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Last Weekend: The Fantastic, Fabulous & Funny La Cage Aux Folles and The Hilarious Despicable Me 3

By Friends & Family, Gay, Gigs & Shows, Happiness & Joy, TV, Online Streaming & FilmsNo Comments
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La Cage Aux Folles Poster at Liverpool Empire Theatre

 On Saturday of the last weekend Simon, Chrys and I went to the matinee of La Cage Aux Folles at Liverpool Empire Theatre.

We got to Liverpool early, had lunch and a look around the shops. The weather was warm and sunny.

La Cage Aux Folles was fantastic, fabulous and funny. The cast were brilliant in their roles, the costumes glittered and gleamed, the dancing was skilled and singing spot on. In-between musical numbers various members of the cast engaged the audience with a good amount of camp comedy.

La Cage Aux Folles was so good, I would definitely and happily see it again. If you’ve never seen La Cage Aux Folles, you should go and see it. You’d love it.

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La Cage Aux Folles – No photos were allowed during the show.

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Despicable Me 3 – Hilarious and laugh-out-loud.

 On Sunday Steve and I went to see Despicable Me 3. Here is what it’s about:

The team who brought you Despicable Me and the biggest animated hits of 2013 and 2015, Despicable Me 2 and Minions, returns to continue the adventures of Gru, Lucy, their adorable daughters—Margo, Edith and Agnes—and the Minions. Despicable Me 3, directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, co-directed by Eric Guillon, and written by Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio, will be released in cinemas in summer 2017.

Joining Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig in Despicable Me 3 is Emmy, Tony and Grammy Award winner Trey Parker, co-creator of Comedy Central’s global phenomenon South Park and the Broadway smash The Book of Mormon. Parker voices the role of villain Balthazar Bratt, a former child star who’s grown up to become obsessed with the character he played in the ‘80s, and proves to be Gru’s most formidable nemesis to date.

From: Despicable Me 3 – About, Last accessed: Thursday 13th July 2017.

Steve and I enjoyed the film. Gru’s twin brother, Dru, was endearing. Obsessed with the 80s Balthazar Bratt brought back memories of my childhood. The film has loads of hilarious scenes, the audience laughed-out-loud several times at our showing. And of course it has the loveable minions, which no Despicable Me film would be complete without.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Thursday 13 July 2017

A Night of Improv Laughter – Nina Conti, In Your Face Live at The Lowry, Salford Quays

By Gigs & Shows, Happiness & JoyNo Comments
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Nina Conti Live Ticket

 Comedian Ventriloquist Nina Conti has recently embarked on her first fully improvised tour, entitled In Your Face. No script what so ever. For any performer this is brave and no doubt requires a lot of courage.

It also means that each show in the tour is a totally unique experience. Simon and I went to see her at The Lowry, Salford Quays. Nina did exceptionally well and had the audience laughing aloud often.

Manchester audiences are notoriously difficult on an audience participation front, generally having the attitude that they’ve paid for the ticket now want to be passively entertained. Audience participation is an essential component of all of Nina’s performances and she demonstrated her skill at engaging audiences by engaging and involving the audience from the off.

Nina’s longstanding puppet Monkey was the only puppet to come on to the stage with Nina. Monkey says what he thinks, which makes him and Nina hilarious. At one point, he even put Nina in a bag on stage, so that he could talk to the audience alone.

I missed Nina’s Daughter and Inner Child, mainly because of the ‘My Face Hurts When I Play Guitar’ song. But I wasn’t to be disappointed as Monkey did a rendition. Simon missed Gran, I think it was just because of her perky attitude. These puppets, along with others that Nina has used in the past were replaced with more face mask/moving mouth puppets for audience members.

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Nina Conti Live at The Lowry, Salford.
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Nina Conti Live: The Set.

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Jumper Puppet, Me and Simon during the interval.

 What I loved about the show, was that even Nina herself didn’t know what direction the show would go in at times. It was an evening of fun, good humour and childlike play. I loved the childlike play and I think it something we all need more of in our lives. So Thank you, Nina for allowing us an evening of playfulness.

Simon and I were both inspired by the first half of the show, that during the interval Simon created a puppet using my jumper. This resulted in even more laughs.

Nina missed an opportunity, by having no merchandise being available to buy before, during or after the show. I would have liked to have bought a mug.

