Money Makes The World Go Round
A quick explanation...In our Journalism and Creative Writing workshop on the 8th of March, we were shown a clip from the film "Cabaret" and asked to write about it, only pretend that we were present at the time, and write it in the style of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson (now that was the really hard part!), in just fifteen minutes. This was my attempt.
Drinking at the club. A group of us around a table in the smoky darkness, drinking and drinking, and laughing when the stage show starts. A woman with short hair and huge, made up eyes, and a man wearing makeup. Jesus. And then they start to sing...Money makes the world go round. Well, they're not wrong there.
We sit and smirk into our glasses as she shimmies and he taps his cane.
"They're dropping money down their clothes," said my companion, shaking his head in disbelief. They get some laughs from the more inebriated audience members, but we simply sit there and drink some more. Obviously not nearly drunk enough yet. They disappear behind a screen, become dancing silhouettes in a hail of shadow banknotes, before disappearing altogether.
After the next act begins - more silhouettes, and a whip, Christ - making my companion sit up and take notice, I see her at a nearby table, fingers wrapped around a glass of red, in sharp contrast with her green fingernails.
"I'll never drink anything else!" she declares. I roll my eyes, and tip my head back to drain my glass in one go, before turning back to face the stage, and the elaborate shadow show. At least the shadows don't sing.
Copyright Lauren Cook, 2006.