Recommended Musical: Chicago (2012) by Belén Delgado

What better way that celebrate my husband's birthday than going to the modern Board Gas Energy theatre in Docklands to see a very vibrant award-winning musical : Chicago. This was one of my birthday presents for him. I have seen many other musicals before  but none with this cabaret style mixed with humour and acting. It doesn't have complicated changes of the stage or clothing, it's just their erotic dances and songs , the women in their corsets and tight black dresses. Gee ! After the show you realize how unfit you are! They are able to dance and sing at the same time, act and be funny with short dialogues and songs. To me, the 2 female protagonists, British actresses Ali Bastian  playing Roxie and Tupele Dorgu playing Velma Kelly, were the best ones they were not only talented singers and dancers but also very good actress. Of course, previous "blue" singer , Duncan James, who played the role of the cheeky lawyer Billy Flynn, only for Dublin shows was another of my favorite ones. I have always been a fan of Blue and he did not disappointed me live in the theatre either. Duncan plays an excellent role and sings beautifully and he still has the looks! I did not find attractive, though , the male dancers, their moves and clothes were very gay in their black-net t-shirts and exaggerated black-fitted trousers. On the contrary , the male audience was very happy with the sexy and feminine moves of the hot dancers. Believe me, I was trying to find some faults but I couldn't, they were good-looking and talented. My husband was very excited using his binoculars for the first time (this was my second birthday present) checking the girls out. Some moments of the show reminded me a bit of the show we went to see in Lido in Paris. It was beautiful to see the choreographies they had with the feathers , the dancers and chairs. Last but not least, another highlight for me was the live music of the band on the stage, they were even part of the musical, I loved that, they have such positive energy, we were all clapping along at the end.By the way, I loved the exaggerated American accent, they really looked American to me! I don't want to tell you much to encourage you to go and see it!! They are still in Dublin until the first of September !! Jaaaaazzzzzz.

Laughter Lounge - Live Comedy in Dublin (2012)

We got free tickets to go to the Laughter Lounge in Dublin (Thanx Elynor!) . What a best therapy against stress than laughing in the best venue to see live comedy in Dublin?!. Have to say that every time you go to see comedy, it really depends on the acts on the night. It's hard that you like all of them, it's not an easy thing to do comedy. This time out of 4 comedians, we loved 2, the other 2 were not our "cup of tea" but actually, specially with John Colleary the audience laughed a lot. The presenter of the comedians Gar Murray was one of the highlights of the night for us, I had alerady seen him before in the Laughter Lounge and I knew he was good, to me he was the best one of the night! Just check out the parody he made of the eortic novel "50 Shades", it was hilarious! Even if we didn't know the erotic novel, he explained it and it was hilarious!

The other suprise of the night was the Dubliner comedian Rory O'hanlon, he was great! We couldn't stop laughing at his parodies about Dublin life style. He's good!!

There was another comedian, the second one , can't remember his name, I think it was Paddy, we did not find him funny at all, a bit racist.., he sang a song about a beautiful Polish DNA improver working in a spa in Dublin so that you get the hint.., he started by saying that Irish people were ugly and all look like potatoes and that due to recession potential DNA-improvers from Eastern-Europe left. Ouch!

If you happen to go to the Laughter Lounge remember that you always have to book the tickets in advanced, it's usually full and they don't let you in on the night if you don't have a ticket. Ah! Don't leave the place without going into the photobooth where they take 4 photos of you for free to remember the night! They will be posted in their facebook page for free the day after!

The Page to get tickets:

http://www.laughterlounge.com/

Ah! Forgot to say that they have cocktails and drinks for a very good price!

I leave you with a vide of one of the best moments of the night for me:

Brilliant comedy at the Laughter Lounge Comedy Club (5th.Nov,Dublin)

