February 12, 2010
It is difficult to decide what I really thought about The Cheeky Guide to Love, which opened at the Old Fire Station last night. I feel strangely ambivalent about it; some parts of it were quite funny (in that they raised a smile, rather than laugh out loud) whereas others just didn’t seem to have any impact on me. I wouldn’t be able to pick out a best bit or a worst bit as I don’t recall there having been any, it is as though I forgot most of it the second I left the building.
The Cheeky Guide comprises four actors, two male, two female in something akin to a sketch show scenario – it reminded me a lot of the Horrible Histories series made for children, where a couple of people would be dressed in togas and the narrator stood to the side and explained what they were doing. These guys started with cave dwellers, followed by ancient Greeks, Romans, Victorians and so on and so forth until they reached the present, then they moved on to quick sketches about communication issues (men being from Mars, women from Venus – all the usual stuff); marriage guidance; teenage angst; bad first dates et al.
One problem with comedy, I suppose, is that what makes people laugh is such an inexact science and maybe we are often driven along by the momentum of the rest of the audience; no one wants to be the only person who doesn’t get the joke. However, that in itself was a problem last night, as there barely was an audience, only four or five rows had people sitting on them – and they were not full rows. Had the theatre been packed, as it usually is in the Old Fire Station, then I might have felt very differently about it. I hope they get a bigger audience tonight and with it being Valentine’s weekend, they might do.
The Cheeky Guide comprises four actors, two male, two female in something akin to a sketch show scenario – it reminded me a lot of the Horrible Histories series made for children, where a couple of people would be dressed in togas and the narrator stood to the side and explained what they were doing. These guys started with cave dwellers, followed by ancient Greeks, Romans, Victorians and so on and so forth until they reached the present, then they moved on to quick sketches about communication issues (men being from Mars, women from Venus – all the usual stuff); marriage guidance; teenage angst; bad first dates et al.
One problem with comedy, I suppose, is that what makes people laugh is such an inexact science and maybe we are often driven along by the momentum of the rest of the audience; no one wants to be the only person who doesn’t get the joke. However, that in itself was a problem last night, as there barely was an audience, only four or five rows had people sitting on them – and they were not full rows. Had the theatre been packed, as it usually is in the Old Fire Station, then I might have felt very differently about it. I hope they get a bigger audience tonight and with it being Valentine’s weekend, they might do.