"A thoroughly inventive and fascinating surrealist show as if Ernie Wise had teamed up with Jean Cocteau to write a weird comic piece. Two zookeepers find themselves mysteriously deposited in a forest. Strange and improbable happenings ensue. It deservedly won Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding the Perrier Best New Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe. There’s good support from Rich Fulcher". (Timeout Magazine)

Battersea '98

You may have been lucky enough to catch one of Julian and Noel's "The Mighty Boosh" shows in Edinburgh or London over the summer. If not, you haven't a clue what you missed out on. You could have experienced the most hilarious hour of ridiculousness (which cause me at one point to become hysterical and unable to talk or stop crying) you are ever likely to experience - unless you see it again - which we were also lucky enough to do (8 times so far). Me and my friend Kathryn were supposed to be seeing John Shuttleworth on the friday (the day after we had seen J & N) but we decided we had to see "The Mighty Boosh" again. So, tickets in hand, we sat at the back of John Shuttleworth's show poised for a quick exit. As it happens he started late and we only caught 10 minutes of him (didn't think he was that good) but seeing J & N for an hour more than made up for it.

Review 5th October

Went to see it last night and it was absolutely hilarious and surprise surprise - I got picked on. After wandering up and down St.Pauls's Road, I'll tell you now that it's actually on Highbury corner (take no notice of house/shop numbers - they lie). There was about an hour of new material involving the same three (Barratt/fielding/Fulcher)! Julian gets me every time with his mannerisms and facial expressions - I don't know how he manages to keep a straight face. Noel was looking tanned (surely not from Edinburgh). At the end of the first half the two came out with tights on their heads dressed convincingly as the Chemical Brothers handing out home-made chocolate biscuits! I have only one thing to say -

"Get with the bracken, move with the moss"

Review 18th October - Perrier Award Winners Show

I wish Tommy Tiernan had been on first because then I wouldn't have minded staying for the second half. But as it was, Noel and Julian were on first. They were brilliant although I must say it was a bit strange watching it from relatively far away. I got the impression that most of the city types were there to see Tommy Tiernan who they had obviously heard was funny. Well they heard wrong. I don't want to sound harsh but he is nowhere near as funny as the likes of Jenny Eclair, Steve Coogan, Jack Dee and Lee Evans - all previous winners of the prize and he didn't even come close to Julian and Noel. He got funnier as he kept going but at one point he decided to put the microphone down and just shout. A bad idea in such a spacious theatre, bearing in mind it was hard enough to understand his accent and the speed at which he talked. Anyway Julian and Noel were excellent. They pulled it off and I'm sure we all laughed twice as hard to make up for the few who just didn't get it. The bloke next to me didn't laugh once, but then he hardly laughed at Tommy Tiernan either. Why??? It was hard for Julian and Noel to be as convincing during Smoothie Time when they are both trying to woo the girl from yards away but it still got a big laugh. I think people were expecting jokes and punchlines but what they got was far too clever and hilarious for them to get their little heads around. J & N rock. I spotted Simon Pegg and Kevin Eldon in the audience near me which was nice!

"Lovely lady with the eye, touch my ramslegs with your thigh..."

Review 19th October

Last night was one of the funniest times out of the five I've seen it. A fair bit didn't go according to plan but that just made it funnier. Julian got a bit carried away during his "fat bambi" sequence, nearly kicking "Pauline Folwler gone-wrong" in the face. Once again I got dragged up on stage and once again Julian "fell in love with me"! (He's far too convincing). The first half of new stuff was 70% different from when I saw it on October 5th. It was twice as funny this time. But they somehow decided not to do the chemical brothers - oh. Fan-bloody-tastic! Can't wait until next monday, who can I drag alongthis time??!!

"Toffee sock scissor bitch"

Review 26th October

I dragged my friend from Finsbury Park along last night which meant we could drink loads and just get the tube for one stop. You could see in the first half where they had developed and changed their ideas since last week and were even funnier. The Mighty Boosh was just as funny as it has ever been and to be honest I am running out of things to write about it! So, who's next week's victim..?

