Do You Play Wonderwall?

Just a quickie, I've got a proper post on the boil. I've had a good crop of conversations with very drunken women in the last few weeks.  Very Drunken Woman: Were you looking at me? Me: No, I wasn't.  VDW: why not?! I'm the BEST PERSON IN HERE! M: Cushty --------------- VDW: Can I touch your arse?  M: No.  VDW: Do you want to touch my arse?  M: No.  VDW: (visibly perplexed) why not? M: I just don't want to.  VDW: *look of utter disbelief * ---------------- VDW: Can I get up and sing with you? M: No VDW: Why not? M: Well, I'm singing, that's my job. It's live music in a restaurant, it's not a joining-in kind of thing.  VDW: But I've spent a fortune in here tonight! M: Cushty VDW:  So can I sing with you.  M: No VDW: But... well... but.... my friend's husband has just died! M: *Genuinely Speechless* ----------------- S

The room dynamic of any show is something that's understood by punters the world over. Madison Square Garden, The Albert Hall, The Dog & Duck, The School Nativity Play, it's always the same. The performers are there to entertain, the audience are there to appreciate. Them's the rules, and it's the way it works. Even in the heckler-heavy world of standup comedy, it's understood that the loudmouth in the crowd is definitely not going to be more engaging than the act, he's fodder for acid put-downs and barbed responses. The thing is, nobody had told the happily sozzled older gentleman in the slightly too-big suit in Bob Trollop's one rainy Tuesday night on Newcastle Quayside circa 2009.  I was playing with Dan Walsh, early in his career which currently sees him as one of the best folk musicians in the world. We were doing quite well with our usual mix of rock n roll standards, folked up pop tunes and silly banter when, in a moment of silence between tun...