PlateSmashing - The best thing since the creation of souvla!

LAKIS LAZOPOULOS

Friday, 01 June 2012 14:41

This week we had the stand up satirical comic Lakis Lazopoulos on stage in London.

We were approached at Greek City to help with promoting & the usual ticket selling of this event and I can tell you honestly I never heard of the bloke! I was a bit worried about promoting someone I had not a clue about so I started watching his DVD’s and tried to understand what this a million word a minute comic was talking about.

It was not until Tuesday night that I actually understood. I got conflicting reactions from the Greeks before the show as some of them ‘objected’ and were ‘disgusted’ in his wording of the tour ‘Sorry…..I’m Greek’ but let me first explain why this was called that and why many Greeks’ got the wrong impression.

He was actually saying ‘sorry, I’m Greek so I refuse to bend, I refuse to do anything you dictate to me and I certainly refuse to sell my country to you’. I have become a fan of his now. I now understand his satire and I now understand the deep meanings of his words just a little bit more than I did when I watched him and struggled to understand him on the DVDs.

He covered most aspects of Greek life from the bouzouki clubs to the devoted son with his mother, from the man who simply wanted to be a fisher man and left alone to the Police officer who was corrupt. His characters were no only funny they moved you, they saddened you and more importantly they made you think.

The sketches were brilliant

The few that I can mention here because there were so many aspects covered were of a character that walked into the bouzouki club who was obviously rich while the men in the background danced proudly displaying their protruding stomachs.

The rich man explained that he is THE man, that he is the rich man and that he could simply buy anyone or anything he wanted. He kept going up to the singer whilst the singer was performing not caring that he was violating the space of the artist as HE was the rich man who could do anything he liked because everyone would let him: his line was he was a pig but the bigger pigs were the ones that let the rich pig do anything he liked even though he disturbed everyone’s enjoyment.

Another sketch which I liked was the man who had everything he wanted. He ate at the finest restaurants and he explained the large plates that came along with fish from far reaching places that were supposed to be ‘specially’ fed on something he pretended to hear of, whilst the snobbish waiter explained each dish as it was brought to him.

Absolutely brilliant sketch this one when he decides after his wife and mother-in-law come back looking completely different from having face lifts that he could not stand living in this world anymore so he takes himself off in a boat. Of course this is a metaphorical boat. Here he has no bills to pay, no taxes to pay, no phones only the heart beating from the sea.

Here he can find himself, here is peace for him, here he can think about what life is really about. I absolutely loved the meaning and the words of this sketch which could not possibly be translated so deeply into English.

He did sketches about mothers who clung onto their sons. He did songs about his favourite woman: Merkel. He sang songs about the politicians that stole millions, he did sketches about visiting relatives in Germany only to find out that they although they were Greek they turned against the way the Greeks lived and blamed them for the own crises.

I cannot obviously cover everything but I can tell you I was enriched more by his views and understood what many Greeks were going through better than any news item I have heard in the past or anything I have ever seen.

I will end with the bit that got me the most. Lazopoulos stands up in the middle of the stage and says that the Greek way of life has been lost.

No more can they dance, no more can they express their love of their music by dancing the zeimbekiko – how can they pay someone to play the zeimbekiko for them when they are feeling so exhausted with just trying to live.

Suddenly the Greeks are being told they are dishonest, that they never work that it is their own fault when the politicians are the ones, not the ordinary people who destroyed the soul of Greece. Yes, I really took to Lazopoulos’ psychoanalysis of the problems that face Greece and I am very pleased to have been a part of bringing him to London, even if I did not know who he was before.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

LGR SERIES 6

Lucy LOIZOU & I are back with series 6 which started this month on LGR. Lucy LOIZOU is a FAMILY LAWYER who gives advice to our community over the air to people who need help. The next program is on the 13th & 27th June 2012 starting at 7.15p.m. through till 8p.m

So if you have any problems you want Lucy to help you with email me on greekcity@btconnect.com in the strictest confidence. No name is read out & when you phone the studio we do not put you on air but we do reply you on air live.
THE GRECIAN KINGS season at the Kalamaras Tavern has now ended and we will be announcing soon where they will be appearing next.

MICHAELIS HADJIYIANNIS will be in London on Tuesday 6th November 2012 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane..... tickets from Greek City available soon!

1st & 2nd JUNE 2012 SOTIS VOLANIS at FLOGA RESTAURANT for reservations telephone STELIOS on 0208 881 3317.

29th September 2012 (Saturday) GREAT ORMOND STREET HOSPITAL, fundraising Dinner & Dance at Brimsdown Sports & Social Club, Enfield, EN3 7RP Adults £25 Children 3-10 years old £15 phone Eve on 07530 742924

WEEK OFF

I’m having next week off just to stay at home & catch up with everything that I have been meaning to catch up with for the past year and a half when I first moved into my little cottage.

I have boxes still in the store area that I have not unpacked yet and that means that the things in those boxes are not necessary to my life so I will go through them and give what I can to charity while some things my brilliant God sister, who is an expert on eBay, will sell things for me.

I could never sell anything on eBay or anywhere else on the internet and I can’t understand how everyone raves about making money by selling their stuff because I have never been able to. I actually bought something from eBay last month, my first purchase every.

My old trusted hairdryer, which has a comb at the end because I’m not very good at all that stuff, broke so I was desperate to find another one just like it. Low and behold on eBay there was exactly the same model for £6.50. So I ‘bid’ for it.

I was actually the only bid for it and within 3 days I had my hairdryers twin come through my door. I think I am hooked now. So I’m having a week off and doing things I need to do. But I know if the weather holds and its sunny you will find me in my garden reading and doing absolutely nothing because I deserve time off & I’m giving my self that much.

We cannot afford to go anywhere so I’m staying home, which quite frankly I prefer. So I will speak to you not next week but the following week. Enjoy the weather and stay safe until then.

Me Poli Love