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No wonder Britain's Bingo-ing mad!...
review
The stage lights go up. Enter a hunched-up elderly lady, shuffling across the stage. "Doin' the Lambeth walk", sang the quirky music hall character, with a glint in her eye. Unashamedly the audience responds with a resounding "Oi!".
Ida Barr welcomes the gathered crowd and demands quiet before she'll continue. Immediately, silence falls across the tent and Ida delights us with her eccentric observations on modern life and talk of how things used to be better.
"Kippers", she quips, "a great food if you're on a low income. You can taste 'em all day long and they even come with a free knob of butter!" She doesn't leave it there though. "Not the most hygienic unit of measurement for food... and variable, so I've heard".
Ida tells us how she combines old music hall tradition with the more modern urban RnB. We were even treated to a rendition of her take on Missy Elliott's Get your freak on... To see such an old-fashioned character perform something so modern was superb. And the Spiegeltent is perfectly suited to such a performance. This beautiful, antiquated tent has walls and pillars adorned with wooden panels and mirrors, with rickety seating through the middle and cosy booths around the edge.
Ida muses with us some more - "If you don't use you're culture, you lose your culture. I'nit?" - before beginning to explain how the bingo was going to work. "Any foreigners in?", Ida ponders. "You're probably wondering what all the fuss is about. It's all random, Bingo. But settle down, and there's a slender chance you might have a nice time."
As the pound-shop prizes were exhibited, you could sense the excitement at the prospect of winning a pack of 125 white envelopes, two pairs of heavy-duty rubber gloves, a four-way adapter or perhaps even the much coveted 12-melody door chime.
In round one, it was eyes down for a line across. Balls, chosen by the mighty Bingo-matic, were announced with Ida's own patented calls alongside the numbers. All relevant to her life, or that of those close to her, the calls ranged from the year of my first hip replacement (70) to prostate (78). Rounds two and three could only be won by those who'd been paying close attention, as Ms Barr gave the calls alone... a desperate audience did their best to recall which number each event represented and it was eyes down for a full house.
Sadly, it was all over before I'd even got a complete line. The winners clearly chuffed with their prizes, there was just time for a rousing enactment of the hokey cokey before we left - all made to join in. Now that's what I call proper Sunday afternoon entertainment!
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snapped!
Click the VIP's name to see where we caught'em!
 Loveman
Wilma
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about Brighton Festival Fringe
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Brighton's ever-expanding Fringe Festival is fast becoming one of the biggest cultural festivals in the UK, rivalling even Edinburgh for its cultural diversity and the sheer volume of quality events on offer. Click for more info and complete listings for Brighton Festival Fringe 
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