But That Only Happen In Movies!

In an effort to get some good comment-creating action happening here on Couch Culture (and remove pictures of Yasmin from my front page), I thought I might share a story.

This story happens in a country far, far away, even farther away than Perth. I had the night off work and had joined some friends at a local establishment for drinks and all-round good ol' fashioned funtimes™ when one of my friends (he is a dancer), suggested we all go down to the bar in the basement where the dance music was playing.

I'm definitely not the dancing type, there was even a special bill passed through the Australian Senate last year forbidding me to wiggle my butt in public. But since I wasn't in the country, there was no need for fear of incarceration, and I soon found myself doing the straight-white-guy dance.

The basement bar was a little less crowded than the one above, and there was no marked out dance floor, so we simply picked out a spot, stood in a circle and had a bit of a jig. Naturally, my dancer friend was busting a few moves and putting the rest of us in our place. It also helped that he was at the point between be drunk enough to lose all inhibitions, and being sober enough to stand.

Suddenly, a group (posse?) of five guys confronted us. One of the guys took my friend aside and has a stern discussion with him. The rest of the posse produced video-phones.

It was on. A dance-off.

I'd always thought dance-offs only happen in movies and poor excuses for music videos. But here it was, happening in front of me on a Tueday night in a semi-urban backwater.

The competition was tight. Everytime my friend busted something out, his opposition followed it up with something equally good. As we neared the end of the song, it was impossible to pick a winner.

Then he did it. Timed perfectly with the last bar, a magnificently executed split. The bar went wild. The enemy was vanquished. Handshakes and hugs were exchanged between my friend and the posse.

And then he came to me, and I realised just how drunk he was by the look in his eyes. And he said something to me that I'll never forget.

He said:"Statler, who won?"

The next time I saw him, he told me that he only barely remembered the entire incident, and had never heard the song he danced to before that night, and so he didn't know when it would end. From what I hear, the dance-off is now a part of that bar's folklore.

So now I ask you, dear blogreaders, have you ever been witness to something that has made you say "But that only happens in movies"? Or something else similarly bizarre? Please drop your answers in the box provided.

File Under:

• Statler