"Mussel Witch Liver F**ker"

Review 2nd November

This week it was the turn of my friend Jo from university. Jo thinks I have a warped sense of humour and laugh at pretty much anything so she wasn't prepared for what she was about to experience. What can I say. The first half was brilliant, Rich shone through again. He is just so funny when he gets plucked out of the audience and just finds everything Julian does so hilarious and keeps laughing. I'm not sure I'd be very convincing if I made myself laugh on command but Rich was just brilliant. He's got it down to a fine art form! "Only the best gentlemen shave twice a day" was brilliant. Then there's the mountain climbers sketch and of course "are we to be married on the morrow??" Hmm. Interesting headwear. The Boosh was brilliant and Noel changed the song that Tommy sings - good but I think I prefered the one about the floppy pussy and the lobster with the poorly belly. Personally I find them all so ridiculously funny that I couldn't manage to talk. Once again, the moment when Julian came back on too woo her was class. It's the badly-applied mascara and eyeliner that does it for me. Or is it the slicked across hair? You decide. And I like the film of "deep inside the parka" - pure genius - "twin geniuses". So they have a title for the first half of the show...

"All babies are gay""

Review 9th November

It gets longer and longer, sillier and sillier. Noel and Julian always seem to have a great time, and I've yet to hear a heckle at Hen & Chickens. I'd love a job like that - it's like going down the pub with your mates and mucking about all night, but getting paid for it. Lots of changes again in the first half, Rich Fulcher is no longer an American or Latvian stooge in the audience, but still gets kicked to death by the Shower Spray man. As usual, Julian thinks Rich's dying words should be the title of the show, and once a microphone is found for him (Rich valiantly held on to his dying breath for several minutes) he names the show "Jesus hates all boys". Shelagh did lots of new material, some of which went down well, the audience certainly laughed louder at the new stuff. I wonder what percentage of the folk there are regular atendees? Most seemed to know what was coming next! *cough* of course, it was all new to me, I've not seen the show every week since the start, oh no. The "Different levels of Pain" song is still wonderful, as is the strange dance routine which seems to share the same music, earlier in the show. I get picked on and my hair ruffled for this, for some reason. Rich no longer does his Scientology presentation, even though this was hinted at at the start of the show. Perhaps it got dropped because they were running out of time - every week the show runs for longer and longer. Even though the bar had an extension until midnight, it was still pushing it to get drinks in afterwards... The previous week, the "delve into the Parka" man's bit was absolutely brilliant - a white sheet had appeared at the rear of the stage at the beginning of the show, and we all wondered if we were to be shown slides or a film. The Parka man invited the intrepid explorer to "look into my parker", and via the gift of projected television, and much fumbling with video controls, we were able to see the grim reality of what goes on in there. (Might I just add that last week the projector was badly operated by a certain Lee Mack - S) A table in a field, mostly, with Julian and Noel cavorting about on and around it. Sadly, this week, this segment was dropped, and the usual skipping took place instead. A shame; the view inside the Parka was inspired comedy. Julian the Cowboy reveals himself to be unshaven (certainly not a twice a day man) and runs away, off stage then back on several times, eventually coming back with the sheet that Noel has to throw over him. Noel thinks he's so stupid, he just runs around in circles, so he's easily caught in the end. After the song and dance routine of expressing pain by numbers (though they couldn't manage the concept of love), an extra song - a Beastie Boys inspired song about becoming a left brain being in a right brained world. Rich did some class pogoing to this, and Julian played good guitar. This went down a storm, and a wonderful way to end the first half. There's a lot of unplanned stuff; the odd forgotten line, props and microphones left off stage, but it all adds to the fun, because they work round it so well, without leaving awkward gaps. In the 2nd half, Rich came on stage dressed as Bob Fossil wearing wet trousers, Julian nips offstage early on to sip at his pint of beer whilst Noel is ranting on about his band, their chairs have been left behind and the two zookeepers have to sit on a bar stool that's too high, and a plastic storage box (Julian's "tub"). Noel sits on the box, and is far too low - he tries to prop himself up with his giraffe lunchbox and ends up breaking Julian's tub. The fruit smoothie gets spilt on the floor, Noel almost slips in it later in the show. Julian's guitar is out of tune when he comes to sing the Morgan the Mammoth song, and Noel wanders off with a rambling showbiz tale about buying maps while Julian tries to tune it.

