Jerry Springer - The Opera: What a Dog!

Last night, Natalie and I went to see 'Jerry Springer - The Opera'. After hearing some good things around town, I wanted to see it. Natalie and I got some tickets at the very good price of £10 each.

So we went to Jerry, quite excited by the prospect of being entertained by a satirical comedy on American culture.

Instead, what we got was a talented cast struggling with a show with no plot and little to recommend it. The writing appears to be that of a couple of frat boys who got severely drunk one night at a party and wrote down a series of incongruous ideas at four in the morning.

The First Act is entirely made up of a mockery of an episode of the Jerry Springer Show. Now, if they had simply played a film of a normal episode from the real TV show it would have been more entertaining than the hour of tripe we had to put up with.

The first segment consisted of a man who had cheated on his fiancee admitting to his fiancee and lover that he had cheated on them both with a tranvestite lover. This is not entirely out of the realm of the real show. What was missing was any connection between the characters and the audience. The second segment consisted of a man who wanted to be a baby and have his girlfriend be his mother.

By the time we get to the woman who wants to be a pole dancer I was starting to wonder where it would end. Her boyfriend who frequents such clubs does not want her to be a dancer, but it also turns out that he is a member of the KKK. So then we have a group of dressed KKK members do a tap routine. Why? Ask the writer!

A couple of reviewers have suggested that this dance is reminiscient of 'Springtime for Hitler' in the Producers. Hardly! Where Mel Brooks weaves a grossly satirical masterpiece such as Springtime into his storyline, the tapdance in 'Jerry' comes out of nothing more than a need for a big finish before Interval.

Act One is put to rest with Jerry Springer being shot dead by the Man baby. Where did he get a gun? Why did he have it? Who was he planning to shoot? Again, ask the writer, none of it makes sense!

Natalie and I went outside for some fresh air at interval. This allowed us to discuss what we had seen and read some of the reviews outside the show. The consensus of the reviews is that Act Two falls into a heap and is inferior to Act One. Natalie and I cannot vouch for these comments as reading them was enough to persuade us that we had seen enough. I haven't walked out on a show before. Heck, I didn't walk out of 'Starship Troopers' when I saw it at the cinema, and that was a bad movie, but at least it had something resembling a plot!

'Jerry' tries to be funny. There are some satirical knocks at American Society, but the audience was struggling to find anything to laugh at - and Saturday nights, we were told, have a good vibe to them.

Also annoying was the excessive use of expletives and the like. Where artistic works such as films and theatrical pieces use expletives in context - a scene in Billy Bob Thornton's 'Slingblade' immediately comes to mind - they can have a valauble effect in describing a character or adding to the emotion of a scene. But the way 'Jerry' is written, expletives are used in strange places and for their own ends. Frequently it seems that the writer realises that there hasn't been a "f**k" spoken in 20 seconds and so one, two or more are immediately added. Why?

The close of 'Jerry Springer - The Opera' on February 19 will be a welcome one! One out of five!

Christmas dinner (I thought I should post at least one photo) 

Natalie's Adventures

Well, as Peter has been away in Australia enjoying the lovely summer weather, I have been busy here with uni work. The dominant feature of my last 2 weeks has been the collection of data for my dissertation. I set myself the task of examining supermarket pricing here in London, and then headed off to get a reasonable sample of data to work with.

I created a bundle of about 200 items, and then set to work collecting prices on these items at supermarkets across London. It has been a mammoth job. But I've got to see a fair bit of London, which has been really interesting. So far I have visited about 75 stores. I still have about 20-25 to go, though, but hopefully I will be done by early next week.

Then, of course, begins the fun part: entering the data!!! We'll see how I go.

So I have been missing Peter immensely, but this job (and uni classes, of course) has been keeping me very busy during the day.

But I am very much looking forward to Peter coming back and to hearing all his news.

Our Friends' Blog

Our good friends, Laura and Nick, who also live in Goodenough College, have their own blog detailing their own adventures in London, BTs in London.

Coming home

Yes folks, I'm heading home this evening after a little more than four months here. I will be away from my darling wife for three weeks, which wont be a lot of fun in and of itself, but I will enjoy catching up with my many family and friends and celebrating the marriages of Jono and Sarah, and Adam and Gina.

I had wanted to get out and see a bit more of London before I left, and the weather has been perfect for it, however I have come down with a stomach virus which saw me celebrating the new year with my own form of pyrotechnics. I did get in a little bit of New Years Eve partying before I took ill and Natalie will be posting pictures soon. While most of the symptoms have since passed, I still nasty bouts of nausea which should make the long plane ride home just that bit more pleasant. Let's hope for very little turbulence!

My flight arrives in Sydney just after 7am Wednesday morning, so I will be on my Aussie mobile phone sometime shortly thereafter.