Sid's Show - Review

Do you remember last year, when I gave away a family ticket to see CBeebies' legend Sid Sloane in his very own stage show, Sid's Show? Well, I did.  And today, Squeaky and I got the chance to see Sid's Show for ourselves when the tour reached Cardiff.  Off we toddled to St David's Hall, along with about 600 other people for Sid's one & only visit to South Wales in the tour.  He's still going until June, but this was the Wales show, and we were going to make the most of it.  The rest of the tour dates are here, but you know that, right?

It's getting to be a bit of a theme when Squeaky & I go to shows, that we find ourselves in the audience alongside the glitterati of Welsh showbiz circles.  We sat in front of John Hartson when we saw Peppa Pig, bumped into Lucy & Rhodri Owen in the foyer of The Tiger Who Came To Tea, so it was only fitting that we were joined at Sid's Show by his fellow CBeebies presenter Alex Winters (No, not the guy out of Bill & Ted, that's Alex Winter. Different fella altogether).  Squeaky was convinced that the whole show was going to be Sid dipping some bread into sauce.  Specifically brown bread into tomato sauce.  Interesting concept, but I was hoping for slightly more than that!

We settled down in our seats up in the gods for the first half (and moved down right in front of Alex & his family for the second half - yes! That was me ::grin::)  Right on time, Sid bounded onto the stage, there's no other way to describe it.  Full of energy, and had the children and adults in the audience joining in straight away with If You're Happy & You Know It, swiftly followed by a crazy action song about getting up & dressed.

And getting dressed is where Sid's problems all start.  He can't find his favourite socks & shoes, and we're soon off on a fantastic adventure to find them, without ever leaving the comfort of his bedroom.  It's all in the imagination, you see, and Sid's box becomes a hot air balloon, a spaceship, a submarine.  Part of me was a little bit surprised, but it works.  Give Squeaky a box and it becomes a house, a rocket, or a car.  So for the audience, a simple box becoming the key to an adventure is absolutely right.

The box. Or the spaceship. Or maybe the hot air balloon!

We shifted downstairs at the interval.  Not so much for a better view, there aren't any *bad* seats in St David's Hall in my experience, but more so that if she wanted to run to the front, Squeaky would have the opportunity to do so.  She didn't.  Ah well.  During the interval, there was mayhem as children searched high & low (OK, low) for, well, I can't tell you that!  Something special.  No, sorry, wrong show.  Something to help Sid, anyway.  I'm not going to give the story away, but with a bit of help, and another very funny action song, Sid gets his socks & shoes sorted, and even cheers up his dog Fuzzy.

Cheering up Fuzzy

Squeaky was transfixed.  Even Peppa, who was in her bag, was transfixed.  I was amazed that the show was just Sid, and Fuzzy, on the stage for an hour.  No dancers, no supporting artistes, just Sid.  The energy coming from the stage was brilliant.  And Sid is quite a dancer.  I'm thinking of starting a campaign now to get Sid on the next season of Strictly. Are you with me?

A couple of things I loved about the show, just because.  The range of music was fab - there was a blues song, reggae, rap, as well as silly action songs & kids favourites.  And a very simple thing that made me happier than you'd expect.  In one of the last songs, Sid sings "Thank you" to us all for helping him, and he signs "thank you" as he says it.  I know I mentioned Something Special as a joke up there somewhere, but it's such a simple way to make the show inclusive, and such a nice touch.  I'm not going off into Deaf Woman Ranting territory here, it was great.  Thank you!

The foyer area wasn't Merchandise City either.  I've been to other shows where you can't get in without running the gauntlet of glowsticks, balloons, programmes and assorted stuff you never look at again.  I didn't actually notice any merchandise on sale, but that might have been due to being upstairs for the first half & not going into the main bar/foyer area.  Did my wallet the world of good!  We had a great time at Sid's Show, even if he didn't dip his bread into his sauce, Squeaky wasn't disappointed.

Sid's on tour until June, you can keep up with his tour dates here if you haven't already been to see the show.  Or you can keep up with him on facebook, and twitter as well.

Disclosure: I was provided with a family ticket to the show free of charge for the purpose of this review. I was not told what to write and all opinions are my own.  Links are provided for your convenience, I am not a member of any affiliate scheme & will not receive reward for their use.

Oh! I forgot to say!

We've been going to baby signing classes for 3 weeks now. I've been going to BSL classes for the last 4 years, though I'm only finishing my 3rd year right now, thanks to the broken ankle saga. So I thought it would be good if Squeaky & I could find some way that she could learn as well, so she could talk to me before she can actually talk, y'know.

And so far, she loves it. She's the youngest in the class, by a good few months, all the rest are sitting up unaided and crawling, at very least. But that doesn't stop her. She's fascinated by the class leader, she stares and beams at her throughout, interspersed with giggling at me. No actual signs from her yet, which is to be expected, it's only been a few weeks, and she's still very young, but she's getting the idea of waving hello/goodbye, and starting to watch and lift her own hands when I sign things to her. I'm really excited about it, truth be told. And wondering what her first sign will be.

Ah, but this week is half term. And I hate half term, because our schedule has fallen apart. No signing class, we couldn't go to our singing & exercise class because it clashed with my dental app't, and then we couldn't go swimming today because I still feel like I've been kicked in the jaw by a very angry donkey. When we go back next week, maybe I'll remember to describe a typical class. Or maybe some of our other groups too. You'd enjoy that, wouldn't you?