Comedy preview: Pappy's Fun Club - Funergy, On tour
Saturday 13 December 2008

A common criticism of sketch shows is that they tend by their nature to be hit and miss (although anyone who trots out the old chestnut about 90% of Monty Python not being all that funny clearly hasn't watched it in a while). Fresh-faced up-and-comers Pappy's Fun Club manage to dodge this problem with a League Of Gentlemen-style solution, creating their own self-contained comic world that quickly grabs the audience's attention (and affection) and joyfully sustains it over an hour. This third full-length outing for the Fun Club was a huge hit at Edinburgh in the summer, but the skills of these four gifted writer-performers are particularly suited to the Christmas season, when it's possible to relish their high energy and virulently infectious playfulness all the more. Shows tend to build towards a hysterically chaotic climax that can generate rock gig-like excitement and if Pappy's can keep operating at these levels into 2009, it's not hard to imagine them pulling the kind of mass following that the Mighty Boosh enjoy.

• Komedia, Bath, Sat 13; Landor Theatre, SW9, Sun 14; Purcell Room, SE1, Mon 15

Original link: www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/dec/13/...