Rome and Away: Cock, Tales and Comedy

Michael Monkhouse salutes Rome’s Cocktail Comedy Club

Nothing better than a Roman Summer. Except a shower with Cameron Diaz.

And nothing worse than going back to work afterwards. Except a shower with Berlusconi.

Still, it’s not all bad news. Cameron Diaz may answer my three million, seven thousand, four hundred and twelfth letter; Berlusconi’s buggered off… And next week sees the return of the Cocktail Comedy Club. Yes, Rome’s only home-grown comedy shenanigans – the gig that brought us strikingly wonderful Diane Spencer and wonderfully striking Edward Aczel – is back with founder Saverio Raimondo, regulars Francesco de Carlo and Edoardo Ferrario, plus speckled guests actor Daniele Parisi and burlesque bundle Peggy Sue.

But before rhapsodising on the gang’s numerous qualities, I want to make a more general point about live comedy. Which is… I love it. Almost as much as Cameron Diaz’ legs.

You see, years ago Newman and Baddiel had a running gag re ‘MTV Unplugged’: “We present artists eschewing technology and playing live… Tonight: The Chemical Brothers”. Or “Aphex Twin.” Or… You get the point. And while I won’t wanna seek profundity in a simple joke, the truth is: Music’s better live.

And so’s comedy.

As Logan Murray points out in ‘Teach Yourself Stand-Up’, comedy is a naked medium. A pure one. Playing out in real time with no one to blame if it goes as pear-shaped as an NHS dick extension. Something happens? You react. A drunken dingbat bawls? You shut ’em up. Technical problems encroach? Take it in your stride, twist it to your advantage…

Yet most comics yearn for a show on the telly. The polar opposite of what made ’em great in the first place.

Take Alexei Sayle in his Comedy Store days: towering, handling hecklers, exploding into expletives… And finally heading towards five series for Auntie Beeb. Sure, his ‘Stuff’ had moments of genius; but also formulaic sketches, bleached-out copies of legendary routines, even cameras arched to make the great man less intimidating and more drawing-room-friendly.

Or Jack Dee. Back in ’91 I wondered as he spat out an hour of sublime spite to fifty pissed punters in a pub… Six months later, it was his Channel Four series dragging said hour out over three hours, thanks to lengthy title sequences, lengthier ad breaks, and TWO musical interludes.

Look, telly’s a hoax. Telly’s an audience determined to enjoy themselves no matter what. Warm-ups getting you in the mood and garnering laughs to be cunningly mixed into the main number. Directors ordering you when to clap, producers flailing their arms to tell you when to chortle, agents promising the loudest laugh wins a bottle of bubbly… I reckon the funniest moments are the audience interaction, precisely the moments cut for ‘deviating from the script’.

Not convinced? Check Motormouth Ben Elton, settling cosily into ‘Man From Auntie’ pussycat. Or jeering Jo Brand, padding out her show with soap opera parodies. Or even Omid Djalili, the hottest thing at Montreal, now worryingly close to being just another comedian on the telly…

Or better, check out the live experience.

Rome and Away will be back in December.