“Speakeasy Open Mic Night: Make Mine a Double” Highlights – A Review of Two Parts

Date: -
Location: - The Hubs, Pod A

The Speakeasy, Hallam Union’s monthly spoken word open mic night, saw a change this February and doubled up! Encouraging double acts onto the stage, the proceedings saw a night of twofold the usual amount of creativity. Here are just a few of the 
highlights.

ACT 1
            After the lights dimmed and the show started at 7:30, the night opened with Father Thomson and Sister Ralphs: a cross-dressing couple of religious characters bearing musical instruments. They proceeded to treat us to a nonsensical jolly ditty about “My Lovely Horse”. Quite mad, but that’s what we’ve come to love and expect from the Speakeasy.

Following shortly after them were the Venns, a pair of pub quiz enthusiasts who added a refreshing dose of humour to their accumulated quiz-based statistics. Though the reading and explanation of streams of data may sound ultimately boring, these two had us chuckling throughout.
Sometime after this came Noel and Tasha, a father and daughter act reading a pair of interweaving poems, “Middle-Aged Angst” and “Teenage Angst” (I’ll leave you to guess which one read which). A very moving yet light-hearted act.
Al and Denise provided another thoughtful performance with two poetic duets: “When John Keats Met the Arctic Monkeys” (a surprisingly romantic reading) and “Stupid Woman/Selfish Man”. For this second poem the married couple introduced a pink heart balloon prop and a bucket-load of resentment (feigned, I hope).
ACT 2
            As soon as the bar rush had died down, we were treated to an inspired performance from poetry-legend-in-residence John Turner, in the style of the 1960s cult TV show “The Prisoner”. Having dodged a certain dreaded ball prop, he read out a very rousing poem concerning the freedom of the individual man.
An act later saw Gary and Maria, the Speakeasy’s favourite betrothed creative duo, take to the stage with a guitar and two rather mellow pensive songs. The words and the rhythm almost smothered the dreaded clanging of the percussive teapot of doom (a semi-regular tool used to prevent acts from surpassing their five-minute slot).
After this came the penultimate act of the night, Bunty and Bodkins: ‘Sheffield’s tallest twin dwarf variety act’. Having marched out to the sound of a tinny keyboard version of ‘Green Sleeves’, the comedy duo treated us to interrupted jokes, opening songs, second opening songs and even a safety announcement warning us against ‘pushing your nan whilst she’s shaving’. Surreal but nevertheless side-splittingly hilarious.
Then came the final act of the night: Sheffield’s own home-grown celebrity singers Fran and Nic (a.k.a. ‘The Twins’ from “Eurovision: Your Country Needs You”). The pair topped the evening off with the two original songs “Our Cloud” and “Disposable” and even a powerful rendition of “Shining Light” by Ash. The Twins were pitch-perfect and well received. It would not surprise me if we saw them again very soon.
            Attendance has been swiftly increasing over the past few months and the “Make Mine a Double” special saw it, ironically, almost double. The Speakeasy is proving itself to be even more of a must-see event for the spoken word in Sheffield this year. But don’t just take my word for it, come and see for yourself. I’ll save you a seat.
  
By O.TTuesday 22nd February 2011