Bo Nanafana's Office Christmas Party
Shall I begin by talking about the stationary cupboard incident? Or the beaming faces all around me? I've never seen so many smiles in one place. This was my first time to a Bo Nanafana Social Club event, and the theme for this particular event was Office Christmas Party. Held at The Talk on Oak Street, the venue offered two good-sized rooms for the entertainment and, and I’m delighted to say, the acts lived up to my high expectations.
I dressed 1950s Mad Men-stylie, and I wasn’t the only one, but there were plenty of other ideas in there too including a cleaner, secretaries, even a Christmas tree – the woman did look very striking in a green dress decorated with fairy lights. We arrived about an hour and a half into the event to catch the charismatic and funny Fancy Chance performing a cabaret/burlesque act. Dressed like an office worker with toilet paper protruding from her underwear she molested a co-worker before striping down to her underwear. There’s always one, right?
Sister Cookie and The Cutters then took to the stage. Sister Cookie’s rich, soulful voice and flamboyant character filled the main room with warmth. The band played rhythm ‘n’ blues and jazz tunes including some of her own including You’re Bad for Me (But I’m Worse for You) and covers including You’re No Good and a cool version of Summertime. Turns out she also performs at one of my favourite London haunts, The Boogaloo, so I look forward to catching her again.
DJ Thyroid & Vincent1000 – aka the Freak Brothers - played a brilliant selection of '70s through '90s disco hits such as Dolly Parton's Nine to Five, and Prodigy's Out of Space between the other acts which got everyone up and dancing. The night was turning out to be a huge amount of fun and totally lacking in pretensions. Everyone was cutting loose and dancing in their own individual fashion, and suddenly who was back on stage but Fancy Chance with a unique tribute to Prince…and the crowds went crazy.
I was keen to stay until the finale at 2am, but driving lessons the following day required me to be sensible. We did, however, stay long enough to catch The Gents performing a Cockney knees-up on an old Joanna, to 21st century songs such as Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse Of The Heart and Erasure’s A Little Respect. Kristian and JJ also like to pull the punters on stage for a sing-a-long and once the kazoos were handed out, the party went wild. The knees-up signaled the end to my night, but I left a happy bunch of people in my wake.
So, back to the stationary cupboard… I don’t know how I ended up in there, or even who the other people in the room with me were, but it was a nice idea that added another touch of the theatrical to an already fun night.
See more Caught Out photos from the night in January's Outline!