My second time going to the Laughter Lounge and this time with the big responsibility that team had fun since I organized the team nite out! Uff, What a relief ,i'm sure they enjoyed themselves, specially with the jokes the comedian moderator of the whole show, Kevin Gildea, played about me, being one of his "first row victims". It was interesting when he asked me "well, what do you do?" and I said: "Support specialist", then he said something like "ah, ok this is one of those fancy job titles that nobody knows what you do.. (he said it in a much elaborated way and clever but i can't remember ahaha, embarrassment made me forget about it!). My whole team laughed and even clapped,specially my colleagues,not so sure about my manager lol. He also played numerous jokes about the 2 empty chairs by me. I told him we were all from eBay to try to inspire him to pick on any other from my colleagues but he didn't care lol, well he actually did on one of my colleagues that started shouting that the second row were also from eBay and then he said "yeah we all know , Belen said that already and it's clear but go on". You are warned if Kevin is on the night, be careful where you seat lol, he really learned my name by heart! I didn't mind his jokes but some people from the audience got a bit annoyed ..,well it was only a bunch of drunken women celebrating a birthday who were actually a bit loud so i'm glad he made them be quiet! In the and we all sang happy birthday and did the hush sing to them, did not talk anymore lol

There were 3 more comedian guests, one American guy who lives in Dublin: Jim Elliot; another comedian from U.k. John Moloney and my favorite ones, the Irish comedian sketch group: Foils, Arms and Hogs.

Out of the three, I'd say that the audience enjoyed more John Moloney (I didn't since i couldn't understand his accent and jokes.. but the audience loved him) and the Irish comedian group. The American comedian was o.k., I would say he made me laugh a couple of times but he was not very clever starting the show talking about orange fake tan that some Irish women wear lol, well the guys and the foreign audience laughed. He was o.k. anyway.

I laughed a lot with the moderator, Kevin Gildea, he was a bit mean sometimes but i like his humour lol one has to learn to laugh at oneself! He was fab in his skinny jeans, doing the catwalk on the stage. He tortured mainly the first rows, there was one of the engineers of the spire in the public, a big group of British males as a part of a stag part and then, me..,we were his main victims in-between each act, i did not even dare to go to the toilet, too risky lol. He also played some funny jokes about cats (he could even imitate cat expressions lol),recession in Ireland and banks, he even criticized the Bank of Ireland and I loved that part LOL .

But the biggest surprise of the nite for me was the Irish group: Foils, Arms and Hogs. I was actually crying out of joy throughout the 4 sketches they played. So fresh, original and funny! The 4 sketches were one about : Iphone applications; second one about flirting in a pub, third one about a sand castle soap-opera (Dad I'm out of sand! Lol) and the last one about people who work on a computer all day. Sometimes they did not even talk and only with their powerful facial expressions made us laugh. In between each act they played one Bryan Adam's love song and one of the comedians, Sean dedicated it to one of the girls of the audience, poor girl lol so embarrassing. I have became a fan of them now, I'm so glad, I like knowing pure talent people and i have not seen such good comedians for a long time, they remind me a bit of a Spanish sketch comedian group called "tricicle". I totally recommend you to go and see them when they have another show, they also do shows in other venues throughout Ireland and even in England.

It was a great night and most importantly it was a night to chill-out and to enjoy it with my work colleagues and this was achieved!

What? You haven't been there yet??!! what are you waiting for!! When you go just choose carefully the day and check the comedians in advanced because this is always a lottery and if oyu don't like the comedians, you will not like the show!

I leave you with some of the pics taken in the free photobooth inside the Laughter Lounge and a video of one of the sketches of the Irish group : Folis ,Arms and Hogs:

Nutcracker ballet at the Convention Centre(October 2011)

We had the pleasure to see the ballet from Moscow performing this 2 acts ballet based on E.T.A. Hoffmann´s story "The nutcracker and the mouse king" at the Convention Centre in Dublin, 2 weeks ago. We were even luckier to be seated on the first row where we could hear even the noise of the dancer´s feet when dancing and moving around! Priceless! They did not have an expensive production, very simple one but just what it was needed, pure raw talent with no need of extra decorations. I have to say that this is my second favourite ballet so far after the Swan Lake both performed by Russian dancers, one thing is clear, Russians have a special gift to dance classic ballet. The audience of the nutcracker was full of families and the reason is simple, this ballet can also appeal the younger audience since it´s based on a kid´s story. It´s very appealing: The costumes ,colours and smilie faces of the dancers (by the way, with a majority of female dancers, even wearing wigs as men)who danced also mixed with a touch of comedy and of course to have as a setting the new and modern Convention Centre,is also a plus, soundwise. Even if you have never seen this ballet live,i´m sure that you have listened to some of the pieces belonging to the well-known composer: Tchaikovsky. All the dancers were very good but the ones that draw my attention specially were: The main dancer that you could see that was in his 40ies, playing the godfather, the one playing the harlequim and the main female dancer, what a delicacy and beauty in her moves (Andres couldn´t stop shouting "guapa, guapa" at the end of the performance. I´m not going to tell you anythingelse, I only want to recommend you to go and see it if you have the chance and if you want to introduce your kids to the world of ballet , this would be a great opportunity. For 2 hours you will be transported to another world and you will forget about everything and smile all the way! This is the main reason why i don´t mind spending money on culture!

