We arrived slightly late to the party on this Wednesday night, and boy, what a party it was. We followed the whoops and the cheers through the fairly sedate downstairs bar of The Jericho Tavern, headed up the stairs to “The Venue” as it is signposted, an unassuming bar with a small stage that has hosted such greats as Radiohead and Supergrass back at the beginning of their careers.
The room was brightly lit and very busy (sold out, in fact). We had sadly missed the first half of Effusique Aimée’s FemmeBot act, but the second half was hilarious. With charming hosts Archie and Alexandr Arkhon, the show moved on apace and we were next treated to the wonderful moves of Enigmatic Variations, wearing the most beautiful bodice of bling and some sparkly buttock-hugging hotpants, that I don’t think even Kylie herself could have pulled off. Enigmatic Variations could pull them off though, and indeed he did, with the artistic air of a ballet performer and with a confidence that I could only dream of. The performance was hypnotic and a joy to behold.
The whole show can be summed up as joyous, really. I was transported back to my students years, watching my fellow drama students exercise their wit and genius with that special talent and self-assurance that seems to run through the veins of that late-teen to mid-twenties age group.
Ginger Tart was hilarious, both in and out of her flared, sequinned shark costume.Her make-up was truly a sight to behold, as was that of Archie (once they had removed the pigeon head). The costumes were also fabulous and acid-trip-esque, such was the obvious creativity and imagination that had gone into them.
With a beautiful, saucy fan dance to an instrumental version of Roxanne (the version from Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge) from the stretchy-limbed Enigmatic Variations, and a cheeky 'boyesque' (burlesque by boys) performance from the main man of SPUDS, Frisky Whispers, all of the performances were vibrant and fun, and all in all we had a wonderful time. Even though we didn’t win the Prize Potato – there's always next time (Wednesday 23rd January 2019 to be precise).