The Berlin Cabaret and Late-Nighters:

(no I don’t mind corrections)

I spent a lot of legwork looking for the Berlin Cabaret, in fact towards the end of the stay I was struggling to walk at all, anyway, I eventually found it and noticed that I had walked past it several times. Well, the notice read 30s style cabaret. This, to me, conjured up images of old black & white films with the likes of Lily Marlene & scantily clad young ladies with one leg sporting a garter resting on a table and arms wrapped around a well dressed client. Kisses being rationed out to ever grateful faces with a timely need to remove ever increasing lip-stick stained marks on the gentlemen’s brows. All taking place in a dimly lit smoke filled and highly ornate room sunk into the basement.

Well it wasn’t.

I arrived at midnight and was sent away, it wasn’t yet open. I went to a very near ‘real’ guitar flamingo bar (later) and returned I think, I drink far to much, at about 1:30 but it may well have been 2:30, anyway I was within 10 minutes of the start-up.

There were no such clothed personnel as I had thought. The room, which was of basement design, was peppered with a mixture of French & Spanish. I didn’t hear any English spoken in the bar with the majority being, as far as I could tell, Spanish tourists.

I duly obtained a drink, as usual, again at the 1000pts mark, better I think, to do the serious drinking first in less expensive places.

Within a short time we were all corralled to the centre stage area and ropes appeared around the bar area. Next music struck-up and from below the stage level, on a circular platform, a man appeared dressed a little like a clown and sporting a very large coloured chef type hat.

The clown spoke only in Spanish, an important point in his favour, and performed his cabaret over the next 45 minutes, I think! This covered such items as pretending to saw off a women’s hand, a feat that, as it happens, was very well done. No! not actually removing the hand, but giving the impression that it would fall off at any second. Most of the act involved heavy audience participation.

Anyway, it was quite good overall, especially because it was in Spanish, he spoke, or tried to speak English a few times and the audience fell about laughing. But all this wasn’t exactly what I had gone for and it’s highly debatable if it’s really worth waiting up to at that time.
Perhaps other nights are different. Are they?

Anyway, I made my exit and set off back to the Puerta del sol, well this was the real eye opener along the way and in the square there were only street sweepers and me. Incredible!

I think that the talk of the Madrid people staying out very late probably best reflects what takes place at the weekend and probably spreads to the early week nights during the very warm summer nights. When you think about it people have to get up for either college or work just like anybody else and consequently I start to form the impression that Monday to Thursday revellers are, in the main,during the cooler months, tourists. Obviously there must still have been people in the discos, in any case there certainly were on Sunday night.

Hasta Pronto





[This message has been edited by steveaqui (edited 10-25-2000).]

[This message has been edited by steveaqui (edited 10-25-2000).]