Nightlife Picks
Sometimes you want to run crazy in the streets, consorting
with snuff-snorting hustlers, schlepping self-promoters,
drunk cruising teens, Republicans, Mormons, 23-year-old
Internet execs, hippies and other scraped-up scum.
And then other times, you just want to settle in for a
nice brandy and a few rounds of the Game of Life. For such
nights, there's the new Game Night at Berbati's Pan.
The tables of the distinguished haunt in Historic Old Town
normally swarm with a relentless breed of talknoscenti,
but this Monday night, they'll be taken over by Monopoly
spreads, vicious Electronic Battleship showdowns, and not
one but two sets of the aforementioned G. of L. Tres
Shannon, the verbal machine gun in charge of Berbati's
famed Research and Development Department, says he envisions
Game Night as an oasis for noise-weary scenesters on the
heretofore least cheery night of the working week.
"Monday nights are just weird," Shannon says. "Sure, I
could book some bands, but no one wants to come out and
pay money to listen to loud music on Monday night. Monday
night is quiet night. I think conversation and working the
mind is a lot closer to most people's speed."
Two weeks back, I scoped a beta version of G-Night. The
precincts of the so-called "Arts and Entertainment District"
were, indeed, a-slumber. Not even those characters who usually
man the corners stoking the fire of the underground economy
were to be found. In Berbati's, however, a dozen or so smartniks
hip to Game Night had a fine time, trading ping-pong salvos
and digging a bingo game under the auspices of Mr. Jeffrey
Kyle and a sashaying slip of a girl known only as Fanny.
Kyle sported a sharp suit and a moustache that, I believe,
made skin crawl as far away as Gresham. And while the inaugural
running of the bingo derby boasted only free passes to later
shows as swag, Shannon says he's rounding up sweeter bounty.
In fact, that's just part of his world-domination designs
for Game Night.
"I've always dreamed of setting up five tables with five
different games and having the same people play them all
at once," Shannon says. "It could sort of be a speed thing,
but the real challenge would be making the switch from Stratego
to Yahtzee to Trivial Pursuit. It's a ways in the future,
maybe, but someday...."
In the meantime, Game Night needs a little refining if
it's to avoid the journey into that good night taken by
similar efforts in the past. Still, even as the ever-competitive
Chameleon Ross hammered volley after volley past
me on the 'pong table, the fusion of Chinese Checkers and
Maker's Mark awakened something strange and wonderful in
my nightcrawling chromosomes. Like the man said, sometimes
the play's the thing.
REVIEWED THIS WEEK:
Game Night
Berbati's Pan
231 SW Ankeny St.,248-4579
All night, with bingo from 9-11 pm.
Free
NIGHTLIFE EVENTS
Regular Beatings
Late-night dancing, oddball art, etc.
Viscount Ballroom
722 E Burnside St., 233-7855
11:30 pm-4:30 am Saturday, May 20
$5
COMEDY
Dave Anderson
A Portlander who's one of Harvey's all-time faves.
Harvey's Comedy Club
436 NW 6th Ave., 241-0338
8 pm Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday,
8 and 10:30 pm Friday, 6:30, 9 and 11:30 pm Saturday, May
17-21
$8-$10
ComedySportz
Improv showdown.
1936 NW Kearney St., 236-8888
9 pm Friday, 7:30 and 9:30 pm Saturday,
May 12-13
$10, $9 w/ can of food for the Oregon Food
Bank
Lord Carret
Stand-up.
Jimmy Mak's
300 NW 10th Ave., 295-6542
9 pm Monday, May 22
$3
Brainwaves Improv Group
"Making Portland audiences laugh."
1516 SW Alder St., 796-9550
8 pm Tuesday, May 23
$7
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Willamette Week | originally
published May 10,
2000
|
