Storytelling: F*cked Up Fairytales

Two days of storytelling in progress! Yesterday, I was back with the London European Club, who were off to see The Embers Collective perform. Now, I hadn't been to one of their events before, but a couple of their performers have also performed at the Crick Crack Club events. It was a bit out of town, at Balabam - never mind, promised to be good. And Ivan said he'd come. Name of the show? F*cked Up Fairytales.. tickets courtesy of Design My Night.

Well, Ivan asked me to buy him a ticket, but I hadn't heard from him by the middle of yesterday. WhatsApping him was no good - he wasn't picking up his messages. It was about 5pm by the time I texted him, deciding that, if he were to get any kind of message, it'd be text - sure enough, that got a reply, and sure enough, he had family commitments in Edinburgh and had completely forgotten about this. Sorry. And had I bought him a ticket..? Yeah man, I told you about it at the time.

Imagine forgetting about it, tsk - I even sent him a reminder, last week. Well, I won't depend on him for weekends again - and he can buy his own tickets in future. Anyway, with a free afternoon, I took the time to pack up some more of the remaining stuff in my old flat - it's on the way. Left the stuff packed there, for collection on my way back. I also needed to eat, but didn't fancy the look of anything near the venue - finally plumped for KFC, where I was very well fed (and got fries with my boneless banquet, this time!).

It's a moderate, but doable, walk from there to the venue - and I found it interesting, as I hadn't been up that way before. Stamford Hill is quite a ways out of town - you can tell, what with the broad streets and pavements, and houses with actual gardens in front!

Turns out it's also the largest concentration of Charedi Hasidic Jews in Europe! which would explain the high number of Jewish outfits I saw as I walked. An ultra-othodox group, apparently..

I arrived at the venue early - but the website had said the bar was open from 6, and indeed, no-one stopped me from passing through the heavy black curtains to the bar at the back, where I eavesdropped on rehearsals. I got a drink and took a seat on a bench to the side, and messaged the group where I was - fat lot of good that did, as they all came and sat on the other side! I only spotted them at 7.15, and made my way over, figuring they were all seated already and wouldn't be interested in joining me - although my side had tables, and would've been comfy. Never mind. The seats were laid out in tidy rows - that soon disintegrated, as the mc decided there was too much of a gap in front of the stage, and we just all scooted closer, in glorious disorder - some sat, or lay, on the floor, and all was good.

First up was a guy I'd seen before - Lonan Jenkins had that same mad hair and the same patchwork coat as before. Everybody did two turns - one before, one after, the interval; his first story was pretty gory. Joining him on stage was another Irishman, new to the collective, whose name unfortunately escapes me. Excellent musical accompaniment was to be had at the side:

The lady sang a song in the first half which, for me, was the highlight of that half - Miss Madley was an absolute delight!

The queue at the bar at the interval was off-putting.. we just chatted. The second half saw a reprise of the alternative Sleeping Beauty tale - where (spoiler!) the king that comes across her has his wicked way with the somnolent beauty, and later gets his come-uppins! A nice touch there was the lady to the side, who tra-la'ed the theme to the Disney version throughout. ;-) Oh, I do love the original version of fairytales.. They're planning a Part II (same event name, different content) next week - I think I might attend.

We stayed for a drink after, and were almost the last people to leave the bar - early as it was! And it only took a short time to detour via the old flat to pick up the stuff I'd left earlier. Speaking of the Crick Crack Club, tonight I'm headed to what will probably be their last show before autumn. This is a Fairytales for Grown-Ups double bill at Soho Theatre - one of the performers is Ben Haggarty, always worth seeing.

Tomorrow, back with Up in the Cheap Seats, to the King's Head, for what should be another manic show. Vulvarine - ahem - is a sort of superhero story. With a female superhero, natch. We might meet for a meal beforehand - if we can decide on a venue that suits everyone! Gee, it's not as though there's a shortage in the area..

And on Wednesday, back with London Literary Walks. He had to change his original plan - seems the pub we were to meet in is closed for refitting, and with no good alternatives, he had to come up with another walk at the last minute. So now, we're doing a Walk by a Canal.