From Samba and African dance to hip-hop and break dancing Balé de Rua is a thrilling dance and music spectacular that has come to Barbican as part of an international tour. Following sell-out performances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year, the troop has collected an ever growing following of fans. The Brazillian dance group has produced shows inspired by 300 years of Brazilian history; from slavery to favelas, the dance moves its way through time and ends with a look at contemporary Brazil.  With capoeira, hip hop, break dancing, samba and Afro-Brazilian percussion Balé de Rua is an exhilarating take on the diversity and richness of Brazilian culture.

Cia de Dança Balé de Rua was created in 1992 by Fernando Narduchi, Marco Antônio Garcia and José Marciel Silva. They had already been collaborating in the working class districts of central Brazil’s Uberlândia for four years. They became an overnight sensation after they first played Europe at the Biennale de la Dance in Lyon in 2002; performances at the Barbican will be the company’s first visit to London.

Having toured worldwide, the dance company is still committed to its community dance programme back home in Uberlândia and has recently opened its own cultural centre, backed by the Brazilian Ministry of Culture.

So if you are interested in a great night out- book your tickets now at:  www.barbican.org.uk  

But hurry they are only at the Barbican Theatre from Thursday 21 - Sunday 31 May 2009 and tickets are selling out fast.

The controverisal American comic

Unadulterated, politically incorrect, blunt and downright hilarious, Chris Rock rocked the stage at Hammersmith Apollo and made no apologies.  The American comic kicked off his first UK tour in Hammersmith, which was unbelievably his first “official” visit to the UK and something that many of his fans across the Atlantic have been waiting to happen for a long time. After the controversy of his most recent visit to the Capital, at the Live Earth event which was broadcast live on the BBC. Before introducing the Red Hot Chili Peppers Rock called the crowd “motherfuckers“. Due to the broadcast being at 5:45pm, Chris was immediately cut off and the BBC were forced to make several apologies in direct response to the complaints made by a minority of viewers. However I doubt that those who complained about the use of his language would have been present at the show.

For nearly two hours, he ripped into celebrities, politicians, and generally ranted about his usual subject matters such as women, inter-rational couples, relationships, racism and politics. Some of his victims were Britney Spears, Hillary Clinton and George Bush. He particularly raved about the strength of the pound in comparison to the U.S dollar. “In America, I’m a millionaire, I come to the U.K and I’m just another broke-ass nigga”. Considering he was performing his stand-up routine in the London for the very first time, he was extremely confident his jokes would translate to the audience.

Unlike most comedians there were no erratic showbiz piss-take, as he employed his dual trademarks of racial and social observations into one 90 minute long narrative, he suggested that white children are protected quicker than black ones in the U.S. “just look at Whitney Houston’s kids, he says, or O.J’s”   

 The controversial comedian had everyone in stitches, raised issues that everyone else was too afraid to address. Most ironically, he spoke the truth. Perhaps what separates Rock from his peers is not the content of his jokes, or comedic his style, or even his notorious delivery, it is his alarmingly accurate analysis of American society and the world in general. 

In a set full of topical material, Rock began with the Democrat presidential primaries and found rich pickings. The upcoming U.S election was a subject matter he spoke of greatly; the potential face-off between a black man and a white woman, says Rock, is like a “suffering contest”. Which oppressed group most deserves a crack at the presidency?  

To Rock, as to countless comedians before him, men and women are diametrically opposed. Women are motivated by money and security, men by sex. “Fellas”, he says, “if you lose your job, you gonna lose your woman.”

 It is well known that Rock’s influences range from the likes of Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy and Woody Allen to name a few. Nevertheless, I do not think it is an overstatement to suggest that Rock may soon be remembered amongst Comedy’s all-time greats alongside those who inspired him from the beginning.  A man of many talents, the former Academy Awards host has also written a book, “Rock This”, and released two comedy albums and he was recently voted by “Comedy Central” as the fifth greatest stand-up comedian of all time. He also produces, writes, narrates and occasionally directs the TV comedy “Everybody Hates Chris” and was once voted the funniest person in America by Entertainment Weekly. 

