| The Cambridge Student, 18-Jan-08 |
  
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Pappy's Fun Club, ADC Theatre, Friday 18th January,
11pm
AN EVENING OF FRIVOLOUS FUN
Those queuing outside the ADC on Friday hoping
to gain a last minute seat for the sold-out Pappy's
Fun Club show missed a fast-paced, boisterous
and, at times, hilariously shambolic hour of comedy.
If.comedy award nominees for best newcomer at
the Edinburgh Fringe this year, Pappy's Fun Club
not so much graced, but rather haphazardly sung,
danced, acted and improvised their way through
the evening.
The start was modest; an introduction to our
entertainers (Matt Crosby, Tom Parry, Brendan
Dodds and Ben Clark) and an insight into the loose
narrative that would just about manage to string
the sketches together, involving the quartet's
tax problems and phone updates on their benefactor
Pappy's progress in hospital. It was clear from
the outset that this was not intended to be a
tight knit or sleekly professional show, though
the manner in which the performers highlighted
this by their mutual mockery of each other's mistakes,
corpsing and revelling in their own childishness
only added to the audience's endearment of their
casual approach.
After amusing, but not side-splitting, short
introductory sketches such as a movie trailer
for 'Things that are only scary for a short amount
of time', a skit as Bob Dylan's backing band and
Len Taunton's pointedly mild prank show, the modest
start escalates into something far superior.
The portrayal of Abraham Lincoln reading his
diaries ('Emancipated the slaves today. Well done
me!'), the inventive wordplay in a conversation
between Up, Down, Left and Right and the ingeniously
constructed audience participation scene showed
real ability for comedic scriptwriting as well
as a clear aptitude for performing. Moments of
flatness were rare, and were simply overcome by
the acknowledgment that joke should be scrapped,
which brought back the laughter.
As the piece developed and old characters and
jokes returned, the performance was given a roundness
and unity that at the beginning it very nearly
appeared to lack. Even if the humour wasn't quite
your cup of tea, you couldn't help but laugh along
with the general air of merriment that this quartet
created in the theatre. However, if you were hoping
for something a little more intellectual and substantive,
you may have been disappointed by the idiocy,
silliness and frivolity of a tax man in underpants
with a child's cash register attached to his head.
Nevertheless, it was entertaining, wacky and performed
with a great sense of fun, if not revolutionary.
Jen Neil
Original link: http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/issue/theatre/...
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