Christmas Clachan: 8th December 2020 – Virtual

What a virtual night to remember.

Although we were not able to have our normal traditional Christmas Clachan, face to face, nothing was going to stop Old Friends and new, have a fabulous festive night.  With a 150 members and guests getting into the spirit, most were adorned with Christmas jumpers, festive hats, sparkling lights and plenty of cheer.  Even Jack Barwick got dressed for the occasion!

Our President started the celebrations by raising a glass and welcoming Old Friends and guests, to what was our first virtual Christmas Clachan. 

We were delighted to have secured a top guest to help us get into the party mood, Jon Culshaw certainly didn’t disappoint.  Not sure who was having more fun, as we were due to have a 20-30 minute session with Jon. However, he was in top form and entertained us for 45 minutes. 

Jon began the evening with an impression of Donald Trump – love him or hate him, Jon mastered the Donald perfectly and set the hilarious tone for the evening.

Our President invited guests to share with Jon which celebrity they would most like to meet, and Jon showed his brilliance in not just providing an impersonation, but crafting a humorous story to fit with it, in a matter of seconds.  For a comedian who would normally thrive on audience laughter, Jon made the virtual interaction look effortless, moving seamlessly from one character to another, capturing the accents and mannerisms in such a hilarious way.

From the crazy, bat-eating brummie Ozzy Osbourne, to our illustrious leader Boris Johnson, we had everything in between with renditions of Michael McIntyre, Sir Terry Wogan, Frank Bruno, booming Brian Blessed and The Doctor – Tom Baker.  It was a truly amazing performance!

Our special thanks go to Old Friends Steve Hilleard for the use of OPI’s premium Zoom account and especially Old Friend Janet Bell for her amazing support, both before and during the event.

Comments following the event:

“A short message to congratulate you for such a brilliant event last night.  Really well done. I absolutely hate virtual socials but this was excellent, both at the breakouts and the choice of guest.  Sparkling – and it put a smile on my face.” – John Watson

 “Jon had the amazing skills that allowed you to think it was personal. I will certainly be making a donation to the SOF later today” – Mike James

“We all know you can’t replicate the face to face experience of getting together with Old Friends, but if we are going to do things virtually, then that was the way to do it!” – David Langdown

“This was my first ‘official’ event as an Old Friend (I’ve been as a guest before, but only once or twice) and I look forward to many more in the future, hopefully most of them in person again! And I thought Jon Culshaw was just excellent – very funny and very clever!” – Heike Dieckmann

“A brilliant night with an amazing impressive impressionist.” – Graeme Chapman

“Best Zoom experience I have had so far ! I even had a bit of a hangover this morning… just like a “real” Clachan!” – Steve Cafferty

“As said on the chat by many, well done, that was the best Zoom session I have been involved in” – Peter Duncan

This may well go down as the best virtual event, ever!