Prior to the show, I anticipated a profanity-filled outburst on current affairs, “black” jokes, which are the stock in trade of many African-American comedians. Rock instead covered various topics such as politics, current affairs, celebrity-showbiz-news; he spoke of his past experience of being a young black boy from a working class family going to an all white School in “white-ass” suburbs in Brooklyn, New York.

After the show I was delighted that Rock shared his unique humor with us Brits. I knew of Rock’s talent previous to seeing the show at Hammersmith but I did not anticipate the substance of his content and the brilliance of his execution.

In the end, I felt privileged to watch a great comedian in his prime.

A great night out. 

Russell Paters is Canada’s biggest stand up export; he has been in the business for 20 years, and his current tour to celebrate his 20^th anniversary bought him to London’s o2 Arena.

Cheeky Comic

On Feburary  14th, I went to the much anticipated comedy gig of the year along with some friends, Russell Peters recently put his Valentines Day show at London’s O2 Arena on-sale, selling an unprecedented 10,000  tickets in one day.
I was surprised to hear that Russell Peters had sold out so quickly. After the show however, I understood why.

One of the traits I admired about Russell Peters performances was how much he improvised, anyone in his eye line was in for some serious mocking, he was incredibly witty focusing on issues such as racism, multiculturalism, stereotypes and most of all he spoke the truth, he made brash statements that most of us wouldn’t dare.  

His casual observational and satirical style meant everyone was in stitches, yet everyone could relate, although born in Canada, Russell Peters is of Indian descent, and of course had a great Asian following at the show. Peters displayed his great knowledge of stereotypes regarding Indians, Blacks, Chinese, Arabs, English, Irish and American, his impersonations and accents were amazingly spot on, he impersonated George Bush, an anonymous Indian actress, The King of Jordan, he was versatile and a delight to watch.

 One of the highlights for me was his improvisation, he asked people questions about where they were from, and had conversation which ended with the person in the audience being exposed on the two massive big screens at the Arena.  Russell combined old jokes with new, and some of his old material was still fresh and relevant today, he was vocal about current issues, politics, the difference between women and men, and spoke of interracial couples. A particular couple, a Jamaican man and a Persian woman were the targets of his jokes all night long.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show, and would recommend that people buy his latest DVD, “Red, White and Brown”.

In 2009, Russell will start his 20^th anniversary tour, which will feature not only his greatest hits ‘remixed’ and all new material. The 20^th anniversary tour will go across Canada, the US and the UK.  It’s a great feat for any professional to sustain a career in any field for 20 years but for a stand up comedian to precede for so long and not only remain successful but become bigger, it’s a credit to Russell Peter’s incredible sense of humor, delivery, style, content.  

I’ve become an even bigger fan of his since the show and I will be buying his DVD.

WARNING!!! THIS MAY CONTAIN CONTENT OF A DRAMATIC NATURE 

I’m not much of a food critic, I may be fussy when it comes to the minute details such as how much sauce is in a dish or how much oil lurks in a plate of chips or indeed how MANY chips are on a plate but I’m pretty laid back, little did I know a quiet evening out with old friends at Nandos would descend into utter chaos reminiscent of scenes of anarchy at the recent protests at the G20 summit in London.
I kid you not.
If I had a pound coin for every profane word which was yelled across between customer’s and staff alike, you’d think I was illustrating a scene from a south park episode entitled “Madness in Nandos - Kenny’s final death”

Before we embarked on what would be an embarrassingly eventful meal at the Portuguese joint. We walked into the cinema and had a quick browse of showing times for any movie, it was apparent that the hundreds of school kids were among us and seemingly had no interest in either eating out, watching a movie or playing pool or even playing any arcade games.  They were just there.

And with the benefit of hindsight, I realized perhaps they did have a purpose, it was to ruin as much peoples evening they could, and this is my account of my “Good Friday”…

I am self-confessed sauce addict and cannot tolerate lack of lettuce and salad in a burger or a meal, so when I recently went to Nandos with a few secondary school buddies in Park Royal, my jaw dropped when I received my plate.

