Entertainment

Cubanisto’s ‘House of Mask’ – Martin

On Friday night I ventured to East London for The House of Mask event to launch rum flavoured beer Cubanisto. The details were deliberately vague and the venue wasn’t announced until shortly before the event.

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Following a trail of skulls drawn onto the pavement we arrived at trendy venue The Laundry. Inside we met two receptionists who spoke in unison. They pointed to a tiny door, which I crawled through. I joined the queue and was given a piece of paper to write a confession on. I confessed that I was a reviewer, in the hope I’d be plied with free drinks all night. I wasn’t to be unfortunately but it wasn’t too pricey.

I later discovered some of these confessions were projected onto the walls inside. One reveller had admitted he had an egg in his pants… I’d forgotten to bring my egg with me, or I’d have written that myself.

In the club proper, I was handed a bottle of Cubanisto, which I happily swigged as I took in my surroundings. Everyone wore masks, a DJ was pumping out the tunes and everyone was trying to solve a skull shaped jig-saw to be given a key. I was confused but quickly got into the bizarre vibe and got chatting to several women as I was looking for the head piece to complete my jig-saw. “I need some head”, I said to one, she chuckled at my unintended innuendo. I immediately walked away.

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The white masks we were given were intended to be custom painted in their paint room. We quickly got to work splashing an array of luminous paints onto my mask. At one stage this got out of hand and when I mentioned I was a writer for ONIN London, someone wrote #ONINLondon on my forehead. When the dancing began I quickly sweated this off and I cursed my decision to wear a jacket, although it did look excellent. No time for false modesty here… The masks also looked brilliant in the UV lights of the club.

On stage there was a timer which counted down. I asked the bar staff what this signified and was given a smile and a conspiratorial wink. My excitement rose as people started to count down. On zero the lights went off, before bursting on, revealing a man on stage. After a bit of ad-libbing with the crowd, he started beat-boxing accompanied by some odd dance moves. This was the last thing I expected, but he was very good. This added to the sense of the bizarre, which I happily embraced. Several others DJ’s followed the beat-boxer and they got everyone dancing with a broad array of styles.

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We stuck to Cubanisto for the night and at £3.50 a bottle it wasn’t too pricey. We asked the bar-maid if she’d do a special deal for us and give us 2 for £7. After eventually realising that this was a joke and we weren’t morons we got our two beers. We continued this joke throughout the night, which she seemed to enjoy, although she may have been humouring us.

We realised that the key’s we had acquired entitled us to some shots in their photo-booth. I asked if the shots could be Tequila. He replied that they were photos. Due to our drunk expressions and sweaty, paint covered faces the shots weren’t pretty and we won’t be sharing…ever…In fact they’ve been deleted.

It was a weird and wonderful night and it’s the sort of place where you can get talking to anyone. Everyone is there to embrace the eccentric and the more you get into the spirit, the more you will enjoy it.

Check out Cubanisto’s website for news of upcoming events. The Laundry is a venue that hosts loads of cool events so check them out too.

#spiritwithin, #houseofmask. @cubanisto

Written by Martin Stocks | @Stocks1986

Read Martin’s comedic blog: How to Man-Manage your Manager in a job you hate.