Manchester's very own all-inclusive, all types of act welcome, open mic variety night is back again - once again virtually of course, as coronavirus continues to stalk our daily lives.
This one, for June 2020 started somewhat unconventionally and in comedic vein as we saw our host and compere for the evening, Hayley Cartwright, "strut her stuff" with a car-washing lampooning of Jessica Simpson's "These Boots Were Made For Walking" on 'The Dukes Of Hazard' With a lightening change of costume and location (how did she do that??!!) we were back to the studio and the evening.
However, that wasn't quite the end of the start (if you see what I mean). Before the show actually got under way properly, she spoke candidly and sincerely about the #BlackLivesMatter campaign and read out an excerpt from a conversation her 8 year old nephew had shared online. Complementing this two other performers, Zoe Iqbal and Tom Gill performed their take on the issue too. "All Vaginas Matter" and a colourblind performance poet teaching people to understand colour and not to be blind to colour.
The evening then started. As usual Cartwright introduced each act and made a very perosnable MC. 11 individual acts peformed this evening, and we were taken from a disatrous first date with an upper-class neurotic twit, (comedy monologue from Avril Poole), through song, (Danielle Frances), into 1920's Berlin's androgynous society underworld, (Morgan Black), to monologues of middle-aged ladies in outdoor parks complaining about the Chinese virus and getting cold. (Toni Brookes).
Gardening tips in the form of barbecued baked beans came next (Graham Granger), whilst my personal favourite of the evening came next in the form of a comedy monologue about apocalyptic hairstyles during lockdown (Fran Winston). Grandmaster P (Peter Keeley) was back with more Churchill-esque nonesense and a coronavirus boogie song complete with maracas. Another act I remembered from the last Tongue And Groove evening I watched was next playing popular melodies on her saxophone (Amy Rose), whilst another comedy monologue followed this; spoken with some insight and realism about her baby bump (Michelle Ashton). Danny Stafford then showed us a short clip from one of his live pre-lockdown drag shows, and the evening finished with another comedy monologue, 'Lillian In Lockdown'. A Liverpudlian housewife and gossip giving us her unique spin on the whole pandemic (Lynn Touil).
Again, a veritable smorgasbord of styles, acts, talents, and as always there is something for everybody. Let's hope you can go back to doing the live shows soon!
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
on - 16/6/20
Sorry I missed it!
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