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Hardeep Singh Kohli 2010 Uk Tour

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Hardeep Singh Kohli promotional poster Photo - Scotland, United Kingdom

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Hardeep Singh Kohli is perhaps best known for his role as a reporter on the BBC TV's The One Show but he has also presented children's shows, writes regularly for Scotland on Sunday newspaper, has written a book and was runner up on the first series of Celebrity Masterchef. I had no idea what to expect from his live show, in truth I only bought the tickets as they were on offer for £5 as part of a promotion to get people into our local theatres!The Nearly Naked Chef Tour 2010 runs during 2010 at various UK venues, I saw the show at the Rothes Halls in Glenrothes. It is a show that combines cookery, chat and comedy in a format that seems unique. We had front row tickets and when we arrive...Read More

Hardeep Singh Kohli is perhaps best known for his role as a reporter on the BBC TV's The One Show but he has also presented children's shows, writes regularly for Scotland on Sunday newspaper, has written a book and was runner up on the first series of Celebrity Masterchef. I had no idea what to expect from his live show, in truth I only bought the tickets as they were on offer for £5 as part of a promotion to get people into our local theatres!

The Nearly Naked Chef Tour 2010 runs during 2010 at various UK venues, I saw the show at the Rothes Halls in Glenrothes. It is a show that combines cookery, chat and comedy in a format that seems unique. We had front row tickets and when we arrived the stage was already set up for the show to begin, the set comprised of a cooking area with a table for preparation and a halogen stove with a camera projecting a close up of these areas onto a projector screen. There were also shelves of ingredients set up to make the stage look more like a kitchen.

When Hardeep came out it was interesting to see his costume, as usual he had a brightly coloured turban on but he was also wearing a T-shirt with "Up Yer Kilt" and a hand giving a V sign on it coupled with a blue kilt, sports socks and manky old trainers. A man in a kilt is normally a glorious sight but I thought that he could have made more of an effort, the kilt and t-shirt were un-ironed and had seen better days as had the trainers. I've got a feeling that this was the look he was trying to achieve but really it was not a good look, maybe he could have got his mammy to iron his clothes for him!

The show got underway and it was clear that Kohli had asked for suggestions from the audience about what he should cook. The first course ended up being a mango salad made with bean sprouts, fish sauce and various other ingredients. The cooking was accompanied with talk about Hardeep's experiences on Celebrity Master Chef which was interesting but involved a lot of name dropping, we all knew he was famous before he went on stage but talking about his ex assistant Joules or how he played poker with Jamie Oliver just sounded like he was showing off! After the dish was cooked then it was plated up and bowls passed into the audience to try some, I managed to get a taste and despite an incident with the fish sauce it was really good if very salty.

After the break it was time to cook a chicken curry and basmati rice. Now I love a curry and it was good to get some tips from a pro on how to cook a good one. The hall was filled with delicious smells as Hardeep talked about his Glasgow childhood and how he fell in love with food. It was hilarious hearing about how he and his cousin started an Indian restaurant in Glasgow in their late teens and how it fell flat on its face. This was the part of the show that was most enjoyable, very funny and Hardeep came across as very down to earth and likeable.

The great East/West divide was covered; now those reading might think that as an Asian Scot that Hardeep would talk about the divined between India and Scotland but the divide is one far closer to home namely the great Glasgow/ Edinburgh debate! As usual food was the topic of the evening with the great Scot's delicacy, the deep fried pizza up for discussion. Again, the cultural divide in the room was apparent when all those who loved the dish being Scots (including Hardeep) and my English born friend who accompanied us had never even tried one. Us Scots can batter and deep fry anything, well, we didn't get the reputation of the heart attack capital of Europe for nothing! Other items up for discussion included neds, racism and Edinburgh's snobbery, the humour was very Scottish and I wonder how it will go down when the show hits England and whether Sassenachs will appreciate it or not.

There was loads of banter between Hardeep and the audience during the show, there was one nutter in particular who just couldn't keep her big gob shut! Hardeep says he likes going out into the theatres so he can meet and talk to people and there was great warmth between him and the audience. After the show he signed copies of his book "Indian Takeaway" and of course my daughter insisted we bought one. Hardeep was also happy to pose for pictures and have a chat with the audience, he asked my daughter to follow him on twitter and leave him a message which she did and he left her a really nice response too. I'm looking forward to reading the book; I have enjoyed the articles written by Kohli in Scotland on Sunday newspaper and I'm looking forward to hearing more about his Glasgow childhood.

