SKETCH SHOW THE FAST SHOW LIVE Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow, Fri 11 Oct
It’s hard to put the question without it sounding wholly rude, but I ask it of Simon Day anyway. Why, oh why, is the Fast Show team returning to the live arena within two years of announcing their retirement from small screens and ascending into catchphrase heaven? Don’t they have novels about being in sketch shows to write? Or spin-offs cashing in on their own creations? Or addictions to treat? Or private neuroses to nurse (in private preferably)? Or anything else at all to do?
‘We are well open to questions of cashing in, but you know, who knows?’ offers Day aka Tommy Cockles, otherwise known as Competitive Dad, Billy Bleach and Dave Angel. ‘When we did the live show before, we wanted to tour it round the whole country but couldn’t because of people’s commitments. We thought we really should do it one day and we never had the chance to ’til now.‘ And any other reason? ‘And it’s a whole new show.’ Anything else? ‘Aaaaand the money.’ Ah, yes. ‘But it is what I do for a living and I get to do it with all my mates.’
All his mates, minus two. John Thomson is busy on another project while Caroline Aherne is understandably keeping as far away from the glare of the British media as possible (the other side of the world, literally, as she attempts to keep looking ahead and write new landmark shows). But the boys Higson, Whitehouse, Williams and the girl Weir will be reviving their zenith of the mid-to-late 905 when The Fast Show was the talk of the office/public house/private estate (also, strangely, the locations of the show’s finest material).
It even reached the living rooms of the rich and famous in Hollywood, as Johnny Depp came out of his comedy closet to announce the genius of Ted and
STAND- UP
" ’Lk :‘.‘, .. TONY LAW ‘ East Kilbride Arts Centre, Sat 5 Oct " H l./._' A”)
Class action
Ralph. That earned him a cameo slot in the very last ‘Suits you, Sir’ routine. Simon Day is non-plussed at such celebrity endorsement. ‘When you first hear you’re really pleased but then you think, well, he’s just another fan. And I’d rather have a big Hollywood casting director being a fan than him; might get some work out of it one day.’
And one day, someone will get to the bottom of just why The Fast Show hit the nerve it clearly did. Day, himself, hasn’t quite discovered the secret of their success. ‘I think it just came along at a time when not a lot was happening, and people recognised a lot of the characters.’ And? ‘And it was very English and it just seemed to be something everyone got into.’ Anything else? ‘And the catchphrases helped as well.’ Scorchio. (Brian Donaldson)
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Joking Aside
Where the laughter matters
MOVE OVER JIM BOWEN. Rumour has it that Johnny Vegas is set to continue along the TV- avenue of starring alongside small stuffed animals when he takes over the reigns as host of Bu/lseye. Suggestions that It was Vegas' rotund frame that endeared him to the producers of the gameshow have proved unfounded. but if the gossip moiigers are to b8ll€‘.’€d. Johnny and Bully c0u!d soon be making beautiful programmes together. THE LIVE FLOOR SHOW
has been granted a second series by BBC Scotland. Friday night viewing was infinitely funnier when Frankie Boyle, Craig Hill, Reverend Obadiah, Bob Doolally and Miles Jupp were gracing our screens and the boys are back with a vengeance as of Friday 25 October. If you fancy being in the audience, and most likely sat upon by Greg Hemphill, then call 0141 338 3491 or apply online at www.bbc.co.uk/livefloorshow ‘~.'JHAT \x‘i/AS THE BIGGEST shock of nen'.’ soap Rive." City? Tommy‘s dark past? The ‘.'."E}ddlng reception barny? Or ‘.'.”dS it Garth Cruikshank playing a heterosexual? The Perrier NG‘.'.’CO"iGl' ‘.'/llTlier invaded Miles Jupp's territon. of taking unlikely tele‘JlSlOlT roles when he was clearly seen to be cavorting iyes. cauortingfi with an older woman. We wait with baited breath for the development of that storyline.
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TAKE COVER - JULIA MORRIS (pictured) has been booked to play the Stand’s gay night, CDT. The talented Aussie songstress/ comic/actress is a gay man’s goddess, judging by her devoted following in the big smoke, and this gig is bound to be a scorcher. THOSE OF YOU LONDON- bound in the next fevi' weeks "fight be luck; enough to catch Michael Moore at the Roundhouse Theatre. The political l‘eéi‘.’)‘.'.'€lghl behind best- seller Stupid li/fiite ."uler‘i and
; ec'ain‘ed fll") BO‘.‘."'I.’TQ for ()<)/iir~>.‘)i"e pulled eat of a highly- anticipated run at the Edinburgh festual following the death of his iitother. The November run in london ‘.‘.lll be Moore's first live
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.4, ' 7 Us: Boo}? THE LIST 75