Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Outside-the-Box Entertainment, Melbourne Style

Imagine a double-jointed, half-naked man in white shorts, no shirt, a sweatband around his head, tattoos on his back, and blonde hair and full beard with his legs behind his head on top of a tower of gradually reduced-sized tins. Now, as he continues to hold his legs behind his head, he states, "It's crazy what people do for a living, isn't it? I always wanted to be 'Rubber Man' and now I am. So my advice for you is to follow your dreams--you never know what people may pay you to do one day."

Mind you, this same guy dislocated joints to fit through both 12- and 10-inch tennis rackets earlier in the show. The show is called La Soirée and a guy I met at the Melbourne horse races on Saturday surprised me with tickets last night. Let me line up the entire night for you...

So I meet Trent downtown and he takes me to Rialto, a gorgeous bar high up in a building in Melbourne overlooking CBD (Central Business District). We order a drink and watch the sun begin to set. I opt for a housemade macadamia nut vodka, which comes with a macadamia nut toffee treat on the side. Wow. The drink perfectly hints macadamia flavor and needs nothing else to enhance it, not even the sweet treat on the side.

Next up, we walk over to a intricately decorated entertainment venue in the heart of downtown near Southern Cross station. On our walk there, the sun was fully set and the city lights were in full effect. It was the first time seeing Melbourne at night and I couldn't help but notice how much the various architecture reminded me of Chicago, but even better.

Upon stepping inside the show, I knew I was in for an "outside-the-box" experience due to the abundance of gay men walking around. Great choice, I thought to myself. I'm a huge fan of guys taking chances on choosing where to take a girl.

Two hours later, I scratched off quite a few things from my bucket list that I hadn't even realized were on there. I saw a heavyset black man in red glittery lipstick and gold and green eyeshadow sing Rihanna; a European, Queen-obsessed man in a tummy exposing leather jacket crowd surf while singing "We are the Champions"; and a Spanish magician make a red handkerchief disappear in her fist and reappear in a very, ahem, private area of her body.

You know what I learned from all this? I learned that it's so important to be open-minded and be with others that think outside-the-box. As I looked around at the crowd, I saw old and young, gay and straight, black and white (and everything in between), male and female, but the one thing that aligned each person in the audience was the fact that they were open to experiencing something new. And everyone did it with a smile on their face.

After La Soirée, we went to Cookie, a trendy bar in the area. It's a couple different levels and has a movie theater on the roof. Funny enough, we bumped into Diana at the same bar with her date. We did NOT plan this!!! Around midnight, we made our way home, exchanged stories, and couldn't help but think..."Yup, this is our amazing life."

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