The Montague Street Incorrigibles

 With the Dangling Prussian Pub Night coming January 14th of 2022, you might have noticed the subtitle, "The Montague Street Incorrigibles Non-Annual Non-Dinner." It's plainly a take-off on the Baker Street Irregulars Annual Dinner, which will be happening at exactly the same time on exactly the same night. But was this "MSI" club created just for this event?

Not at all. It's the return of a group that originated in 1985.

While the most enthusiastic of Sherlockians have long gathered for the New York Sherlock Holmes birthday weekend in January, or at various weekend events, that has never been enough for us, has it? And after a particularly fun weekend with some great Sherlockians in 1984, one young Sherlockian thought a virtual gathering of such great folks would be a wonderful thing. But it was still 1984, with no way of even bringing such a group together on the same phone call, much less a video chat. The only solution?

Meeting in a fictional place as fictional versions of ourselves.

And thus, the Dangling Prussian was born, named by Sherlock Holmes himself and fictionally created with a bit of inspiration from Callahan's Cross-time Saloon by Spider Robinson, and the main stuff of Sherlockian lore. A pub where it was, literally, always 1895, and Colonel Moran took a shot at someone at the very first meeting.

How did this happen? Well, the members of the club that gathered in the pages of the Prussian wrote their comments for the meeting and sent it to the club editor. That poor chap took out his electric typewriter and combined all of the members' words into the dialogue of a fictional meeting, doing a whole lot of retyping with the very low words-per-minute speed of one who got a "D" in his high school typing class. The publication that came to the members three times a year always had some little very real item from the fictional story in the envelope, such as the Victorian penny in the first issue that caused one to bend over and pick it up, and be missed by Moran's ill-timed bullet.

Nine members attended that first meeting on February 21, 1985 (or 1895, depending upon your perspective). Three of those nine appeared on a Zoom I attended just this week, so the founding members of that fictional/factual group, the Montague Street Incorrigibles still walk among us.

The Montague Street Incorrigibles eventually morphed into the Dangling Prussian Amateur Press Association, when the slow typist got tired of typing. (An amateur press association was a sort of fanzine where every member sent in their own copied pages and the club secretary assembled all those individual pages between two covers and stapled them together.) And in that form, the Incorrigibles and the Prussian went on until 1998. And after that, many of them went on to do regular writings in The Holmes & Watson Report.

The Montague Street Incorrigibles was created in 1985 as a society for Sherlockians who couldn't gather together in person and had to resort to the only technology available at the time. It's now 2021, and we have better technology for doing that very thing, as many Sherlockian societies have done well using. A few new Zoom-only groups have also grown up around the technology, like "Theatre-Goers, Homeward Bound" and "Five Miles From Anywhere." The John H. Watson Society, a formerly journal-based society, was glad to finally have a means to gather in person without actually being in person. After all that, it only made sense, when a gathering theme was needed for a Friday night Zoom on January 14th, to bring back that group from 1980s with a new spin.

And the name works just fine for our current needs as well. If you can't afford to travel, still can't risk the viruses of travel, or just didn't get an invitation to the Baker Street Irregulars dinner in New York, and you're a Sherlockian incorrigible enough to still want a social gathering that night, well . . . .

The Montague Street Incorrigibles is back, and we're taking new members for one night only. Well, one night only so far . . . let's see how this goes. Pub nights at the Dangling Prussian are back!

Here again is the registration link, if you have yet to sign up:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMsd-mspzosGNWrY5QEPzpJIR0YFCGCQMfL 

The Sherlockian stand-up comic

 With a pub night at the Dangling Prussian on the radar for January 14th, a lot of planning and recruiting is about to get set into motion, and as with any event being organized, one starts to form a mental wish list. And in the spotlight's glow in the center of mine is one big thing: A Sherlockian stand-up comic. Or two. (What can I say? If one bombs, I want back-up.)

We don't seem to have a lot of existing Sherlockian stand-up comedians. We have singers. I've seen Sherlockian magicians. We have actors. And we have funny writers, YouTubers, and generally amusing conversationalists. But a Sherlockian stand-up comedian?

I don't know that we have that. But I really, really, REALLY want one for that Dangling Prussian pub night. Enough so that if one doesn't exist already, I'm prepared to build one. Get a writing team together. Start watching Zooms closely for natural screen presence. Rehearse. Screen test. Whatever. So if one doesn't turn up . . . well, extreme lengths have been gone to for Sherlockian causes in the past. It's who we are.

Sure, it's not going to work as well as a naturally talented comic with the desire and experience at the art form, but, hey, this is the Sherlockian world. Our audiences aren't exactly the catcalling roughest-part-of-the-NYC-comedy-clubs sort. (Though nature might create the natural adversary of the stand-up comic, just because we brought one into the ecosystem.) I think we can get a passable excuse for a comic together, one way or the other.

So if you have any inclinations in that direction, or would like to help write some jokes for such a rare creature, let me know. Going to be using the old podcast email for official Prussian business in the next couple of months, so leave a comment below or drop an email to sherlockholmesisrealpodcast@gmail.com

*Added note. There are no plans to record ANY of the Pub Night at the Dangling Prussian, so that our guests, entertainment, and staff feel free to express themselves in whatever elaborate Victorian curses they should so desire. (Hey, we saw Deadwood!) It is a pub night after all.

Sherlock's Birthday Week Friday Pub Night!

Attention all scalawags, layabouts, rapscallions, and full grown street urchins of the Sherlockian, Holmesian, and Watsonian worlds!

On Friday night, January 14th, a pub of legend is opening its Zoom doors for an evening of distraction, gossip, merriment, and feats of mental brawn, as the Dangling Prussian plays host to the Montague Street Incorrigibles Non-Annual Non-Dinner!

What’s that you say? You’re not a member of the Montague Street Incorrigibles? Doesn't matter! This is a virtual pub night party for Sherlockians and Holmesians of all affiliations or no affiliations. If you've got the time, we've got the cheer.

Here's the registration link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMsd-mspzosGNWrY5QEPzpJIR0YFCGCQMfL 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

The Schedule (all Eastern Time U.S.)

6:00 to 8:00,  Happy Hour

Join for general chat and wander the tables of the pub for conversation and friendly faces. Zoom might call them “breakout rooms,” but we’re reserving them under the names …

The Brett party’s table (perhaps to discuss television)

The Rathbone party's table (perhaps to discuss movies)

The Starrett party's table (perhaps to discuss pastiche)

The Watson party's table (perhaps to discuss the Canon)

The Morley party's table (perhaps to discuss the Sherlockiana)

I mean, folks at any table can talk about whatever they’re going to talk about, of course. And from 7:00 to 10:00, pub trivia questions will be randomly sent out to the tables. If the occupants of said table at that moment can answer that question in a private message in the chat to the host, their table scores a point, and a winning table will eventually be announced. (Not being a formal competition, you can always jumps table and beef up an underdog’s points — it’s really just about the fun.)

Also, you can get inducted into the Montague Street Incorrigibles upon entry, should you so wish. There’s a small ceremonial bit.

8:00 to 9:00, As Formal A Program As You’re Going To See

There will be toasting, first and foremost, and some entertainments are currently being lined up. Again, this is going to be about the fun. No serious presentations on pub night.

9:00 to Midnight, Anything That Didn’t Get Done Earlier

You’ve heard of rap battles, but have you ever heard of a limerick brawl? Now you have. Singing? Dancing? Reports from any other events or misadventures in the rest of the world that night? Who knows, it’s a Zoom party.