously - they were good, but she was more entertaining.

Anyway, a fun night out! and it was good to get home early again. As I left, Street Spirit started playing in the bar - to be silenced pretty quickly by the barman, who perhaps felt it wasn't the thing. Suited me, mind.. and while it drizzled on me on my way home, it sounds as though I missed the worst of it! Had an interesting time in Tesco, stopping in there first to buy chocolates - some idiot had whacked the security sticker over the barcode, so it wouldn't scan! Cue an irate store manager, asking who was responsible..

Two nights with Meetup next - tomorrow, I'm back, for the first time in most of a year, with The Horror Book Club! They always either clashed with something else, or were reading something I didn't fancy, you see.. well, I couldn't avoid this one, where they're reading Ramsey Campbell. I don't like everything he's written - but he was responsible for my favourite horror book ever, Incarnate. And I see he's still writing - the book they're covering tomorrow is The Lonely Lands, written just last year! I just bought the Kindle edition - and couldn't resist reading the first chapter straight away, which consists of just one sentence:

"When he heard his wife say 'I'm not alone' he thought at first she meant to reassure him."

Ooh, I cannot wait to get into the rest of it - thanks, book club, for reintroducing me! Better get a wriggle on though, I'm still not halfway through.. As usual, they're meeting in the Prince of Wales, Covent Garden - and I can eat there.

On Thursday, I'm with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) - a group that almost never appears in the general Meetup listings, despite being one of the busiest - for Northanger Abbey, in the Orange Tree Theatre. Another place I haven't been in nearly a year..

Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend. On Monday and next Tuesday, back with CT for the Bitesize Festival at Riverside Studios - on Monday, it's for Second Temple, a Jewish comedy.

Next Tuesday, it's for All the Men Are Going to Hate Me, another comedy, about a woman trying to write the century's great (female) novel!

Then I have five (!) days of Meetup: the next three with UITCS. On the 14th, we're at When You Pass Over My Tomb, at the Arcola. A "story of love and lust beyond the grave", as described, it sounds like an interesting way to spend Valentine's Day.

On the 15th, we're at Double Feature, at Hampstead Theatre.

And on the 16th, we're at Hir, a transgender comedy at Park Theatre. My companion of Friday is coming to that as well.

On the 17th, I'm back (whee! at last!) with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners.. I've been persuaded to redo his Dickens walk. Well, it's months since I was on one of his - and he now only does one Saturday a month, says there's no real demand! And since I can no longer go on the midweek ones, in general.. well.. it'll be great to be back with them anyway.

And on the 18th, back with Discover London - History Walks and Events: it was a while before I thought to check that website to see whether there was another walk, and there is, that day! So we're off to Discover London's Oldest Market and Original "High Street"..