Saturday night saw the annual Xpatloop.com charity event for the Smiling Hospital Foundation on Guy Fawkes Day. Treehugger Dan's again sponsored the event with advertising and a prize for the prize draw and silent auction. Again, there was a very good turnout, and it is a party I look forward to every year. This year the wine was sponsored by Tamas Duzsi. In the past, I have not been impressed with his offerings, however, there have been some improvements. While I found the O Voros a bit light for my taste, I did enjoy the Kekfrankos, Syrah, and the Gorogszo (Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc) in particular. I also liked getting to know some acquaintances a bit better, and making some new friends. And it was all for charity. This year, 1.1 million Huf was raised. The after party that I went to ended up at Otkert. I tried Otkert a couple years ago and had such a bad experience that I never went back. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised at the friendly service and good music being played this time.

Earl Okin returned to Hungary for a one man show at Baby Blue Banana on Tuesday. Earl is one of the true greats of British music and comedy, he combines his genuine world-class talent for jazz and bossanova with a parallel talent for comic songs and hilarious quips. Many of the greatest comedy and musical talents in the world rate him as their own personal favorite, including Eddie Izzard, Billy Connolly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Frank Skinner, Van Morrison and Paul McCartney. Earl kindly helped us out last year by giving an extra free concert for us at Red Mud Aid. Of course there have been others like John Robertson and Jim Tavaré that combine music with comedy, among comedians that have come to Budapest, Earl is unique in that his show mainly consists of musical comedy. There was none of the so-called warm up "where are you from?" crap, he just went straight into his act. Many of the tunes took the piss out of various styles of music, like the French song, bossanova song, folks song and the country song. I did not find any of these outright funny, but they were well done. "My Room," and "Bessie Get Your Arm Off Me" on the other hand had me laughing out loud. There was also one song in particular which I will call "She Just Could Not take Anymore," which was an audience participation song and much like group sex. I found it most interesting which sounds the audience were willing to participate in and which not. I also wonder if that varies from audience to audience or country to country? He is a true showman.