One Night in, Er, Devon

From bridge, I guess it was a natural progression to bingo. Still, I didn't expect to be spending Monday night in a gay pub in Vauxhall checking off the numbers on my bingo grids while a drag queen sang, danced and entertained. Some friends had been to the Big Bingo Night last week and new what to expect; I still found it pretty surreal but quite fun too, although as it was a Monday, I was probably way too sober.

Score-cards at the ready

There were sing-alongs, heckling, innuendo, random interjections from Britney Spears (don't ask) and of course plenty of prizes. Actually, it looked like they had raided the nearest pound store closing down sale, because on offer were items as exciting as a TV dinner tray, a Harry Potter VHS and an 'I [heart] sex' mug. £3 buys you three games, and in each game there are three rounds (one prize for the first person to get a line, one prize for two lines and one for a full house). In the final round of the last game, you can win a prize you might actually want--£30--although you still have to pick from one of three golden envelopes.

So many awesome prizes

Naturally, some of the calls are a little ruder than those you might expect to hear down at Gala--to be fair, Gala could be super-smutty for all I know. Then there are the ones that start to drive you mad, like M People's One Night in Heaven being fired up and the audience being encouraged to scream for every number that ended in a seven. For a cheap, quirky night of entertainment on a Monday, you could do worse than the Royal Vauxhall Tavern's Big Bingo Night, although I think the next one won't be until September. In the meantime, though, there is plenty of cabaret, comedy and singing. Because what else are you going to do in Vauxhall on a Monday night?

I wasn't even close, though