IF you are still wondering what is this ballet about watch this video:

Laugh out loud in the Laughter Lounge in Dublin!

I couldn't have a better idea that celebrating my birthday in the Irish Comedy club called " Laughter Lounge", it helped me to cope with the pain of being one year older and not younger lol Believe me even though I'm a very cheerful person ,it's not easy to make me laugh and a whole audience from different countries at the same time, so loud! After Saturday night, I proved myself that after 6 years, I'm really integrated in the Irish culture, I know the tv programmes the played jokes about (4 weddings, super nanny, ross Kemp and the gangs..), the famous people, life style and way of talking! It was 10 of us, only one of us was Irish , the rest were concentrated to understand lol There were 3 comedians and the presenter who was also a comedian (Gar Murran).

Out of the three, We enjoy mostly 2 of them , the first one not so much for one simple reason, he was from the North of Ireland and had a very rural tough accent and it was very local..,maybe he was good, i'll never know lol we couldn't understand him very well. The other 2 were just hilarious!!! The second one (Can't remember his name..) played a lot of jokes about t.v. and music,he played the guitar and even sang, he imitated u2 in a funny way and current music talent lol (uhhhh!!). I liked his jokes about super nanny and when he grew up being raised with a wooden spoon instead of a naughty chair and that he would use it with the bunch of little bastards that are in super nanny programme lol. He also talked about the amount of money American couples spend on 4 weddings and that once he went to a wedding and somebody asked him about it and he said : 8 for the overall presentation, 5 for the dress lol He also played a lot of jokes about toilet wet tissue and how cool he was because he bought a flashy yellow vest to laugh at people and it worked (people listening to him ,when he stop traffic in the vest lol). In between the acts the fab hilarious Irish comedian : Gar Murran , picked on the audience improvising jokes, I was lucky that he didn't hear that it was my birthday, believe me LOL, he picked on 2 hen partys (one with 14 guests and the other with 10) and one stag party, with them he found jokes for the whole night and me and Raquel specially, who were on the second row laughed very loud every time he came to the stage. Gar also told jokes about facebook, me being a facebook addict i laughed out loud again , he spoke about old school mates sending you invitations in facebook or people who don't greet you and what to do and consequences (if you ignore them, invitations keep coming lol). He aslo joked about relationship break ups by texts and the difference between men and women when looking at pictures (women looking at them for hours and thinking of the situation, when it was etc and men dont even remembering when the pic was taken!So true!) I had a chance to congratulate Gar on the show just after it such a nice guy! fresh, natural and spontaneous!

Well going back to the comedians, the last one who was actually the star of the show , the other 2 comedians were guests, was Dubliner Willie White from Ballymoon. I had a chance to see him a couple of years ago in another comedy night at the international pub and gee he is fucking funny and excuse my language! He played jokes mainly about knackers lifestyle in a very exaggerated way, believe me everybody was crying when laughing, the 10 of us agreed that he was the best. His jokes about the burberry's t-shirt he had on when he said: "you will be wondering ,what the heck is a guy from Ballymoon like me wearing a brandname t-shirt, it's either robbed or counterfeit" " well ,it's actually both" (LOL). He also said that he used to sell drugs and that he ,himself, was his worse costumer. He had a strong northern accent but i could understand him perfectly and I would pay again to see him, he can make anybody laugh, of course you have to be used to Dubliner's north accent to understand him otherwise, it can be tough!

So what are you waiting for? If you live in Dublin and you ahven't been to any of the laughter lounge shows, book online and go! it starts at 20.30 and it finishes at around 23.30, laughing non-stop. you need to book in advanced via the webpage, you cannot buy the tickets at the doors ,specially because it's usually fully booked. The place is very nice, they have it very well organized: cloakroom for one euro, cocktails for 7,50 euros (mojitos!), wine,beer and you can pre-order fingerfood or have some nachos on the night. If oyu go don't forget to have a picture taken in the free photo booth, they will be posted in their facebook page for free and you can tag yourselves (I share with you the one we took of ourselves!!). And no I'm not working for them or anything!

