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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Big Day Out
Verdict: Sketch comedy
London - Canal Café Theatre - 21 Nov 04 - 19:00 (20:00)
Big Day Out is sketch comedy from a cast of three (3M). It runs for 60 minutes and may be heading for Edinburgh 05.
Individual recognition is a sure marker on the road to a boy-band's success, and the lads in Big Day Out may have studied this with care, because they're very easy to tell apart.
Matt Chorley's the short and cute one, with a smile that combines a certain innocence with a hint of worrying mania. William Kenning is very tall, and tonight has a black, saturnine beard. Lewis Georgeson is exactly their average height, with bright red hair.
There's a clever mobile-phone sketch in which everyone including the unseen caller bitches and plots about each other. Lewis Georgeson as Darren Mint cleverly satirises flip-chart-manipulating counsellors, with Matt Chorley as his gay, dyslexic victim James.
There's an ongoing angry-Christian voiceover, relating everyday incidents to the Son of God. William Kenning damages a monkey while attempting 'Always Look On The Bright Side of Life' on the piano.
William Kenning's a doctor with a cucumber penis to Lewis Georgeson's impotency patient. Matt Chorley is Michael Stipe (lead singer of REM) in an ongoing sketch following the great man's superbly dull, do-gooding and self-centred diary - with Everybody Hurts droning in the background.
All three actors appear as jazz legends on Michael Parkinson. Domino & Domino (William Kenning & Lewis Georgeson) need Matt Chorley's character to change sex to even-up their compliance with equal-opportunities legislation. Lewis Georgeson is a Country & Western singer defeated by tuning his guitar.
There's a restaurant sketch; old-age Olympics; a sketch about actors, stand-ups and casting directors - narrated by David Attenborough.
The final sketch, possibly the highlight, is a spoof radio play The Return of the Jim Zacko - Midnight Treasures of The Dark. Writer Theo Fellino (Lewis Georgeson), method actor (in pirate clothes) Terence McCarthy (William Kenning), and Toby (Matt Chorley) as the production's Foley (sound effects) artist ruthlessly satirise the pretensions of radio drama.
There's an analogy - in the kind of material, and the way it is performed - to The Trap (FRA 04 - Best Comedy Group). But the individual skills and personal charisma of each of the performers create an own-brand to their comedy.
Most of the sketches - perhaps 3/4 of them - work; some are extremely funny. These particularly include Matt Chorley's ruthless Michael Stipe parody; the ensemble radio-play sketch; the mobile-phone routine; and the Darren Mint flip-chart sketch.
Cast Credits (alpha order): Matt Chorley, Lewis Georgeson, William Kenning.
Company Credits: Written, performed, directed by the cast.
Lighting & Sound - Ross McGivern. Venue Credits: Canal Café Theatre: Technical Director - Ross McGivern. Box Office - Venue Staff. Acting Artistic Director - Louis Brownhill. Artistic Director - Emma Taylor.
END
John Park
reviewed Sunday 21 November 04 / Canal Café Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
