London's Premiere Exotic Burlesque Cabaret. Top class musicians & guests. Includes circus & fairground-sideshow acts. Performers from London & all corners of the world. After show club until late with resident & guest djs. Glamourous, diverse crowd.

From the original creators, co-producers, performers & musicians of previously critically acclaimed clubs, burlesque & cabaret shows. Forerunners at the very beginning of "the New Burlesque scene" in London.

" A variety show often including striptease' , is how the dictionary defines burlesque. True, in a way but, but oh so inadequate a definition, because one night in the company of The Flash Monkey leaves you stunned, amazed, amused & utterly pleasured." - London & More - May 2005

A little more detail:

The Flash Monkey draws influences from the best, but not always the most obvious, music & performance of the past whilst adding new personalized inventions into the cocktail mix. Every show is different with new music & acts. A person attending a Flash Monkey event may also expect to be enthralled by the more freakish elements of the show that might be found in a fairground sideshow of a bygone age. The performers are all glorified & adored for their extraordinary talents & beauty, in all the many forms it takes.

"Intriguing celebration of quirky cabaret, Rock 'n Roll, Gypsy music & lounge" - Guardian listing, Pick of the Week Dec '04

All music for the show is performed live, no prerecorded music is used. Live music allows for spontaneous improvisational interplay between the performers, audience reaction, the band and so on. At it's best, this can ignite a chain reaction of electric atmosphere that is not possible to achieve with prerecorded music.

Although The Flash Monkey is by no means a slave to tradition, using exclusively live music for acts is also much more in keeping with the spirit of the previous heydays of burlesque & cabaret of the 20s- early 60s.

"For an example of how live music can energize such a night, head for The Flash Monkey's irregular nights...... Decadence - so much a part of The Flash Monkey - is...." - The Independent, 9th May '05

"There are no backing tracks- every swing of the hip, every wink, every ooh-la-la is accompanied by a sigh of the sax, beat of the bass and riff of the guitar........ Original material, jazzed up pop tunes, punk-ed up Jazz & blues-ed-up country is performed throughout the evening........ - which leaves you wondering how so much talent fits onto one stage." - London & More May '05

At the beginning of the evening, in the intermission & after the show, the party continues with only a very special calibre of DJ playing a mixture of atmospheric & exhilarating sounds from past to present. Not content to only push buttons, the talents among The Flash Monkey DJs includes: performing & composing music, an encyclopedic knowledge of 40s & 50s Rhythm 'n Blues, Jazz & cult music of these eras, & an intuition for keeping the mood high. For example: Using his skill as a composer for film & TV (including Hollywood films), Franc's Carnival seamlessly intersperses dialogue & sounds from classic & cult cinema with music, for an added dimension. Original music by The Flash Monkey, Franc's Carnival and our associates is also added to the ingredients, this has prompted an increasing amount of enquiries for the name of the performers/composers of these tracks.

The audience, far from being merely spectators, are very much an integral part of the event. The fact that all factions of society enjoy glamour, music, humour, titillation & the extraordinary, might explain the diverse crowd that attend The Flash Monkey shows.

Groups of people that might not normally be seen together, mingle freely in an other-worldly atmosphere. All the people tend to dress up for the occasion, hugely contributing to the glamourous troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere & exosphere!

There are people who have come as audience members, developed an act over a period of time, performed in our subsequent shows & have become professional performers!
The age range is wide; mid twenties to late thirties make up the bulk of the audience but there are also several people younger & older. The gender mix is fairly evenly balanced, with a bias to there being slightly more women than men.

" This 'burlesque bazaar' of bulging proportions welcomed the finest of London's sleek, unique & retro-chic to it's tongue-in cheek contours....... The audience nonchalantly bombarded a non-plussed cloakroom attendant with their finery until suffocation point, until the club sold out at an unprecedented nine o'clock." - Alternative London, May 2005.

"Eye-wateringly decadent" - The Independent on Sunday December 2004

There are plenty of places that are "exclusive", The Flash Monkey events are not "exclusive", they are "inclusive" & yet, perhaps because of this, in their own way are even more glamourous & special. This is entertainment made by the misfits of life for the misfits of life. Invent your own glamour! "Class?.... CLASS?... I got class I ain't even USED yet!" - Louis Jordan. Everyone is welcome, all that is required is the (very reasonable for such a show?) price of a ticket , your glad-rags & a little imagination.

" I for one felt properly entertained. Your night of drinking with dwarves and divas is a welcome break from the usual rock 'n roll repertoire." - N16 Magazine