April 21, 2008
This is a must-see show. Following proudly in the tradition of earlier varsity sketch shows, these companies could well be nurturing the future talent of British comedy. Book your tickets for the next one well in advance, because it’s likely to sell fast – last night people were turned away at the box office.
The show brings together three student comedy groups – the Durham Revue and the Cambridge Footlights comprising the first hour and a half, and the Oxford Revue delighting the audience with a full hour after the interval. Although there is clearly talent in all three companies the show just kept getting better throughout the night. Durham, despite being too quiet at times, were reminiscent of early Lee and Herring, with one particularly screechy player reminding of Kevin Eldon as Rod Hull. While producing some amusing material like their deliciously non-PC Famous Five sketch, the overall tone was, like Lee and Herring, rather silly and occasionally peurile: Benjamin Disraeli blowing a raspberry at William Gladstone across the despatch box to his personalised jingle music. Self-referentialism was also in, but gags about doing a sketch show seem a weaker substitute for – well, gags that don’t refer to the fact you’re doing a sketch show.
The Cambridge Footlights launch hilariously into their segment with a very funny take on improvised comedy – which is neither improvised, nor comedic in their very ironic rendition and which, whatever you think of improv, managed to capture the self-consciously ‘zany’ air adopted by many improvisers, not least in their exaggerated body language. A one-man book review of the dictionary had the audience absolutely roaring with laughter, while a similarly solitary performance of the new song, Simulated Sexual Conception of a Child Tonight, will, I’m sure, stay with many of us for years to come. The Footlights have historically provided us with some of Britain’s favourite comedians – Peter Cook, John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, to name but a few. If the current troupe keeps polishing its material and irons out the misses from the hits, we may yet see some current members’ names in lights.
The undoubted stars of the show, however, are the Oxford Revue. In a period when TV comedy has become staid, derivative and formulaic it’s an incredible relief to see such outstanding young talent coming up through the ranks. Virtually every sketch was brilliant, from a heated argument conducted entirely in GCSE-level French, to a drunken reading of If by Kipling, to a truly inspired skit on Shakespeare (importing verse from the Poddington Peas and Pokemon), to the trials of the Hogwarts sorting hat, to the nefarious plots of the Welsh to confuse the English and the Mute Italian Argument square-off. The performances were perfect, the material bursting with originality and wit. This is not a ‘student show’ (with all the pejorative references that can imply); it’s a hilarious performance by young comedians who happen to be Oxford students. The Oxford Revue are simply superb. There is more talent on the Playhouse stage this week than I have seen in most prime-time TV comedy and in many British comedy clubs over the last couple of years. Go and see this show.
The show brings together three student comedy groups – the Durham Revue and the Cambridge Footlights comprising the first hour and a half, and the Oxford Revue delighting the audience with a full hour after the interval. Although there is clearly talent in all three companies the show just kept getting better throughout the night. Durham, despite being too quiet at times, were reminiscent of early Lee and Herring, with one particularly screechy player reminding of Kevin Eldon as Rod Hull. While producing some amusing material like their deliciously non-PC Famous Five sketch, the overall tone was, like Lee and Herring, rather silly and occasionally peurile: Benjamin Disraeli blowing a raspberry at William Gladstone across the despatch box to his personalised jingle music. Self-referentialism was also in, but gags about doing a sketch show seem a weaker substitute for – well, gags that don’t refer to the fact you’re doing a sketch show.
The Cambridge Footlights launch hilariously into their segment with a very funny take on improvised comedy – which is neither improvised, nor comedic in their very ironic rendition and which, whatever you think of improv, managed to capture the self-consciously ‘zany’ air adopted by many improvisers, not least in their exaggerated body language. A one-man book review of the dictionary had the audience absolutely roaring with laughter, while a similarly solitary performance of the new song, Simulated Sexual Conception of a Child Tonight, will, I’m sure, stay with many of us for years to come. The Footlights have historically provided us with some of Britain’s favourite comedians – Peter Cook, John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, to name but a few. If the current troupe keeps polishing its material and irons out the misses from the hits, we may yet see some current members’ names in lights.
The undoubted stars of the show, however, are the Oxford Revue. In a period when TV comedy has become staid, derivative and formulaic it’s an incredible relief to see such outstanding young talent coming up through the ranks. Virtually every sketch was brilliant, from a heated argument conducted entirely in GCSE-level French, to a drunken reading of If by Kipling, to a truly inspired skit on Shakespeare (importing verse from the Poddington Peas and Pokemon), to the trials of the Hogwarts sorting hat, to the nefarious plots of the Welsh to confuse the English and the Mute Italian Argument square-off. The performances were perfect, the material bursting with originality and wit. This is not a ‘student show’ (with all the pejorative references that can imply); it’s a hilarious performance by young comedians who happen to be Oxford students. The Oxford Revue are simply superb. There is more talent on the Playhouse stage this week than I have seen in most prime-time TV comedy and in many British comedy clubs over the last couple of years. Go and see this show.