Divine distractions

By Mark Powell

As promised on Friday, I dropped in to take a look around Matt&Phreds last night, as Manchester's bi-monthly

Carnival Divine burlesque night enjoyed its first session at it new home.

A roaring success it was too: with over 150 grinning punters packing the venue pretty much to capacity and the rain bucketing down outside, the atmosphere inside was steamy in a more literal sense than anyone might've predicted. Anyway, you can hit the link above to check out the event's MySpace page, so I won't bother going into too much detail about the individual acts themselves here - suffice to say we were entertained by a roster of feisty females (the majority of whom boasted such Bond she-villain names as Misty Lux, Scarlett Daggers and Fanny Divine) doing a variety of wildly diverse routines, a somewhat-edgier-than-usual puppet show, and a contortionist-escapologist (Chris Chross) dislocating his shoulders for pleasure and profit.

But what most impressed me about the night was the atmosphere. It was an absolute riot in there - everywhere you looked, you saw glad rags and grinning faces (the majority of the latter generally cramming down delicious Matt&Phreds pizzas, or sipping on a boozy tipple of some description).

There was an excellent mix of ages, genders and styles in evidence too - as someone pointed out to me at the end of the night, burlesque nights actually have a tendency to be incredibly well attended by female guests, leaving males a bit thin on the ground (not the way you'd think it'd work, but it's true). Last night was a triumph in every sense, and we'll certainly be back for the next one on Sep 7. Tickets on sale now.

review source : metro.co.uk