I leave you with a video of Gar:

http://www.myspace.com/video/garmurran/stand-up-comedy-laughter-lounge-dublin-part-one/52022098

and willie white:

Flamenco Show at the culture Box in Dublin (20th Nov 2010)

I had the pleasure to attend this flamenco show with the flamenco singer Olayo Jimenez with a great clean strong voice, accompanied by the talented guitarist Lucas Gonzalez and by the elegant and passionate flamenco dancer Felipe de Algeciras organized by the Irish Peña Flamenca El Indalo!

The magic of Flamenco is that it brings happiness and positive energy to the audience,no matter the nationality. At the beginning of the show the public was shy and only moving slightly their feet but this changed quickly when Felipe and Olayo started to show us how to palm and gave us some basic flamenco singing lessons! I'm impressed about my singing skills "lerele,lerele laaaaaaaaaa" even the non hispanic audience could follow.

One of the highlight of the nights for me was the original interpretation of Olayo of Rocio's Jurado song "se nos rompi'o el amor" !

Felipe's powerful "taconeo" (shoe heels clicking typical of Flamenco dancers) throughout the show following the palming and voice of Olayo and excellent guitarist Lucas made us smile and enjoyed the night while drinking a complimentary glass of red wine.

The night ended up with some volunteers to come to the stage to dance some "Sevillanas" (popular flamenco dance that I learned when I was a teenager) , I was seated in the front row and then the dancer,Felipe looked at me and said " tu sabes bailar sevillanas, a que si? (you can dance sevillanas, can't you?), of course I couldn't lie and i went to the stage along with other volunteers. Actually it was the first time I danced sevillanas with a live singer behind my back, what a feeling!

What else can you ask for ? For one night I felt closer to my Andalusian roots at the heart of Dublin's temple bar! I can't wait for the Flamenco Xmas party on the 11th of December, who wants to join us? there will be Spanish traditional Xmas sweets and of course a lot of flamenco!!!

In the videos you can see> Belencita dancing Sevillanas with other volunteers, Felipe dancing and the performance of Olayo of "se nos rompi'o el amor"

al compás, flamenco show by PAco Peña

Show creado por uno de los guitarristas más famosos de España : PAco PEña, curiosamente originario de mi ciudad: Córdoba.

Un show con tan sólo 3 bailarines, dós hombres y una mujer, tres guitarristas,dos cantaores flamencos y un músico más tocando la caja.

Con la piel de gallina veía como bailaba sobre todo uno de los bailaores, con una elegancia y precisión, siempre respetando el flamenco clásico. Danzando al ritmo del son de la guitarra de PAco, que manera de tocar, que belleza!

Otro de los momentos que más disfruté fue cuando a paco le acompañaba la bailaora tocando las castañuelas y jugueteando con ellas con una rapidez que hacia parecer que era algo sencillo!

Casi al final del show aparecen todos los músicos ,cantaores y bailaores, y tres de ellos hacen música con martillos golpeando con metal y los otros tres golpeando una mesa,las dos mujeres dando palmas y zapateando. Que fiesta se montón en el teatro!
Era raro ver el show en silencio sin que nadie gritara "guapa","maestro""ese arte" por lo que nosotros aportamos nuestro granito de arena y rompiamos el silencio de vez en cuando (los irlandeses nos miraban como si estuviéramos locos!)! en una ocasión fue tal la emoción que le grité guapo a uno de los bailaores (sin ser guapo para nada..jaja)y medio teatro se rió!este bailaor en concreto tenía su toque especial y juvenil al bailar,me recordba un poco al hip hop a veces!

El show cerró con una de las cantaoras de origen gitano y cuerpo redondo que se lanzó al escenario a bailar porque queria mostrarnos su arte natural, a mi personalmente fue una de las partes que más me gustó,sin coreografia y con ese arte que sólo los gitanos tienen! Todo el teatro nos levantamos a aplaudir sin parar! con este show el cielo de IRlanda no se ve tan gris!

HE sentido mucha nostalgia de mi tierra, Andalucía, cuanta gente con talento que ha salido de esas tierras del sur llenos de olivos y girasoles.

