Review: Pappy’s: Last Show Ever – Newcastle Stand
Pappy's
Following a waning period in which it played second-fiddle to the stand-up boom, one of the most pleasing features of the comedy scene over the last couple of years has been the return to prominence of the sketch show on stages and commissioning desks around the country. It began quietly on CBBC, with the excellent Sorry I’ve Got No Head (cancelled after 3 series, alas) and the ongoing Horrible Histories juggernaut, before making its way onto yoof and adult channels with the inventive Cardinal Burns on E4 and the very, very highly recommended John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme on Radio 4. With the recent announcement of a BBC Two show for sketch group The Ginge, The Geordie, and The Geek it seems that a (borderline) family-friendly sketch show is every comedy commissioner’s must-have item for 2013.
The latest beneficiaries of the sketch show boom (go on, we’ll call it a boom) are Pappy’s, shorn of their ‘Fun Club’ but still in possession of their possessive apostrophe, who are off to record a studio sitcom for BBC Three after this tour of their Edinburgh Comedy Award shortlisted ‘Last Show Ever’. Kept at its Edinburgh length of an hour, the tour version of the show plays in what is effectively a double bill, the first half made up of tweaked older material. Although this opening section plays self-deprecatingly without a title, it contains so much of what is good about Pappy’s that it justifies further attention.
What is most impressive about Pappy’s is the range of skills they have as performers and writers. Sketches range from absolutely committed pieces of potentially back-breaking clowning, to elaborate prop-driven pieces and strummed comedy songs (what Pappy’s lack in guitar playing abilities they make up for with decent rapping). Each sketch in the first half is a blaze of primary colours, with an entirely intuitive set-up, and is delivered with immense charm and skill. If the piece about Robert Wadlow, history’s tallest man, runs just a little long, this is entirely understandable given the dangers posed to its performers by the Stand’s cabaret set-up. Riddled with call-backs, the twist of the first half is that far from being the simple ‘best-of’, it in itself has the kind of clever thematic coherence that is near-obligatory in a post-League of Gentlemen world.
If ‘Last Show Ever’ is very slightly less successful than the triumphant first half, it is precisely because this coherence is much more in the foreground. The major conceit, that Pappy’s are old men collectively recalling the last show which they performed on this very night, slows down proceedings. Although this conceit’s undoubtedly a reference to the groups’ loss of fourth ‘Fun Club’ member Brendan Dodds, the scenes as ‘old men’ are conspicuously lacking the verve of the ‘present day’ sections.
Nonetheless, the sketches contained within this arc are pitch-perfect, each effortlessly establishing itself and cleverly interwoven with the main narrative of the piece. Particularly delightful is a live action parody of a certain famous John Lewis advert which is just about as well-executed a wordless sketch can be. Think of it as a bit like the first five minutes of Up, featuring a game member of the audience drawn into a Pixar-ish world. It’s that gorgeous.
With stand-up seemingly mired in continual controversy and ill-feeling, it’s not difficult to see why these sketch shows are on the rise. Pappy’s, and each of the sketch groups in the ‘sketch show boom’ (which is a thing), delight in silliness, and are conspicuously lacking the edginess that takes stand-ups off the stage and puts them on page 5 of the Daily Mail. They’re a reminder of the purest joys of comedy.
Date of live review: Tuesday 22nd October 2012.
