PAPPY'S FUN CLUB
MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL

Yay! It’s Pappy’s Fun Club, here to save the day!

I hate to state the obvious, but Pappy’s Fun Club is really fun. This show interweaves a mix of music, skit and play in a show which has the funnest use of call backs I’ve seen in a long time. The superficial anarchy of the four protagonists, Matthew, Brendan, Ben and Tom, belies the cyclical and narrative aspects of this show.

Even the intro to this show is fun. They’ve bypassed that disembodied voice saying “please put your hands together and welcome to the stage…”. Instead Matthew simply runs onto the stage, says some stuff, then Tom does the same, then Ben, then Brendan (or then Brendan, then Ben, I can’t remember which exactly but you get the idea).

They flip in and out of different characters easily using home made props and dubious characterisations which all add to the sense of play. This is a game of dress-ups with guitars and jokes, and the music is used as a vehicle to propel the ideas and fast paced action along.

But, for all it’s [sic] silliness and play, this show will create images and ideas which will resound with you long after the curtains have closed, such as a fabulous inspirational montage, a stint as Bob Dylan’s backing band, a half baked prank show and the best audience interaction ploy I think I’ve ever seen. The Fun Club seem to have a ball as they run through their paces and it’s often difficult to tell what dialogue is scripted and what is improvised. By the end of the show you’ll feel like you just watched these boys go on a “choose your own adventure” style journey, and you get the feeling that any other night could result in a completely different show (even though I don’t think that this actually does happen).

Pappy’s Fun Club is very funny, and when they’re not being funny they are FUN!!! They must make Pappy so proud!!! Go see them.

Annette Slattery

Original Link: http://www.thegroggysquirrel.com/articles/2008/...