Comedy: Meaningless

Tonight, I was back at Soho Theatre for a comedy show - Jen Brister, with Meaningless. And boy, cold as it is, I was glad I was going to be indoors tonight! Left in good time for once, and although my wait at the packed bus stop wasn't long, I felt every frigid minute until the overpacked bus came. Mercifully, the walk to the theatre wasn't long. I was let straight into the downstairs space - didn't fancy a drink and just took my seat. Kept my coat on - I've been feeling the dreadful cold all day, and even indoors, it wasn't the warmest.

Mind you, the seat - one of the hard ones - wasn't the most comfortable, and I found myself shifting for a lot of the performance, even though it only lasted an hour or so. Others might have felt uncomfortable for different reasons. I hadn't seen her before, apart from a clip on YouTube, where I thought she sounded good..

..and she is! This was an Edinburgh preview, apparently - seems very early to me, but hey. And if you haven't seen her - to summarise, she's a fire-breathing ball of lesbian fury! If you think you're going to be offended by her, doubtless you will be. If you don't think so, she's still likely to be borderline. Me, I thought I've rarely seen such a good take on characters we know so well - she evokes a terrific image of her Spanish mother (with her "tapas of criticism" - morsels here and there). She has a brief, but withering put-down of Jacob Rees-Mogg, which got one of the loudest rounds of applause of the night. (Well, it's almost too easy, isn't it?) Best of all though are her spot-on impersonations of smug womanhood - in particular, smug motherhood. We've all met them, and if you don't hate them, you're probably in the wrong place here.

Motherhood, menopause, ads for sanitary products, the MeToo movement, people from Kent.. they all get a look-in. Like most Edinburgh previews (especially early ones), it fell flat on occasion: but it was hilarious, well worth seeing. And then I had a frigid wait for a slightly less-crowded bus back..brr! It hadn't got any warmer while I was inside.

The next few days, I booked Funzing, and the weekend is entirely with Look up London - excellent! She's so friendly, and always finds the most interesting tidbits for us. Both starting at midday, so hopefully we'll avoid the worst of the cold. Tomorrow, I'm doing Unlock the Secrets of Fleet Street.

On Sunday, I'm doing The Greenwich Walk: Heroes and Villains. I'll be well exercised at the end of all that.

On Monday, I booked with London Speaks Sessions, for a talk on Interviews With a Serial Killer. Funzing now have an Unlimited Talks option, where you can get unlimited talks for a month for £11.99 - however, not seeing anything else I fancy coming up this month, I left it. As it was, I got a spectacular loyalty discount for this one! ..and then I got a better offer. St. Martin-in-the-Fields (which I haven't been to in over a year!) sent an advertising email - and I rather fancied Monday's offering, an Arab Christmas. Of course, you can cancel Funzing up to 48 hours beforehand - so I did, and am now going to that instead.

On Tuesday, it's cinema - first in a while. Top of the List came King of Boys, a gangster Nollywood film, of all things. Closest showing is in the Odeon Greenwich - so I booked, which works out cheaper. It'll be my very first Nollywood film - and it's on really late. I'll have to ring my mother beforehand and pretend I've already been..

On Wednesday - back for the New Year with the Crick Crack Club! They're doing a new series on archetypes - Wednesday's is on Wise Ones Wild Ones, in Rich Mix. We're spoiled with the lineup - the night's storytellers are Ben Haggerty, Jan Blake, Daniel Morden - and Laura Sampson, who used (nominally) to run their now-defunct Meetup group. Never mind, for once the London European Club is going, under the stewardship of Henning! It'll be good to see some friendly faces there - and it's been ages since I saw these people! About time. And it'll be my first proper Meetup of the year.

On Thursday, in contrast, I'm with a completely new group - London Sci-Fi Horror Hide-Out, for their first ever Meetup! Hem - this is Miskatonic LDN - Remakesploitation: The Horror Meme. Fairly trips off the tongue, the whole thing! So it seems that Miskatonic LDN is actually an institute of horror studies, and based at the Horse Hospital. Well now. This specific event is about the many international horror film remakes through the years. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend.

And on the 14th, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for Pinter at the Pinter again! This is Programme 5 - The Room / Victoria Station / Family Voices. And this evening includes a free Q+A with the cast.