Review: Funz and Gamez, The Comedy Store, Manchester
A children’s show catering for parents with comedy that bypasses the little ones is perhaps no new thing. But one that presents it with such dark parodies and chaotic staging as Funz and Gamez does more than deserves the cult status it received during this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, as well as its Foster’s Panel Prize.
Presented as a naff, slightly seedy parody of your typical hour of family fun, Funz and Gamez is a gloriously skewed alternative kids show.
There are balloons, yes; sweets, songs, games; an elf and a big Dalmatian; and the opportunity for six-year-olds to win wholly inappropriate slogan t-shirts.
Phil Ellis – billing himself as ‘North Manchester’s most reliable comedian’ – is our not entirely appropriate host, confirming he’s only doing it for the money.
It’s a curious ensemble: alongside Ellis is Will Duggan, sufficiently narked as a failed actor in a dog costume; James Meehan (of Gein’s Family Giftshop fame) the more seasonal elf; and the wonderful Mick Ferry as Uncle Mick – plastered and with violent tendencies (‘whose uncle is he?’).
But from the word go Ellis dishes out asides that make no impression on the youngest members of the audiences but have their parents wincing with laughter.
An exasperated Duggan is a particularly amusing foil for the shambolic chaos of the whole show, irritated by Ellis, his own role and by the children (with an only-just-safe amount of snapping back at them when they call out). The entire thing treads a very thin line, but impressively manages to remain on the acceptable side of inappropriate throughout. Impressive, and hilarious.
Ellis has created a kids’ comedy show that consists almost solely of jokes for adults, and brilliant ones at that: dark, incongruous, it’s a shambles of a kids show laced with fabulously pessimistic life lessons (‘don’t get too attached to your nanna’) and bizarre theme songs all quietly referencing our host’s bitter divorce.
This isn’t in any way to say the under-12s in the audience aren’t having a blast. They absolutely are, with Ellis frequently pelting them with sweets; pulling them up on stage to throw sponge balls or squirt water at the sadly costumed Jim the Elf and Bonzo the Dog; engineering games that Ellis himself wins every time (another life lesson: ‘losers get nothing’).
Meanwhile, the rest of us can revel in the bitter comments, out-of-date references to children’s television and the realisation the clown may not be for kids.
Funz and Gamez is a massively funny treat for everyone – though perhaps more for the adults than the children will ever know.
Date of live review: Sunday 30 November 2014 @ The Comedy Store, Manchester.
