PENNY SPUBB’S PARTY
Double act putting a glorious accent on fun 0000.
When doing character comedy in a sketch style, it’s easy to think that when you put on a wig or a pair of glasses, you become another person. But with depressing regularity, the folks sat out in the audience can see it’s the same comedian, in a wig. Or a pair of glasses. The believability of a character comes from the performers themselves, not the gimcrack props. Personality is more important than looks, in this case, anyway.
The talent certainly lies with Anna Crilly and Katy Wix. Dressed in garish girly dresses with frilly bits, and waving inaner as the audience files in, the pairing are bizarrely Abba-esque. Crilly is blonde and deals in deadpan drollery and sideways glances, whereas Wix is brunette, more fussy and matronly, yet still matches the former for sex appeal. The contrast, combined with the obvious understanding between the two, is the basis on which the best double acts begin.
A lampoon on ‘modern contemporary British art’ is particularly well observed, Crilly getting caught up in self-importance right at the start and finding herself repeating the four-word phrase like a mantra. Then the two put on a very funny performance of a terribly
34 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE l l 48 Aug 7003')
pretentious and awfully shit play by made-up creatives Bent Posenpack and Pippa lmage (pronounced ‘lmaaaaage’, naturally). Are they simply poking fun at others, or also nibbling at the edges of what they themselves do? It comes across as a habit of the pair, albeit one sensibly confined to gentle, funny asides. When something goes wrong in the production there are a few furtive words, such that it’s easy to wonder whether it was actually meant to be. When Crilly’s American accent slips to Scottish in a sketch about a majorette school, her short but forceful explanation to a more optimistic Wix that the sketch, really, is dead is an absolute joy.
To dwell on where things might and might not have gone wrong is to do a slight disservice to what is an extremely sharply written script, however. Carol Vorderman has two personalities: the autistic maths geek leashed to the media tart. And whose idea was it to employ two foul-mouthed eastern Europeans to teach kids about prejudice and tolerance via the medium of rap? In this end sketch, Wix puts in a star turn with a prop nicked from Tesco, and if it doesn’t make you hoot and snort with laughter, I don’t know what will. (Robin Lee)
I /')/()(lf;t’I/lt,‘t? (Ion/fiend. {>556 (ir'is'iU. :infii Aug ."fl wot It)". :3.«i:'>pm. 519.330 Eliot) «FY .‘l’w‘i.
APPELBY’S JOURNEY TO THE 21 ST CENTURY
A frank tirade on modern living .0.
'Opinionated' x'xould he the politest ‘.'.’a‘,= to describe l)ehra».Jane Appelhy. Having gro\.'~/n tip in the 19/033. glued to such thrilling visions oi the future as Space: 1995) and Doctor l"‘~//;o. the former IT consultant is extremely pissed off at the gruhhy reality of 21st century lite. Where are the Vibrating hover couches? Where are the nourishing threecourse meals in a pill that were meant to put an end to world hunger"? pranding on her thesis that the trappings of modern ur'oan dwelling are. essentially. shit. nothing escapes Applehy's disdain. from mohile phones to metro supermarkets
She's a warm charismatic stand-up. and her ohservations are sometimes a hit unfocused. hut tl‘ere's very little in Appelhy's act that you could disagree vrsth. the most on-the- moi‘ey segmeitt is her description of her Qt) years spent working as an IT consuitant ‘.‘.’|lli S‘.‘:’lf§f§ Bank. which she draws on to reflect tne tedium and pointlessness of office life and petty bureaucracy. This particular rant has every head nodding along in painful recognition as she pours pile on the phenomenon of not being able to keep food in your desk and points up the utter misnomer of ‘human i'esot.rces'. iAllan Radcliffei I Baby Be/li’. 0870 7-1:") 3083. unti/ 98 Aug (no! 16/. 7. 10pm, {784‘5}
': /- 553/.
EUGENE MIRMAN America's new comedy kid lives on his nerves 0.0
Is it just me or are a lot of comedians using visual aids more than ever hefore’? The cynical among us could suggest that this is due to the paucity of the comics materia that they have to fall hack on some other means of fun that they 've prepared earlier. The hotly tipped Eugene Mirman that?
Ht ssian. half American: now. that's gotta hurt: is no exception to this trait. /\ riiildly dwertrng \'l(i(§'() he's d'scoxered ioi made tip: ahout how Scotland and ‘.'.’illt3i\\. are inextricably
linked iwoxz'. cute ohseixationi kicks