My pole dance from Lisa Riley (From Swindon Advertiser)

My pole dance from Lisa Riley

1:50pm Saturday 27th June 2009

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‘The Naked Truth’ played at the Wyvern theatre this week, advertised as a comedy starring Abi Titmuss in the role of a pole dance instructor. Well that sounded interesting if nothing else: Mrs S was really keen to see it so we both went on Wednesday evening.

I wondered what the demographics of the audience would be. Couples? Men? Rowdy men?

As we sat having a drink in a nearby pub before the show my wife informed me it wasn’t really for men,more a comedy for women about women. She gave me the impression I’d be the only bloke there. It turned out she was almost correct, probably a ratio of 50-1 female to male and the age group was narrow, definitely an audience of 40 something’s or older.

Surely this is the generation when the guys watched girls dance around handbags not poles!

This prompted a conversation between us of what constitutes middle age? Mrs S says 40ish, I’ve always insisted it’s anyone ten years older than me whatever their age.

Just before the curtain went up it was announced that ‘Due to illness Abi Titmuss would not be appearing’, immediately my heart sunk. To be honest I only went to see her.

Lisa Riley once of ‘Emmerdale’ fame, played one of the pole dance students. She was funny from the beginning to the end. Most of the humour was at expense of men. The music pitched for the girls with all the corny stuff including ‘raining men’; thankfully I was spared that ‘I will survive’ anthem. But that was the mood the female audience was in. By the end they were out of their seats, shouting and clapping above their heads, rowdy alright.

I had gone to see Abi Titmuss pole dance and got a really good laugh from Lisa Riley instead. I’m glad, it was the funniest thing I’ve seen on stage.

Lisa Riley Rocks