It took me five seconds to count how many chips I’d been served and as a slowly lifted the lid of my burger (the suspense was immense) to my horror I was given two anorexic strings and strips of lettuce, a huge tomato which I specifically ordered against, an onion the size of my burger and no sign of peri peri. I was irritated as this was not the first time I’ve encountered stingy service at Nandos, I paid £7.90 for a meal which I could have compiled from the bins from the back.
Now I’m a reasonable person, I realize times are hard and that the economic crisis is affecting our lifestyles and I wasn’t too bothered when this “reunion” turned into a evening at Nandos, a couple games of pool in an arcade swarming with teenage hoodies and chavs who set out on intimidating anyone over the age of 21.

What irritates me is depriving customers of an extra handful of chips isn’t going to cut costs majorly nor is it going to break the bank. What it is going to do is put off customers or in my case force the customer to complain and request a bigger portion, which is going to affect costs as chefs often feel they have to over-compensate by super-sizing you.  I do sincerely suspect that the chefs are under strict instructions to go “easy” on side orders in order to skimp and save, particularly the ones that hail from the potato family.

I looked at the waitress and she came over without me having to signal, she looked embarrassed, I felt for her as she had not prepared the meal, I politely explained my fury at the mediocre quality and quantity of my food.  While the waitress whisked away my plate, I saw an emerging gang of youths enter the restaurant, the place was busy enough and looked low on staff. The teenagers didn’t appear to be searching for trouble but when they were refused entry, the atmosphere quickly turned nasty.

Soon there were shuffles, swearing and shoving between the youths who can’t have been too shocked at the snub by managers and staff, I could hear verbal threats being made galore. Then out of nowhere, the manager locked the door which left the four thugs in the restaurant refusing to leave and attempting to force the door open so there friends could join them for dinner. How thoughtful!
At this point, customers were restless and according to the manager and staff the police were on their way….

Fast forward 30 minutes later shall we.

Not only have I not received my plate of food back, but my mate’s orders were wrong, not to mention the fact people weren’t being allowed to leave the restaurant until the “authorities” arrived. It was tense, customers were fuming, and our table in particular was badly treated by staff whom ignored our requests over and over.

To the climax….

About 10 minutes of madness ensued when a middle aged man with a group of friends shouted at the boys who were wreaking havoc by eating olives, messing around with the ice-cream machine and helping themselves to drinks, staff intervened and things got physical between the youths and the staff who seemed to abandon every other customer in the restaurant. 

One particular staff member challenged one of the boys to the ground as he headed for the toilets and he was then attacked by the boys, who then waved a knife in the air and threatened to use it if his friends weren’t allowed to leave the restaurant
Meanwhile a crowd was growing outside as friends of the hoodies who witnessed the scuffle banged on the door and screamed coarse language at the staff, some of it racist as words like “paki” and “terrorist” were exchanged.

The manager obliged, unlocked the door and received a punch in the face for his troubles, as the teens fled the scene, the manager then locked the door again which caused rage amongst customers who wanted to leave. Some staff claimed desserts weren’t paid for but they didn’t seem to be able to account for which table owed money. That same middle aged man was shouting again, this time he was menacing as the youths who’d started the whole drama. “Were late for our fucking movie mate, open the fucking door!”

The police then arrived.  (Typical) even though almost 45 minutes late, they assessed the area, couldn’t find the hoodies and took descriptions of the offenders, took statements etc.

ALL the while, I’m starving my ass off, I find myself demanding a refund as does the rest of my table, luckily for the waiter, he complied and apologised for the hassle.
God forbid if I was refused a refund, might have found myself kipping in the slammer because that had to be the worst customer service I’ve ever encountered.
Hungry, impatient, tired and pissed off, our meal out was ruined, in the end we settled for some pizza from Pizza Hut where no hoodies where to be seen.

It was an unpredictable scenario, quite a scary evening at times and luckily no-one was hurt but I would definitely avoid leisure park complexes like those on a school holiday, which unfortunately attracts a youthful and troublesome crowd, I suppose it depends on your area.

Back to Nandos…I am a huge fan, love the food but I do feel more often than not their portions are a tad miniature especially with side dishes and its something that ruins the Nandos experience.

To my fellow Nando-lovers…Bon Preveito!