Thanks to the lack of interest of the people of Kirkcaldy I had a night off and was lucky enough to fluke an invite to the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank. I had resolved not to drink too much as I have my DVD record tomorrow, but as time passed and beers kept coming I decided it was better to let my hair down and enjoy a rare night of not doing my stupid show to a load of strangers. So I got quite drunk.
It was good.
There was some entertainment laid on in the foyer and I particularly enjoyed the work of
Shlomo, the human beat-box. Not only was he very adept at replicating sounds that would usually be made by drums, synthesisers or trumpets, he was a very engaging and likeable young man. In his red baseball cap and with his beaming nerdy smile he was endearingly nerdy and eager to please. He seemed genuinely delighted in his supernatural abilities and to love experimenting with sound and music and it was genuinely very entertaining. I like the fact that a man can make his living simply by making stupid noises into a microphone. It's I suppose not too dissimilar to what I get up to, except I don't quite have the technical skill and a fart noise is probably the most musical sound that will come out of my mouth.
I love the oddballs of showbusiness from the
man who can squeeze himself through tennis racquets to the
unforgettable Hoola-girl. It is admirable to see anyone who puts so much work, dedication and talent into their chosen specialist field. And Schlomo, who looks like he is 13 and lives with his mum is already experimenting wildly in what some might think was a limited field and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.
He certainly got the weird mixed crowd of old and young at the Royal Festival Hall dancing and whooping in a sort of embarrassed middle-class way, which is no mean feat.
I managed to only have four more "one last beers" before finally extracting myself from the frivolities. At least there are some performers in this world who remain steadfastly unprofessional. I wonder if my hangover will be evident in the finished product.