Best show yet.

Review 23rd November

The first half of tonights show was easily the best yet and apparently it was caught on camera. I like the first half better than the Boosh cos it is fresher and newer and they haven't performed it hundreds of times already so I guess they are less bored with it. One of the best bits of the first half wasthe "are we to be married on the morrow" man who had a strange character as his adoring side-kick. Calling him "my Lord", Julian asked Noel who brought him soup when he was ill until it was concluded that he only instructed someone to make the soup and then someone else took it to him! The song they did was just mad and I can't really remember it cos I was a bit hysterical. Also the "left brain freak in a right brain world" rap was absolutely brilliant. With Julian strumming his guitar and Rich as the sort of main rapper, Noel kind of shouted occasional nonsense. There was no reference to "beginning to like Boyzone" in the mountain sketch which I was quite disappointed about cos the friend I had managed to drag along is a huge Boyzone fan. Julian in his "coming at you" cape and tape glasses was brilliant as usual as was his introduction to the first half with his shower of talc. The "numbers to express pain" song was brilliant but I think what does it for me is the little skipping backwards dance that Noel and Rich do. I got kicked this time (6) and so did Laura (3) and also her mum (-3 so they must know it causes pleasure rather than pain!) Rich's strange man plucked out of the audience changed to the "fire and water" sketch. Prancing around with a red cloth pretending it was fire and expressing his forbidden love cos it was too hot to touch lead to Noel coming on dressed as...well, who knows? As for the Boosh, well it's still the dog's b***ocks! Julian as the fat bambi seemed to be body-popping as well as his usual style of "dancing". When Vince was returned to normal size by following the rhythm of the bongos he had his rams legs on back to front which caused much hilarity. "What next? Are you going to put my neck where my elbow should be"! Julian kind of lost it towards the end when he got his "Are you saying we should stay in the forest" line back to front. Top night, one of the best, they do keep getting more brilliant.

"Hot Wax Bitch"

30th November

Unfortunately Julian is ill so the show was cancelled *sob*.

"Get Well Soon!"

Review 7th December

I was especially pleased to be there this week, as I missed the previous week, and had been told the first half had changed a lot. That, coupled with with the week before that having Tim Hope's excellent animations in it meant that this week was going to seem very different - and it was! Opening with Rich's Fire dance, and the Still Scary After All This Time shower spray man giving him a good pumelling. Julian discovers the incident, but Noel rushes onstage dressed in a multi purpose hairpiece/monkey mask combination and pleases himself with a dance. Reports are coming in from a small tent (or is it now a cave? There's darkness within; that much is certain) announced by a beardy fellow with no concept of dogs. Real Men still get shaved twice a day, but the Cobra Basket Man has a problem with his eastern snake pipe music - Gary Numan travels great distances in his car. Shall we be married on the Morrow man teams up with Gallow (Julian in a dark black leather raincoat and strange flapped flying helmet) who fails to bring the man a beautiful lady. They sing a song, not sure if I like this song yet though! One song I always enjoy though is Numbers to Express Pain, which is truly inspired. For the 2nd half, all goes more or less to plan, and sticking well to the script, until Mr Susan picked a lady from the audience to cry tears into the fruit smoothie mix. She chatted to them on stage, putting them off. Julian and Noel floundered a little at first, and whilst she never really managed to shut up, they did handle her very well in the end. The show was running really late due to this, and at one point, Mr Susan, offstage waiting for his cue, brought a chair onstage and sat on it with his arms folded. Bob Fossil later announced that Mr Susan had quit. Very enjoyable nonetheless.

"Please welcome onto his own feet..."

