Adventures in Soho Part 1, Me & Mrs JoJos

A Horny Punter

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Soho isn't my usual haunt.
Not by any stretch of the imagination.

But - for some strange reason - since returning home from San Francisco - I have found myself in London's Centre of Seediness three times in as many weeks!

"But why? WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?!"

I hear you cry.

Well for the first jaunt to the ho of so you may have two clues....

Clue 1 - The picture to your left...

Clue 2 - If you remember way back when I was telling you about the best conversation I ever had... There was a sentence that went a little something like this:

"Yeah man, I know. Then I've got my show on the Sunday at Madam Jo Jos!"

"Well 'my show' was in fact not my show at all. More like Lisa Devaney's Show. Actually. To be completely correct it was:

"Lisa Devaney's Hee-Haw Whore House!"

How did I get involved? Funny story. AGES ago (and I mean AGES - like August last year) I got Blogtagged by my dear friend Helen Keegan. Which basically meant I had to write up eight random things about me. 

Did that. Job done. Sorted.

Well, in March this year I get a call from one of a mutual friend, (Lisa), saying:

"James! I remember what you said in your blog post! Ya wanna be in my show!?"

"Err... Yeah! OK!"

At this point I remembered - item number five: "I studied at Drama School" - Bugger. All makes sense now!
Note - when writing blog posts, remember that ANYONE CAN READ THEM! ;)

"Oh and by the way James, I need a Burlesque Dancer too... You don't know any do you?"

"Err... Funny you should say that, my girlfriend is a burlesque dancer - I'm sure she'd love to get involved..."

"FANTASTIC! I'll in be touch!"

Anywhoo, not soon after committing to this project, I discover that SpinVox need me in Las Vegas.
CTIA to be precise. I've been over this.

But what I haven't been over is that when I landed back in Blighty on the Saturday afternoon I actually went STRAIGHT to rehearsals (suitcase an' all!), worked for the afternoon, then went home, slept all night and all day and THEN went to Madam JoJo's to perform (with some fantastic co-stars) The Hee Haw Whore House!
(and we were on first too dammit)

Gavin Chapman - The Office Party

Hand on heart I didn't publicise it as well as I could.

For a bunch of reasons really -
First and foremost I hadn't been on the stage in over a year. Not that I was nervous (LIES) but I was just a bit anxious you see..

The last play I did was a Tacit Theatre Company production of 'The Office Party.'

That's me over there, in character --------->

Playing 'Gavin Chapman, MD of 'Chapman & Howard'

Anywhoo - yeah - that was back in February 2007 so I  hadn't done any real performing for AGES.

Plus, given the time constraints that we had, (what with me soddin' off to Vegas and everything), we barely had time for two decent rehearsals...
TWO I TELL YOU. TWO!

So yeah. Anxious would be understating it.

All of that crap aside - I can't tell you what a resounding success the night was. In all seriousness I doubt it could've been ANY better. We were up first and we gave the crowd such a riot it really helped warm the place up for every act that followed..  When I first trailed this post I said:

"I was in a cabaret show the other day. Must blog it."

And I had every intention of doing a blog post on the events of the entire evening of performance etc... BUT!
I was beaten to it.

Lisa Devaney not only did a fantastic job of writing the piece, but she also did a fantastic job of reviewing it too!

I strongly recommend you go and have a read.. if only to look at the pictures ;)

See you back here real soon for Spending Time in Soho - Part 2.