En este video podréis ver un poquito del show:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7612634946799703798

Una orgullosa andaluza

Captain Frodo, The contorsionist, one of the best acts from "la clique"

I promised that I was going to dedicate one article from my blog to the great Frodo,also called "the rubber man". Born in Norway, son of a Magician, Captain Frodo has been performing on stages since he was 8 years old. He began as an assistant in his father’s magic show and has since become a solo performer.Captain Frodo was born double-jointed which means he can bend, contort and even dislocate most parts of his body into many different shapes. This video is about his "tennis raquet show" which I have seen and believe me, some parts I was not even able to look!!

La clique , Fringe Festival Dublin 2008

La clique, un show con artistas de todo el mundo lleno de imaginacion e imprevistos que te hacen olvidar de los problemas y te sumergen en su mundo de fantasia. Como decia "Frodo" el contorsionista que mete su cuerpo en dos raquetas "despu'es de ver le clique y de lo que hacen ellos para ganarse la vida, ningun sue~no puede parecer fuera de lo com'un o irrealizable". Una mujer que se prende fuego a los pezones y a sus partes "pudientes" y que hace desaparecer un pa~nuelo a la vez que hace un strip-tease integral sin ning'un tipo de pudor (preguntar m'as a Andr'es por este asunto ,ya que el estaba en primera fila y ella le dedic'o un baile jaja),un hombre que hace un show lleno de sensualidad en una ba~nera elev'andose en el aire con dos cuerdas;un hombre delgaucho y bajito que con m'usica de queen hace malabarismo y entretiene al p'ublico con sus bromas;una danzarina rusa que mantiene 6 hulla-hops al mismo tiempo y un cantante de lo valcanes que juega con el p'ublico al son de sus rid'iculas canciones como "sodomy is not only for animals". Si ten'eis la oportunidad de ver alg'un dia este show en su "spiegeltent" no dudeis en ir!Yo es la segunda vez que los veo y volv'i a Sufrir con Frodo al que le dedicar'e mi pr'oximo articulo del blog.

El arte de traumatizar al público "Lago de los Cisnes" de Raimund Hoghe (Dublin dance festival 2006)

El arte, independientemente de lo que se considere como arte, tiene un objetivo fundamental: impactar. Si el arte logra su objetivo se hace inolvidable, perenne, revolucionario... Pertenezco al grupo de espectadores del populus que tiene un concepto del arte como algo estético. Lo estético es como siempre muy relativo y por ende, respeto a todo aquel que tenga buenas críticas sobre el "Lago de los Cisnes de Raimund Hoghe". No me considero un experto en cuanto al arte moderno y mucho menos pretendo convertirme en un crítico de arte, cuando carezco del conocimiento para ello.

Tal como lo he mencionado anteriormente, esta pieza musical maravillosa puede convertirse en uno de los tantos traumas para aquellos que estén de acuerdo con mi opinión. Y hablo de trauma porque las expectacivas que tenía eran conservadoras y muy convencionales. Esperaba ver nenas en "tutu" en puntitas bailando al ritmo Tchaikovsky. Sorpresa la mía cuando el cisne resultó ser un jorobado desnudo poniéndose hielos en sus deformidades en medio del escenario.

Mi trauma empieza cuando un grupo de tarados se quedan estáticos durante 30 minutos frente a la audiencia. Estos fueron los 30 minutos más largos y agobiantes de mi vida. No sabía si reir, si decirle a Belén que nos fuéramos, si llorar, si salir corriendo. Dormir no podía! Me había tomado un café justo antes de la función.

Después de los 30 minutos, el mismo grupo de jóvenes alemanes arítmicos empezaron pretender bailar, a hacer ruidos siniestros y a soplar servilletas acostados. Mi ilusión de ver la bailarina que ponían en el cartel por fín se hizo realidad por sólo 10 minutos de actuación. Esos 10 minutos de baile clásico amortizaron lo 30 € que pagamos por las entradas. Al final de la actuación el jorobado desnudo se baña en harina para pretender ser el cisne, acentúa sus deformidades con posturas dolorosas para su condición con el temor del público, y en especial de mi mujer, de tener que ser testigos de sus zonas pudendas... Si es que las tenía.

Es esto arte? No lo sé. A lo mejor sí porque nunca lo olvidaré.

Escrito por Andrés H. para mi mujer!

Irish dancers in Saint patrick´s day