Review 14th December

Well, tonight’s show was the best one so far in my opinion (!) The order of the first half was changed quite a lot with lots of new stuff thrown in all of which was very, very funny especially the sketch about “Christy” which, despite the obviously unplanned ending (involving Julian kissing Rich until he had pushed him off stage), was great!! Also the joke, which I hope was spontaneous, about the tissue that fell out of the bird head’s mouth being on stage in front of me and Susan because “oh, people were crying again” was fantastic although only me, Susan, Sheep, and Sandra understood it! The “Married on the Morrow Man” was still in it which I am ecstatically happy about, it’s Julian’s face and voice as Gallow that gets me every time (“I bring you BEAU-tiful ladies master”!!) Unfortunately the “James Mason” characters were dropped but if they had have crammed any more stuff into the first half the Boosh wouldn’t have started until very late! But admittedly I would have stayed up every night for the rest of my life to see it!! (Er….) It started off well, and it seemed to me that they were keeping pretty much to the script…until Noel started talking about Vince’s bands and got a bit confused about it (“I used to be in the Bacon Spaceships and they were really good…no they weren’t they were shit and that’s why I left them…”) and it all went a bit “booshed” from there which made the show so fantastic! Rich missed his cue to speak a couple of times but they managed to save the situation brilliantly by saying something even funnier (I didn’t think that was possible!) to cover up the mistakes i.e. Rich singing a different chart song every week in the “Russian Family” bit. Then came “Smoothie Time” which was brilliant because I was picked to supply the tear! When Julian walked off to get ready to “woo me”, from backstage he started to sing “Tell Laura I love her” and Noel looked at me and whispered “I was gonna do that”. Then Noel started chatting to me whilst holding my hand and Julian came back on, called me a “Bitch Backstabbing Bitch Scissor Bitch” and threw milk covered flowers at me. They rushed to the end so they could catch the late bar! In the Boosh song they could only find two mics meaning that Julian and Noel had the share (“This is the brilliant…even though there are only two mics”) The night was brilliant…it just keeps getting better and better!

“Tell Laura I love her, Tell Laura I care. I was gonna do that...”

1st February

The return of the Boosh at last at the Hen and Chickens after a 7 week break, we were all glad to be back.

The first half was them trying out new or newish stuff and they were wonderfully funny as usual. Rich is still away in America so it was going to be interesting how they were going to get on without him. They tried a new Boosh opening which down spectacularly well and was very clever. Tom Finn did a couple of bits that Rich normally does and did a bit of his own stuff. We had seen him in Kool Eddy’s in Edinburgh (which we went to see because of Trevor Lock who was in TMWRNJ and Richard Herring’s play Excavating Rita) an acquired taste I think. Spain was a new idea and hilarious as was the whole of the first half. They certainly hadn’t wasted their time off and had got some good things going. They did married on the morrow as well which I particularly love - I love the song and Gallow.

We were most surprised when they said it would be the interval and after they would do the Boosh. How would they manage that without Rich!!!

When we came back they started by coming on with the ectoplasm and monkeys and Julian got totally confused about what they were supposed to be doing. It was sort of working. When they came to the announcements at the zoo we found out they had recorded their own version as Rich wasn’t there and they were so funny. They obviously had to miss Rich based bits out but they tried with the Fruit Smoothie section with Noel playing Vince and Mr Susan and at the end Noel couldn’t come on with his rams legs so they kept the shrunken Vince on stage and Noel put on the Rudi von Desalsio outfit on. I thought they did a brilliant job with it all (we (and they) did miss Rich though) it was a bit of mess and it helped seeing it as many times as we had so we knew what was going on. They looked like they had fun and they said they would carry on with it for a while to see how it goes - I hope they do.

I suppose it is rather over indulgent for devoted fans and themselves - new people in the audience would be rather confused - but I loved every minute of it. But then I suppose most people seeing them for the first time are rather confused anyway.

"Spain..."

2nd February - Stag Sevenoaks

Bit far to go mid week but the usual Booshers - Susan, Laura, Sandra and Sheep - thought we would go and see Gas at the above Venue, Laura, Sheep & I had seen it in Edinburgh, at the George Square Theatre - Large venue - small audience and the same happened again unfortunately. Sevenoaks hardly looks the nerve centre of Kent so you would think that a night of comedy would go down well but unfortunately there was a very small attendance and most of them never came from Sevenoaks.

