An Alternative to Booze and Bands

Bryson Lang brings it

Beijing’s glitterati have been flaunting the city’s nightlife options for years. “We have both kinds of music – house AND hip hop,” they’ll tell you. There are even some rock acts for venerables in their fourth decade and beyond.

But it’s clubs for the beautiful people, guaranteed loud enough so it doesn’t matter what you’re pretending to laugh about with your friends while you scan the room. And there are bars for every mood and whim, too, no worries: snooty bars, druggy bars, lady bars, sports bars, arm bars for clientele who try the old ‘self-serve’ trick.

As in other Chinese city-states (yeah you, Shanghai), all this supposes that drinking and music are the holy duo of night-time entertainment. Whatever happened to the live act? Not the live musical act, although it never hurts to be reminded that Filipinos are the musical master race. The variety act, for all those talents who belong on stage, even if they’ll never nail the solo to Hotel California.

In a more civilized age, you had dinner then a show, preferably at the same place. The concept has come back to life at the Goose and Duck’s Magic & Comedy Club. The G& D’s been carving its niche by catering to those thin on pretension but thick of wallet since ’96, approximately three and a half centuries in expat years. Its new club is the latest in a string of amusements, the restaurants, bands, cable sports, batting cage, et al, all proffered in the quest to claim the title of ‘Complete Entertainment Venue’.

The Magic & Comedy Club’s on the relatively tranquil second floor of the G&D. For those who remember the close clubhouse camaraderie of the old location, the creaking wood floors, that’s still downstairs – clacking billiard balls and clinking mugs. Sorry, make that one half of downstairs. The other half is more pool, plus a basketball key, batting cage and non-digital arcade games. There are three thousand square meters to fill now.

Upstairs things are decidedly more low-key, a hot pot restaurant occupying the back half. The Magic & Comedy Club stage looks out at long tables and a bar, as well as the brewing vats for the house beer. This is where a party can have a sedate dinner, the downstairs clamor scarcely audible. But din-din’s all over by 9:30, when the show starts.

Since the club opened over a month ago, the focus has been on American acts, with a little Chinese flavor for an aperitif. A young woman named YuanYuan kicks things off with five minutes of mastery on her Chinese yo-yo, called a xiang huan if you’re in Chaoyang Park, or a Diablo if you’re in the parking lot of a Phish concert. Flitting about Barnum & Bailey style, Yuan Yuan flicks the humming Diablo inches from spectators, smiling so serenely you could easily forgive her for inadvertently bashing someone in the nose (no injuries reported so far, or expected).

The main act right now is one Bryson Lang, whose ‘Cure for the Common Show’ combines juggling and jokes. One minute he’s reeling off one-liners on a rolling plank while juggling sharp sickles, the next he’s squeezed into a third-grader’s gym shorts, spinning a ball counter-clockwise on top of another one. Spot-lights, daring do, laughs, and plenty of audience interaction (including volunteers) give Bryson’s act a vaudeville flavor not to be found elsewhere this side of the Pacific.

The talent changes more or less monthly. The Magic & Comedy Club’s last headliner was Farrell Dillon, a magician who also adds plenty of funny sauce to his act. Let’s hope the G & D is starting a new trend in night life. There should be more to an evening out than boozing and music. Stage shows like the Goose and Duck’s turn the holy duo into a divine trinity.

Related posts:

1. Five Alternative Chinatowns
2. Book Review: Searching For Shangri-La – An Alternative Philosophy Travelogue

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.