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Afternoon, all!

Sorry again for the two week delay, but as a surprisingly sunny day draws to a close I have another blog for you all. You're pretty spoilt you know. Incidentally, I'm thinking of moving my regular update day to a Monday, as now that my youth work volunteering has come to an end I now have a proper day off, and I don't really have enough time to scrape together a decent post on Sunday's. Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? Favourite types of badgers? Apple? Let me know.

In any case, a little while ago I was lucky enough to go and see Avenue Q!

Now, just what do you do with a BA in English...?

Before I say anything, you should go and see Avenue Q for yourself if you haven't yet had the chance. Seriously. Go watch it. We'll continue when you're done. It's okay, we can wait.

For those that don't know, Avenue Q is a musical featuring puppets and actors living along a street called, oddly enough, Avenue Q, and follows the protagonists Princeton as he...oh, what? Yes, I said puppets. That's right, if you ever liked Sesame Street as a child and are old and jaded enough by the promises it brought you, you'll love Avenue Q. I think pretty much everyone else in the audience would agree with me, as I couldn't hear myself laughing over them. Easily one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.

The puppets are...um...puppeted? Played? I don't know the correct verb here...let's go with puppeteered. They are controlled and voiced by actors wearing dark clothing. Obviously it would be impossible to completely hide the actors while on stage, and if they were always behind a wall or something similar it would highly restrict the show. That said, the clothing does help them blend in somewhat, so that you can focus on the puppets, while the characters played by actors wear brightly coloured clothes, making them easily distinguishable from the puppeteers. Actually, the puppeteers often help to emphasise the actions of the puppets with their body language and movement, so all in all it works out for everyone. For instance, the woman portraying a character subtly named Lucy the Slut, upon exiting the stage with the puppet, performs a sultry walk that involves shaking her rather visually pleasing bottom. Which I definitely was not staring at. Just ask my girlfriend.

Now, I realise Avenue Q has been going in London for about five years now, and over in America for some time before that, but down here in the Arse-end-of-nowhere, Devon, it's only just arrived. Better late than never though, right?

In a nutshell, Avenue Q is a comedy that parodies Sesame Street very closely. But that's not to say it ruins your childhood so much so you break down outside the theatre in floods of tears, screaming at Big Bird for not warning you about the harsh realities of life.

Why didn't you tell me that loves hurts Elmo?! I just wanted us to be...friends...

As any good literary theorist knows, there's a paradox in that a parody cannot exist without the thing it's parodying. So let's all just have some fun and leave our childhood memories intact! Yay! That's not to say Avenue Q isn't spot on in it's teasting, however.

It very accurately points out, in true childish 'Street fashion, the way all our hopes and dreams are built up and we're encouraged to dream, without pointing out that life isn't quite as adventurous as a Hollywood movie. If you're lucky, it might be as good as a low budget B-Movie, in which case the apocalypse would at the very least be hilarious.

The plot follows a young lad named Princeton, fresh out of university with his BA in English (this sounds somewhat familiar...) and with very high hopes. Sadly these expectations are too high for the reality of his life and in his pursuit of his ultimate purpose he misses the little things, namely the affections and attentions of the lovely (if a little bit racist) Kate Monster. Luckily, by the end he experiences a revelation, finds what is important, and they live happily ever after. Hurray! Don't worry, obviously the irony is not lost and if anything is part of the ending. Just watch it and you'll see what I mean.

Avenue Q fantastically fuses adult themes into a model of childhood television, creating a unique experience that will have you in stitches (sorry, I couldn't resist! It had to be said!). You'll be falling apart at the seams from laughter (okay, I'm done now. Sorry again) and find yourself realising just how spot on these writers got it. And if I haven't convinced you yet, here's one of my favourite songs from the show.

So, in short, go and see it, defintiely worth the money.

That's all I have time for right now I'm afraid, but I hope this post was worth waiting a little extra for. I'm going to leave you with another video, this time a song linked to me be a good friend. It's of a Canterbury busker who has recently died under somewhat suspicious circumstances I'm told, which is an absolute shame because his voice, musical ability and lyrics are absolutely wonderful. Please give it a listen, and if you can, buy it from iTunes; all proceeds are to go towards his daughter.

See you next time guys, have a good one!
~ Toby