Cosplay Events: Trailer Trash – Brighton’s Premier Fancy Dress Club Night Cabaret!

For anyone that reads my blog, you will know that I am a huge fan of the Brighton Komedia club night named Trailer Trash!

Trailer Trash! Is a club night that neatly combines music, circus acts, themed cabaret, popcorn and above all that FANCY DRESS!

My love affair with this night goes back to their second event Trailer Trash! Presents Tarantino.

This night was the first time I had ever attended anything like this. Glammed up usherettes handing out free popcorn, people dancing, movie clips and host Rosy Carrick ordering everyone to pay attention to the stage acts while dressed as a rather naughty version of Elle from Kill Bill. The evening had a wonderful range of acts from burlesque routine as a Geisha, a singer in the style of Alabama from True Romance, an all female recreation of Stuck in the Middle from Reservoir Dogs and areal circus acts from Kitty Peels.

Tarantino, Fabienne and Butch, me dancing and some of the acts (event images from here)

I attended the event with my friend Sadie and we had a great time, her dressed as Gogo the schoolgirl killer and I as Fabienne the hapless girlfriend of Butch in Pulp Fiction (of 'Zed's dead baby' fame). My favourite moment was when re-enacting the Jack Rabbit Slim's Twist Contest from Pulp Fiction! Which we won by the way ;D

With that one evening of wonders Trailer Trash! became something of a tradition for me – aided by the two free tickets we won as part of the Twist Contest, but also the announcement of the next theme Comic Book Flicks.

Trailer Trash! Presents Comic Book Flicks

Being the complete nerd I am I couldn’t resist this event as a theme. I outlined my costume in a previous post here but was so excited by the sound of it that I rallied my friends from work to team up for the event.

Group Shot!

Part of the group made X-men movie themed costumes while others included Sailor Moon, Wonder Woman, Captain Kirk, Robin and myself and Sadie as Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy.

Photos courtesy of Marcel Volker

The event was just as good as the first, with a Harley Quinn burlesque dancer, a musical act featuring the Joker and Rosy hosting in a phenomenal Tank Girl outfit.

I've said before that I actually managed to win the costume contest at this event, which ensured my attendance at the next one...

Trailer Trash! Presents Vampires Vs Zombies

Vampires vs Zombies seemed like a perfect theme for a belated Halloween event. As someone who doesn’t normally like Zombie films I decided to attend as a Vampire – Seline from Underworld (you can see my blog post about it here). This time the gory Trailer Trash Troupe were dressed as the undead, sporting signs reading Vampires Suck and Zombies Are Shit. Meanwhile the host handed out bloody guts (or possibly spaghetti, I hope it was spaghetti…) to the willing  Zombie attendies and introduced acts. The acts including a great Lost Boys burlesque and a fantastic aerial act to the intro tune of True Blood, but the night was made by the grand finale of a Vampire vs Zombies showdown to the tune of Michael Jacksons Thriller!

Seline, me as Seline and antics from the evening (image sources here)

Over the Christmas break I managed to miss the New Year Pirates of the Carribbean Special so I was more than ready to return to Trailer Trash! For their Baz Luhrmann event the following March.

Trailer Trash! Presents Baz Luhrmann

Dressed as an ‘undressed’ Can-Can girl from the El TangoDel Roxanne number form Moulin Rouge! I again managed to encourage a large group of friends to attend. My fiancé wore the fake 'tache of the NarcolepticArgentinian to match my costume while many other outfits included variations on the Can-Can theme. But my friend Marcel as Drover from Australia complete with duck-billed platypus was one of my favourites!

Trailer Trash! Was then on hiatus for a year… but when it returned it was up to the usual tricks with a fantastic Sci-Fi theme! 

Trailer Trash! Presents Sci-Fi Apocalypse 

With costumes from Star Wars, The Matrix, Blade Runner and The 5^th Element all thrown into the mix the choices seemed endless. In the end I plumped for a Rachael from Blade Runner costume (as seen here) simply because I already had the dress and her face was on the poster. I think this event was my personal favourite of all that I have attended, partly because the theme was broad enough to really get the crowd involved (and believe me they were!!) but also because the act quality was fantastic. The performance of the Diva from the 5th element with an acrobatic Lee Loo on the silks in particular, but other great acts were a belly dance from Princess Leia to Britney's I’m a Slave 4 U and a frightening cabaret performance from the 50 foot woman.

Photos from my blog post and Ashley Clark photography

Unfortunately that has been it for my Trailer Trash! experience. Work commitments and bad timing meant that I missed their last two events David Lynch and Vegas but a slightly freer timetable has meant that I will be attending the next event.

Trailer Trash! Presents Prohibition Speakeasy Special

The next event is the Speakeasy special, with vintage dancers, style, gangster glamour, electro-swing and more.

I terms of costume planning, any regular readers of my blog will know I have attended several of this type of event (and I have a gallery of my flapper appearences to follow shortly) so I have decided to go for something a little different.

Here’s a clue...

I’ll post after the event to let you know how my costume turned out and hopefully with some pictures form the event itself.

Trailer Trash! Presents Prohibition Speakeasy Special is on Friday the 23rd of March at Komedia Brighton - tickets available here.

Hopefully I’ll see you there!