Review: Peacock & Gamble’s Emergency Broadcast – Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh

Peacock & Gamble

Ray Peacock and Ed Gamble decided to produce a show this year that could replace another show at a moment’s notice – and the result is Peacock and Gamble’s Emergency Broadcast, an hour of daft, anti-comedy stuff from a cracking double-act.

This pair of clowns have great chemistry: Peacock, the self-indulgent child, and Gamble, the voice of reason – except when it comes to his Round The World In Eight Minutes section, of course, where the rolls reverse. But they complement each other so well that they’re interchangeable personas and have the confidence to riff when the situation requires. It’s a show with an organic feel, much to the credit of Peacock and Gamble’s hard work.

And they can be hard work at times. Though you’re accustomed to their character traits by the end of the hour they can grate on you at times –especially when they spend too long chatting to one punter in the front row.

But the pay-offs are huge here, and silly stuff like the Super Mario Brothers aural gag and the visual jokes they push via their PowerPoint ‘broadcast’ get big laughs. Yes, a PowerPoint show done well at Edinburgh. It happened. So next time a show you want to see is unavailable, or heaven forbid cancelled, why not catch these two jokers instead? They’re great fun.

Date of live review: Saturday 13th August 2011.