Short Fuse - Retox

I attended Short Fuse again on Tuesday evening. For those of you that haven't seen these posts before, Short Fuse is a live reading night held monthly in Leicester and Brighton. The event is dedicated to the short form and readers can offer stories, poems, even academic papers to a cozy cabaret style audience.

Usually there are half a dozen readers, starting with inexperienced readers or new writers and building to a headliner. This month the headliner was Howard Marks notorius welsh dope dealer and author of Mr Nice. The theme was Retox, all the broken resolutions, all the things that are meant to be bad for us. Polly opened with a few comments about the long standing links between creativity and writing and the use of mind altering substances.

The show started with an odd but entertaining tale based around the club scene called "Blood on the Dancefloor" by John Vagg. It was unexpected and drew the audience in with a confident delivery and some strange highlights.

John was followed by Helen Burke who delivered a very short snapshot of a druggy life in the 70's in Newcastle and another equally short piece about the ultimate bad day. Helen's delivery was confident, witty and honest, being almost entirely true and from her own experiences. The crowd clearly enjoyed her tales, as did I and I'd love to get her on Un:Bound for an interview sometime. I think you'd all enjoy her too.

We had an academic paper on drugs culture and the internet delivered by CK Walsh, author, poet, psychotherapist and academic.I love listening to academics who clearly adore their subject matter, there is something delightful about the complex language of academia delivered with the same passion as Coleridge from the podium. It was a little quick to follow properly but I was happy enough to let the sounds wash over me when I lost the thread from time to time and I got the main points. It was a little strange for me as someone who is largely neutral on the drugs debate, but fascinating.

After the break and in the run up to the awesome Leicester comedy festival (i know even I say it's a city already halfway to zombiefication but when you look for it there is actually a rich and deep cultural life in Leicester) Rob Gee, ex psychiatric nurse turned comedian, performed an extract of his upcoming stage show. If you know any psychiatric nurses then you will have heard these sorts of tales but it was delivered with excellent timing and massive enthusiasm and no matter how many of them you hear they are still funny stories. It was a real treat for us.

Finally, Howard Marks, legendary folk hero and ex drug international drug dealer, well travelled both physically and in drug terms and a disarmingly cheerful and pleasant character. Howard read a short piece of prose about the search for highs if plants ruled the world (I will never look at reindeer the same way) and then took questions. He has a steady, relaxed pace reading, goes off track as suits him and is very funny. I am looking forward to the film and think he was well cast in it (he thinks so too). I think the biggest laugh all night was when someone asked who he had objected to for playing him and he said Hugh Grant was considered. The Q&A started well and was interesting, had a few dips but overall was entertaining in itself.

The show overall was a much slicker effort than usual, demonstrating both the professionalism and capability of organisers Polly and Seb to turn out a first class show with almost every seat filled and the high calibre of readers you can hear at these events. It was a showcase for all and we were spoilt by the quality. Part of the purpose of Short Fuse though is partially to focus on local talent and to give new writers or inexperienced readers a chance to perform to an audience, to polish their skills, so while it was a real joy and totally appropriate last night, I am still glad for the uncertain readers and the stories that don't quite work out loud that normally start the show.

Sadly like an idiot I didn't take pictures, so they are in short supply for this post.