Cirque le Soir in The Milton Club

A topless obese clown. A dominatrix with outrageously long plaited hair. A 1940s weightlifter. Miss Piggy's raunchy sister. An old woman with a massive arse, and her equally-aged husband. A tattooed fire breather. An incredibly tall man who may or may not be going for the scarecrow look. A pimp dwarf. A luminescent-baseball-bat wielding... 80s New York Gangster? I dunno, but he looked cool. A ghostly figure with huge nails, reminiscent of the weird thing off the banned Metz advert. A nightmare to some, a fabulous dream to others. But real, and all present last bank holiday Sunday to be exact. Circus troupe Cirque le Soir visited Deansgate venue The Milton Club on 30^th April, and provided a night of bizarre performances set to a house music and RnB soundtrack.

While this display happens, I meet a blonde girl, kiss her, and fall over backwards into a ballpit which is- for the night- housed in one of the usually-bookable booths at the side of the club. Well, that was a first.

When I saw that the club was putting on the Cirque night, I wondered how they'd manage it. It's a small venue- capacity 250- but by making use of the bar top and the stage area the team put on an eclectic show. Some were hoping for a bigger, more exuberant display, but considering the restrictions Cirque put on an impressive performance. It may be a smart and quite expensive club, but people are friendly and out for a party, not really to pose. The only real problem I found was the smoke machine's output meant many pictures didn't come out.

The Milton Club's Facebook album is here. I organised a meetup with Manchester Cool Bars- I was determined to provide something for the group to do at Bank Holiday as last time, at the start of the month, we didn't put anything up. I'm hoping Cirque will return!