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On The Funny Side
Verdict: skilfully-balanced night of sublime stand-up
London - Bar 242 (aka Blackfriars Pavilion) - Sep-Dec 03
Americans scanning the globe for markers of their popularity might pause in London, where 11 September sees the launch of the comedy season for at least two significant companies - Ealing Live! at Ealing Studios, and Underhand at Bar 242.
Regular host MC - Matt Holt returns tonight - after the holiday and Edinburgh Fringe recess - to start fortnightly gigs till Christmas. There's a barrage of party-poppers. He's been practising comedy in his bedroom over the break, heckling himself 'You're shit, and I've had your mum', before realising the implications. Bar 242 (aka Blackfriars Pavilion) is a wine bar for city traders by day. It's a comfortable vaulted space, intimate and ideal for stand-up at night.
Alexis Dubus's a tall slim handsome lad in smart grey pinstripe short-sleeve shirt. It's fashionable in the Chiltern village he's called home, where local radio station Chiltern FM features 'a DJ like Hannibal Lecter'. Material tonight includes AD's holiday time in a Paris jacuzzi, mystery disappeances solved (Lord Lucan and Red Rum), AD's early experience with a koala bear, and the Britney Queers. It's a sharp, flowing set from a resourceful stand-up gifted with a mobile and impish face. Trooper that he is, Alexis Dubus steps in here at short notice because Katy Wix has fallen off a bus.
Katy Wix isn't performing tonight, but she's gamely in the audience, her pretty face a bit swollen on one side and a cracked bone or two from falling on the pavement. She explains: a blind man pushed her off a bus. Yes, really. And she points the finger of blame, or possibly, paw: 'I think it was the dog's fault'. Katy's in quite a lot of pain, but nothing wasteful ever happens to a stand-up, and it's already shaping into an excellent routine. Get well very soon, Katy, and tell us about it.
Matt Blaize punches hands with lads in the audience and asks if there are any South Africans in the audience. Unfortunately not, so MB's unable to taunt them. He's been off booze for 93 days, and looking excellently fit from it. Tonight, recklessly good-looking MB's in lime green long-sleeved cotton shirt, with open neck and cuffs, modestly accessoried with medallion and bracelet. Ever stylish, he recalls a nightmare gig in Harlow where a heckler pressed her face up to his ('semen on her breath') and asked if he considered himself superior. Bad move: 'Do I think I'm better than you, you working-class nightmare? Yes I do.' He points to Michael Barrymore's house being in Harlow: 'Man bummed to death in a £2m bunglalow - imagine what the rough areas are like.'
Matt Blaize's set tonight includes drugs, heterosexuality v homosexuality, watching your parents having sex, birth control, a side reference to sexual perversion in Norfolk, smoking, and silencing difficult children. MB's an authoritative presence with a strong command of the room, rapid reaction, subtle and perceptive material. He's also charming, risky - and very funny.
Steve (Busker) plays guitar during and sings during the interval. His material tonight covers a wide range, including 60s and 70s pieces such as Norwegian Wood, and Help! (Beatles), and Jumping Jack Flash (Rolling Stones).
Julie Latham kicks off the second half with elegance and grace. JL's sophisticatedly gorgeous in white couture sleeveless top, blue jeans, with big silver hoop earrings complementing her softly-spiked black hair. Tonight she selects Laughter (from Des'ree's album Mind Adventures), and sings without accompaniment. It's a stunning performance, her smooth mellifluous voice silencing and thrilling the hushed audience (the hush being a substantial achievement). Julie Latham has delighted a cappella at many distinguished venues including Jazz Café, the Phoenix Festival, and Ronnie Scott's. This short piece - in perfect pitch - with its controlled but vivid exposition of emotion, eloquently explains why.
Tom Price does stand-up tonight. He's also a fine actor, having starred (to substantial critical acclaim) as John Cleese (opposite Adrian Poynton's Graham Chapman) at this year's Edinburgh Fringe in A Very Naughty Boy - The Life of Graham Chapman. He's a tall man with an orangey Tintin quiff, sporting a modest t-shirt with 'Speedway' in discreet gold lamé lettering and khaki trousers.
Yes, Tom Price isn't a shrinking violet - his eyes are far too twinkling for that - and he's soon exposing intimate secrets about his girlfriend. For a start, she went to Cambridge - not through Cambridge ('that would just make you late for Peterborough'). Should one read Thomas The Tank Engine to girlfriends as a subtle way of breaking up? How would Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King's historic speeches sound if management-speak involving pie-charts had been available? How might al-Qaeda cast horoscopes? Tom Price has the answers. It's fast, it's engaging, it's informative, it's intellectual, it's possibly dangerous - and yes, he is Welsh. From Monmouth - as his tales of coloured wool (don't ask) illustrate.
Nina Conti appears with not one, but two, barely house-trained monkeys in tow. Or rather, on hand, as they derive life from her. Monk (and new usurping monkey Stuart) are ventriloquist NC's accessories, though Monk would see it most likely as the other way round. Nina Conti is smart in black velvet top, combats, silver earrings and hair piled up to a comb. Monk's hair is, well, monkey-like. He also has a wet tail after NC's finished dunking him in a more-or-less empty beer glass.
Monk's a world-weary Irish old gentleman, with a voice like Dave Allen and a very filthy tongue. Tonight he recalls being NC's dog Max's 'bitch for the night' in a dog-basket in Ireland, and buggers poor Stuart relentlessly. Not that Stuart minds (NC: 'Stuart, are you all right?' Stuart: 'Very happy, thank you'). Finally Monk appears naked (NC's bare hand), and Nina Conti performs the ultimate for a ventriloquist - internalising the dummy.
Not that anyone would dare use the d-word to Monk.
Nina Conti presents a cunning and masterfully-delivered set, that uses ventriloquism to produce a smart fusion of monkey-observational comedy and startlingly original stand-up.
Matt Holt programmes and comperes this imaginatively-balanced night of stand-up in an intimate venue. The capacity crowd's a tribute to his dedication and skill in creating from scratch a prime destination night-time comedy club - from a standing start earlier this year - and the loyalty for the audience to return en masse on this first night after the break. Richard Wright handles the sound expertly.
Noise from customers talking at the bar interferes fairly consistently with the acts - it's referred to by various performers on-stage throughout the evening. If a mild and temporary form of euthanasia's not an option, relaying the performance by CCTV to a plasma screen in the bar might involve the bar crowd more with what's going on. The increasing success of this gig (completely sold out tonight) and the delightfully congenial nature of the venue, management and staff could justify perfecting the audience's experience.
Performance Credits (alpha order): Matt Blaize. Alexis Dubus. Nina Conti. Julie Latham. Tom Price. Steve. MC - Matt Holt. Curtain - Nic Watson, Jake Wiltshire. Sound - Richard Wright (Impulse Sound). Company - Underhand (alpha order: Rohan Acharya, James Galea, Matt Holt, Jim Morrison, Mike Smith, Nic Watson). Producer - Matt Holt.
Venue Credits (alpha order): Venue Owners - Mike Bolton, Robin East. Venue Manager - Pauline Lord.
END
John Park
reviewed Thursday 11 September 03 / Bar 242 (aka Blackfriars Pavilion)
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2009