I really enjoyed the Nearly Naked Chef show, Hardeep Singh Kohli comes across as a proud Scot and a very warm and likeable guy with an infectious enthusiasm for life and I can forgive the odd bit of name dropping. The show was an odd mix of cooking and comedy but it was a combination that worked really well to give a really entertaining and amusing show.

For more information and tour dates for the Nearly Naked Chef Tour 2010 see
http://www.hardeepsinghkohli.co.uk/site/?page_id= 3 Read Less

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Big Kid Circus, UK

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Big Kid Circus visited my town a couple of weeks ago and we were lucky enough to get free tickets if we bought a programme so four of us went along to watch the show. There were four of us in my party, two adults and two kids aged 11 and 4. When the act started I thought I was in the wrong place. Angel who looks like an Ice Queen and little Billy, the youngest performer aged just eight, came out and made a strange speech about wanting to save the world and making all the children happy. I wasn't sure if this was a pantomime or some preachy environmental show at this point but it certainly didn't seem like a circus! Billy had three wishes and revealed that the first that all children would ...Read More

Big Kid Circus visited my town a couple of weeks ago and we were lucky enough to get free tickets if we bought a programme so four of us went along to watch the show. There were four of us in my party, two adults and two kids aged 11 and 4.

When the act started I thought I was in the wrong place. Angel who looks like an Ice Queen and little Billy, the youngest performer aged just eight, came out and made a strange speech about wanting to save the world and making all the children happy. I wasn't sure if this was a pantomime or some preachy environmental show at this point but it certainly didn't seem like a circus! Billy had three wishes and revealed that the first that all children would be happy, luckily for little Billy the circus was about to start to make one of his dreams come true.

The clowns then came out and I knew I was in the right place. As far as clowns go they weren't particularly funny but the kids giggled along at the slapstick humour. The clown also did some pretty poor juggling, even I can juggle three oranges and I’ve not spent my life practicing.

Then on to the main acts. All of the usual suspects were there including a trampoline act, a hula hooper, a trapeze and some dancing. The first act which really caught my eye was called "Hair Raising" which was performed by Bulgarian Nadia Ganeva. She was twirled round wearing a butterfly costume suspended by her hair. Ouch! My eyes were watering watching that.

The second great act was the wheel of death. Two performers spun around in cages joined by a huge pole and then performed various feats such as walking on top of the cages blindfold. We were on the edge of our seats watching that act.

At the interval, little Billy and Angel made an appearance again. Billy had another wish, this time that all the children would be fed. Luckily there was a concessions stand where the children present could buy popcorn, candy floss and dodgy looking burgers at inflated prices. Phew, no child present that day needed to starve, what a relief.

We also took the opportunity to get the kids photo taken with Spiderman for £3, receiving a digital print with red eye at the end of the show.

My overall impression of the circus is fairly positive. It is certainly not the best circus I have ever visited but not the worst either. As an adult I wasn't wowed by any of the acts but it was nice to see a live performance for a change. The kids loved it, especially the four year old.

Going to the circus isn't cheap. An adult ticket costing between £11 and £23 and a kids between £9 and £20 so for a family it is an expensive couple of hours entertainment. We were in the cheap seats at the side and the performers played to the front only so it is definitely worth paying extra to upgrade if you visit. An added bonus if you buy the most expensive grandstand seats is that the audience participation is centred around that area, conversely, you can avoid these seats if you don’t want to be hauled into the ring, made to perform and given a lollipop for your trouble.

Would I recommend? I'm not sure. The circus generally only visits each town once every couple of years so it's a nice treat to go along. It’s a performance that will wow the kids but not the adults and it makes a nice change to see live acts so it is probably worth it to let your kids experience what the circus has to offer.

