The Hairy Bikers Big Night Out (AKA After 10 Days, Emma Goes Out!)

The Hairy Bikers last night was sooo much fun!  Absolutely hilarious.  My friend was going to drive but then my Dad offered as his car has 4 wheel drive which was cool as it meant we could have a few drinks.

The arts centre has two very cool dedicated wheelchair spaces at the back which me and my friend have dubbed the Royal Box and they can put you in the front row - the seats are fold down and they reserve you two to make a wheelchair space as a chair is bigger than one of the seats.  But they don't put two seat numbers on the tickets.  I tend to prefer the back spaces because you can spread out a bit and especially for comedy (after sitting at the front for a comedy thing and having the comedian asking me questions one times).    For Hairy Bikers however we were at the front so we could be close for any food they might be dishing out.  It's a bit strange as the stage area isn't raised at all so you literally are right by the performers and vice versa.

So first there was a bit of confusion when I asked the ushers which was our "extra seat" and they didn't know anything about the whole extra seat for a wheelchair user thing and we had to explain it about three times (the ushers are volunteers but at least one of them had been doing it for a long time so I was surprised he wasn't aware of the policy) but then he went and found out for me.  Previously I've just taken one of the seats next to ours as my extra and figured if I've guessed wrong I'll shift along.  But that's been proven not to work so well a couple of times so...

Anyway the Hairy Bikers talked a bit about their history and how they met and what they've done.  They also did a load of cooking (it was described as Cooking and Comedy) and in the first half they made a prawn curry.  They had a table set for two up with them and got two people out of the audience who they basicallyt gave a whole dinner too and some tiger beer.  Some poppadoms where given those in the front of the audience which they made and fried as we watched - there was a "camera fairy" up with them putting close ups on a screen of the cooking so you could see  The Poppadoms were nice and they also gave kitchen roll as "you don't want cacky hands"

After the interval they got two more people up and blindfolded them and did a taste test.  They gave the woman a glass of wine and said "is it white or red?" it was red but she said it was white.  They also fed her something and said "which root vegetable is this?" and she was all "broccoli" which is amusing because that isn't a root vegetable - it was swede.  In other news, swede and turnip are the same thing - I didn't know that.  Then they gave her husband some meat to taste which he got right - pork - but he also said was dry.  Finally they said they were going to give them a savoury snack (that went to both of them) which they thought was pork scratchings but it was fried cricket!

The Hairy Bikers then cooked an Italian steak dish which they gave to the same couple to try but they'd been for dinner first so didn't have much of it.  They also had a bottle of red wine (Chianti?) and water on the table for them.

When they were chatting to that couple Si went to kiss the lady on the cheek but she shied away a bit and everyone was laughing at his antics.  So he then walks over to me and leans down and puts an arm on my shoulder and kisses me on the cheek, a long exaggerated kiss on the cheek - or so it felt to me.  I was laughing so hard I was shaking while he was there.  Then he went back on stage and went "I love girls I do!"

They also cooked a vegetarian pasta thing - with linguini and ribbons of courgette I think.  They gave some bowls to about three people in the audience but they didn't have forks for them so they gave them tongs and other kitchen implements which they managed pretty well with and was funny to watch.  The ushers brought them forks from the bar though.  I think they should have made them keep using the tongs etc though.  I think the most amusing cooking tip they gave was using a Ped Egg to do parmasan - although they did say it should be one just used for the cheese, LOL.

So then for the finale, Dave stripped all his clothes off to reveal he was wearing a blue and silver shiny leotard thing underneath and Si was playing a kids drum kit then  Dave got a big bunch of yellow flowers (Freesias I think but don't quote me!), stuck one between Si's teeth and shared the rest out.  He gave one to my friend and one to me - we were the last I think and then he knelt down on one knee in front our seats and started singing "Don't Cry For Me Argentina"  They put the words on the screen and people sang along and they they did "Dancing Queen" and that was that for the night.

It was such a great night - absolutely hilarious and completely different from what I expected!