Unfortunately Nina’s tour is limited and in most places she is only doing one date. But if you’ve missed her this time round, make sure you catch her next time round. You can find information around Nina’s live dates here.

Blog soon,

Antony



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Monday 5 October 2015

DVD Review: Nina Conti – Dolly Mixtures Live

By Amazon, Happiness & Joy, Reviews, TV, Online Streaming & FilmsNo Comments
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Nina Conti DVD and Treats

 Last week was a tough week. I needed cheering up, so head to my local supermarket and bought Nina Conti’s live show – Dolly Mixtures, along with some popcorn and a multipack of Curly Wurly’s.

Superb Ventriloquist Nina Conti presents her live show Dolly Mixtures on DVD, filmed in Leeds. The hilarious comedy show is a laugh-a-second and cheered me up no end. It’s part scripted and part improv, with Nina making herself the butt of many of her own jokes.

Nina starts the show with her long-standing puppet Monkey. Monkey presents a lateral thinking puzzle:
A crowd is covered in strange lumps of foam, on the floor empty suitcases, an old mans clothes and a paint brush. What happened?

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Click to Buy on Amazon

 Then Nina introduces her six new puppets:
  • Nina’s Daughter and Inner Child who sings ‘My Face Hurts When I Play Guitar.’
  • Killer the Camp Dog who tells his story of how he raided Claire’s Accessories during the riots.
  • Stefan the Builder who is a step-in puppet that requires some audience participation.
  • Granny the Clairvoyant who shows off her clairvoyance.
  • The Human Puppets with Talking Mouths, which leads to more audience participation.
  • Granddad John the Painter who leads to a bizarre but extremely funny show’s ending.

Throughout the show, there’s plenty of good natured audience participation with the themes being: good fun & humour.

Nina is fantastically funny and by the end of the show my sides hurt because I’d laughed so much. The show ends by showing the lateral thinking puzzle, that even God couldn’t solve! LOL.

I’ve watched Nina Conti’s live show – Dolly Mixtures several times since I bought it and never failed to lose myself in laughter. If I star rated DVDs, it would be five out of five star.

Here’s a clip from Nina Conti’s live show – Dolly Mixtures:

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Review soon,

Antony



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Thursday 11 December 2014

Barry Humphries: The Eat, Pray and Laugh Farewell Tour

By Gay, Gigs & ShowsNo Comments
dame-edna-march-2014 Recently, my good friend Sye and I went to see a matinee performance of Barry Humphries’ Eat, Pray and Laugh show at the Opera House in Manchester.

The show kicked off with Les Patterson, Humphries’ outrageous politician character and the belly chuckles were immediate. In the Les Get Cooking sketch, Les reveals his four assistants, come dancers and backup vocals. Two gorgeous men (the other two were women) came onto the stage in tight yellow t-shirts and equally tight denim shorts and I have to admit they distracted me at times. It was a great sketch with Les and Gerard (his brother) creating continuous laughter among the audience.

Below are some photos before the show started:

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Me outside the Opera House, Manchester.
The red curtain.
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Pre-show drinks.
Opening set.

The next sketch introduced the character Sandy Stone. This was probably my favourite sketch. Sandy is an old man that reflects on his life in a touching and sentimental way; yet comedy and good humour were used to pitch the sketch perfectly to the auidence. This sketch was theatre at its best and brought us to the interval.

Dame Edna was on top form as she performed for the second half of the show. Laughter echoed through the audience as she arrived on the back of a jewelled elephant, before falling off onto the stage. Dame Edna was her usual warm, funny and engaging self which was a pleasure to watch. She left the audience feeling entertained and uplifted.

Throughout the show there was lots of audience participation and improvisation. Humphries’ demonstrated his extensive theatre expertise; no doubt gained through decades of experience.

The show came to an end far too quickly, with Humphries coming out as himself at the end to thunderous applause. Here are some photos from the end of the show:

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Audience with Gladiolus.
Audience with Gladiolus 2.
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Before the final bow.
A wave goodbye.
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Closing video montage.

Normally, I’d recommend that you buy tickets to see this superb show. However the tour is coming to an end in the UK. But if you can manage to get hold of tickets, grab them and go. You won’t regret it.

Blog soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Saturday 8 March 2014
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