PAPPY'S FUN CLUB
MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2008

Billed as post-sketch comedy, Pappy's Fun Club owes a huge debt to the anarchic antics of Monty Python, The Goodies and The Young Ones. Don't get me wrong, though, I'm saying this like the good thing it totally is. I was a little worried, at first, about the post part of the deal: with this show, it manifests itself as regular analysis of the jokes on stage by the comedians themselves and some clever twists in the story turning back in upon themselves. There is always a danger with this kind of the thing of the whole shebang disappearing up its own arse, but Pappy's Fun Club have just the right amount of pith and irony to pull it off.

Destined more surely for television than anything I've seen at he Festival this year, the gentlemanly British four-piece serve us up an alarmingly silly and enjoyable evening, structured as variety show with 'guests', musical interludes and 'educational' segments. Highlights include a sketch where the Fun Club play Bob Dylan's backing band, (a piece where the meat of the joke took a long time to eventuate but was worth the wait); perhaps the only convincing flashback I've ever seen on stage; a lovely segment on a folk band reunion that ends in tears and a ripper piece of audience participation, complete with 'parts' for the hapless victims that has me thanking a god I don't believe in I'm not chosen.

Not only is Pappy's Fun Club funny in the tradition of the great English comedy mentioned above, it is also an exploration of that funniness, both its successes and its failings. This makes for an interesting phenomenon. Not much comedy I've ever seen can generate this many laughs about how unfunny it an be. One is slightly reminded of a snake eating its own tail, but rest assured, the Pappy's boys have a firm grip on the serpent here.

Tony McMahon

Original Link: N/A - print only