Big Kid Circus is a UK based production that tours different towns and cities, for more information about the tour dates go to http://www.bigkidcircus.com/
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Alhambra Theatre

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Attraction | "A Night At The Movies"

Alhambra Photo - Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline, Scotland

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The Alhambra theatre first opened in Dunfermline in 1922 and due to financial problems staging live shows became The Temple Of Motion Pictures in 1924. It ended up closing down in 1965 was turned into a bingo hall. A couple of years ago the bingo hall moved to Dunfermline’s eastern expansion and the building became vacant. A property developer and theatre manager saw the potential in the place and decided to restore it to its former glory. The Alhambra reopened in 2008 and Dunfermline favorites Nazareth were the first act to play in the venue again. The line up so far has included KT Tunstall, Roy Chubby Brown and One Night Of Queen. I had heard loads of stories fro...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on October 10, 2009

Alhambra Theatre
33 Canmore Street
Dunfermline, Scotland KY12 7NX
+44 1383 722554

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A Technicolor Evening

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Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice which retells the biblical story of Joseph via the medium of song and dance. I saw Joseph in May 2010 at the Alhambra theatre in Dunfermline and the show tours around various UK venues. To be honest I had no idea what the show was about before I went along having received a pair of tickets for my birthday so I will give a brief plot synopsis for those who do not know the story.Joseph is one of Jacob’s 12 sons and being the youngest he is the favourite and is presented with a special coat of many colours by his old dad. The brothers are not too happy that Joseph is the favourite and plot to get ri...Read More

Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice which retells the biblical story of Joseph via the medium of song and dance. I saw Joseph in May 2010 at the Alhambra theatre in Dunfermline and the show tours around various UK venues. To be honest I had no idea what the show was about before I went along having received a pair of tickets for my birthday so I will give a brief plot synopsis for those who do not know the story.

Joseph is one of Jacob’s 12 sons and being the youngest he is the favourite and is presented with a special coat of many colours by his old dad. The brothers are not too happy that Joseph is the favourite and plot to get rid of him and sell him as a slave to passing Egyptians telling their broken hearted father that he was killed by a wild animal with the blood stained coat being the proof of his demise. Joseph had always had prophetic dreams and a talent for interpreting the dreams of others which is eventually noticed by the pharaoh. Will this talent lead to Joseph reaching the greatness that his father had always believed was his destiny or will he die a slave?

To be honest now that I know what the plot is about it seems like a highly improbable story and one that would not work well as a musical. The whole show is sung, there is no spoken dialogue or straight acting at all. It’s got to be said that the show is a bit tongue in cheek with some deliberately dodgy props such as a camel with rolling eyes and blow up sheep. There are many styles of music and song employed throughout the show ranging from a song called "One More Angel In Heaven" sung in the style of a barn dance, The "Benjamin Calypso" where the actors come out decked up as if they were in the Caribbean and Elvis even makes an appearance. Of course the most famous song is "Any Dream Will Do" made famous by Jason Donovan which is a rather bland and inoffensive pop ditty with the "Joseph Megamix" at the end sounding like it should be played at a rave.

The part of Joseph is currently played by Craig Chalmers and the ads for the show proudly proclaim that he was in the BBC TV show "Any Dream Will Do " which was a talent show for choosing the actor to play the part, what it did not tell you was that Chalmers never won but actually came fifth! Having said that he played the part really well, he had a slightly shaky start when he came out but as the show progressed he bounded around the stage singing at the top of his lungs and dancing around with gusto and I especially liked his performance of some of the more emotional songs with his smooth voice particularly suited to the slower melodies. I have only two quibbles about him, the first is that he has the worst haircut I have ever seen and the second was that when he was bouncing around in a loincloth that for some reason he reminded me of Rocky from the Rocky Horror Picture Show!

Joseph is supported by a large cast of actors, a mention must go to Rachael Louise Miller who sings the narration perfectly. It is unusual for a musical to be so male dominated but this one centres round the twelve brothers and Jacob, each brother played his role with gusto. The women when they did appear were also brilliant. There was a chorus of insufferably cute kids which for the touring production had been plucked from the local private primary school choir and I suppose they sang well enough but I really don’t think having a bunch of precocious little brats on stage really added much to the production and oddly for kids from an Edinburgh school they sung in a Cockney accent some of the time!

I had problems I keeping up with the story and action as there was so much going on at certain times that it was a real assault on the senses. The Alhambra stage is meant to be one of the largest stages in Scotland and it only just contained the army of actors and the chorus so I imagine this show would be best seen in one of the huge London theatres. The stage was so busy with movement at times that it became just too much and I found some of the scenes where there was a solo performance were much better.

Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a huge production full of life and song and although I enjoyed the performance it would certainly not rate as the best musical I have ever seen. It does have good acting and a couple of catchy songs but to be honest some of the songs are very easily forgettable. It is an odd mish mash of styles and sounds and to be honest I can’t understand why it is such a huge hit.

