|
PAPPY'S FUN CLUB - * * * * *
Pappy would be proud. The members of his Fun
Club seem destined for bigger things. Their 2007
Edinburgh Fringe show (titled Pappy’s Fun
Club) picks up hot on the heels of their 2006
offering, which garnered them a nomination as
Chortle’s Best Newcomer. This year Pappy’s
raise the bar even higher with their We Are Klang-like
musings on the silly and ridiculous, topped off
with a distinct hint of intelligence and much
perverse charm.
For those as yet unacquainted with Pappy’s
Fun Club, they are Matthew, Brendan, Tom and Ben,
a sketch group/crew/posse/tribe – I forget
the correct comedy terminology – who subvert,
deconstruct and, to all intents and purposes,
tear apart the conventional sketch show structure.
They chat between sketches. They don’t
hide anything behind blackouts. They regularly
set themselves up for, and revel in, failure.
They chastise each other for poor gags. They consistently
follow ideas that, in the hands of other performers,
may well fall a little flat. The comic prowess
and skewed thinking of this sketch team, however,
ensures that they don’t. For proof of this
see how the mind-crushingly boring subject of
tax self evaluation is made howl-makingly, tear-inducingly
funny by Tom Parry’s insane, generically
‘European’ Tax Man, who wears an eye-patch
over one eye and a child’s cash register
over the other.
It is tax self evaluation that forms the first
of this show’s gloriously flimsy through-lines
– Pappy’s Fun Club must submit their
taxes or they will be forbidden to perform any
more sketches. It is Pappy himself, the Club’s
elderly and elusive benefactor, who provides the
second – he is ill in hospital and requires
the replacement of every single bodily organ.
They seek donors and try to recruit an accountant
(though eventually settle for the tax-calculating
services of a Celtic Warrior who has been through
a suitably idiotic Rocky-esque training montage).
Along the way, we witness the comeback of folk
trio Marty, Mim and Julius. We are granted unexpected
access to Abraham Lincoln’s diaries. We
see the trailer for new movie, Things That Are
Scary For Only A Short Amount of Time. And we
are treated to an interminable performance by
Bob Dylan’s band.
Whether the Fun Club eventually reach their
tax or donor goal is ultimately irrelevant. You’ll
probably have forgotten that they had any such
goals in the first place (as well as forgetting
where and who you are) due to laughing quite so
much.
Matthew, Tom, Ben and Brendan appear such a
close-knit team. This is evident in their ability
to feed off each other, improvise freely, keep
things fresh and find exactly the right tone to
make one another corpse.
This is the absolute joy of Pappy’s Fun
Club: they enjoy it, and, moreover, they want
so much for you to enjoy it, too. Go see them.
Soon. Before everyone else catches on to their
talent and you can’t get a ticket.
Oli Seadon
Original link: http://www.broadwaybaby.com/...
|
|