For tour dates and prices see the official Joseph website http://www.josephthemusical.com/index.php
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Not A Super Circus

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Bobby Robert’s circus is a family circus with performers who come from a long line of circus families. I was invited to one of their shows a few weeks ago by my daughters friend and her mum who had won tickets for four people to go and see the show for free. I had been looking forward to the circus, it’s always nice to see live acts and was looking forward to spending time with friends as well. The circus travels round the UK generally staying at each location for a week at a time with shows twice a day.We were lucky enough to be given ringside seats which means you sit on plastic chairs next to the ring and are really close to all the action. The most expensive seats are right at the fron...Read More

Bobby Robert’s circus is a family circus with performers who come from a long line of circus families. I was invited to one of their shows a few weeks ago by my daughters friend and her mum who had won tickets for four people to go and see the show for free. I had been looking forward to the circus, it’s always nice to see live acts and was looking forward to spending time with friends as well. The circus travels round the UK generally staying at each location for a week at a time with shows twice a day.

We were lucky enough to be given ringside seats which means you sit on plastic chairs next to the ring and are really close to all the action. The most expensive seats are right at the front where there is a small box with comfy chairs and most people sit in the stalls. Prices vary a lot but a family ticket to the circus is never going to be cheap. If you do visit try and get there as early as possible and choose seats facing the front of the ring so that you will have the best view.

The clown did a warm up act by generally clowning around. When the circus started Bobby Roberts came riding out on a big brown horse, the horse looked like it was in fantastic condition with strong muscles and a sleek coat but I was shocked as I did not know that animals were allowed to perform still.

The first act involved 6 small horses or ponies, I will admit they were really cute but I do not think that the circus is the place for animals to be. One of the horses was either pregnant or very fat and not happy about performing making Bobby grimace at it. The act involved the horses running round the ring in circles, changing direction on cue, putting their front hooves up onto the ringside and move around and also putting their hooves up on stools.

The next animal act involved a big white horse and one of the little ponies. After trotting round the ring and changing direction etc a pole was held over the small horses head and used as a jump for the bigger horse to jump over. The big horse never looked up once during the act possibly because of the tight harness it was wearing forcing its head down all the time.

The next animal act involved the big brown horse and two little dogs. First the dogs rode around on the horses back and then two platforms used. It’s hard to explain properly but dog 1 would stand on the platform and jump onto the horses back and then jump off at the next platform where the next horse would jump on again.

There were a couple of human acts too. There was one acrobatics act with a woman juggling hula hoops with her feet which was ok. There was a really clever mime act with an old man who used a suitcase and false arms as props and I really enjoyed this. The clowns of course came out between every act and generally clowned about with the obligatory audience participation and dragging some poor unwitting sod into the ring. The human acts were certainly entertaining enough but not mind-blowing.

The circus has an elderly elephant called Anne who tours with them but no longer performs due to her advanced age of 55 making her the oldest elephant in Europe. This elephant did not look like she was in the prime of her life and she has arthritis. She was brought out during the break for people to have their photo taken with her for £5 and she also ate some candyfloss. There has been a lot of controversy about the circus owning Anne but as she has been with the circus for over 50 years I think it is best that she spends the rest of her life with them even if it is upsetting to think about her being transported a lot it is the only life she knows. There is a statement on the circus website with a quote from a government inspector saying this was best for her.

I was so upset at what I saw during the first half that me and my friend left at the break. I do not think it is right that animals are kept in the circus in this day and age and forced to perform tricks for human entertainment. I don’t think their lives can be brilliant spending most of their time cooped up in small stables and travelling around between different sites every week without a chance to behave in a natural way. We left the kids to watch the second half of the show and they went to see the little zoo attached to the circus afterwards and said there was also a camel there.

Many areas have banned animal circuses from performing and I know my own area has, when I visited Bobby Roberts it was in the next region who obviously do not feel the same way. Bobby Roberts asked the audience to all write to the council to let them know how much they enjoyed the animal acts but I did the opposite and wrote asking for them to be banned. The Roberts family may have been performing with animals for 10 generations and cite tradition as a reason why they should be allowed to continue but I think it’s time they moved to an all human circus instead.

Visiting Bobby Roberts circus really upset me because of the way that animals were used in the acts. If you are going to go to a circus then I urge you to do your research first and make sure it is all human acts before you go.

http://www.bobby-roberts.co.uk/index.html Read Less

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