Lee Mack was compere and tried in vain to warm the audience up and first on was Julian (very brave). If you are not used to his stuff he could be a little too surreal for most but I absolutely love his routines. I know we are biased but he was brilliant and us four were in fits of laughter but most of the audience didn’t really understand what was going on but he did manage to win quite a few round by the end.

Lee Mack came on again did his bits manfully then introduced Chris Addison - who battled bravely and never stopped talking but still not a lot of reaction - and he didn’t even have us as obsessive fans who had gone especially to see Noel and Julian on his side. But he didn’t do a bad job - Went on rather a long time though and as the show was suppose to finish at 10.15 it was getting rather late and we thought Noel wouldn’t have long.

Lee Mack came back again and told us there was an interval and it was already 9.45 - We went and had a drink and then came back and Noel came on about 10.10 and was wonderful as usual - He even did Roy the Starfish for us! Laura got worried during the dualling bit (which I’m glad he did as Laura and I hadn’t seen it) she thought Noel was going to kill Roy off but thankfully he didn’t get shot. I’m so pleased we saw Noel’s stand up again - although it does change all the time - because when we saw him at the Dogstar I was laughing so much I missed half of it. He asked if anyone in the audience had been to Brighton so brought back lovely memories.

There was something for everyone’s tastes with four different comedians but they all got similar reaction.

The bar was shut by the time the show finished at 11.00 so we went to the car park to get Susan’s stuff and I was clearing the car windows and they came out and all piled into Lee Mack’s car for the journey home, we told them how wonderful they were and made some comments about never coming back to Sevenoaks - then we said our goodbyes. We gave them directions to the M25 and off we all went.

Despite the audience it was a good night and Lee and Chris were very enjoyable but Julian and Noel were their usual brilliant selves they really are very very good.

Hope Al Murray has a better night on Friday!

"Alvin the Fox, Neville the Otter, but more importantly, Roy the Starfish!!" (Not so much a quote as an opinion!)

Review 8th February

Finally we get a taste of what we were waiting for. The zookeepers going to the arctic in search of a rare *kinder* egg. And tonight it snowed - a sign from above! It's all come together beautifully week by week and tonight was the best show for ages. The Boosh part 2 is about to peak but it'll never reach a peak cos it keeps getting better and better. Noel said they'd written most of it today and you could tell they hadn't had time to learn everything in the right order but it is work in progress and we're honoured to be able to see their brilliant ideas develop over the weeks.

Julian overcoming his dullness in the first half was absolutely brilliant and this week it got a huge cheer (I think there were several regulars and friends in!)

Noel:"What are you going to do to overcome it?"
Julian:"I'm going to come at him"
Noel:"How are you oging to come at him?"
Julian:"Like a flannel"
Noel:"But not just like any other ordinary flannel?"
Julian:"No...like a magic flannel!".....

It was so funny and he ended up coming at us full on!

This week Noel's ex-band was called "Shaved-up Sideways" which was good but doesn't top "Flamingo FLight Path" or the unbelievable "Non-stop Maze Run-around Team".

And this week an extra treat (following the disaster that was the lack of sense of humour of Sevenoaks)..."of the T.V......Lee Mack!" Lee was sporting a whole range of, erm, interesting costumes, most of which not leaving anything to the imagination! Bearing in mind Lee is more of a traditional stand-up rather than a surrealist, Lee was brilliant - better than Tom Finn last week who's material seemed to float way above the audience's heads.

Gallow and ......... Brookes (who was finally named this week) are star characters along with Howard and Vince so let's hope Noel and Julian manage to squeeze them into the new show. The song was great as usual and it definitely works better without the plastic cup strapped to Noel's chin!

The old Russian lady who'd seen too much (but didn't have her arm caught in a loom) and the Pie Man made a surprise appearance in the first half so we weren't sure if the Boosh (part 1) was planned for the second half. When we returned our suspicions were confirmed by a serious lack of plastic Xmas trees and rubber plants.

It was a bit of a shock when the show ended at 10:20pm but it was a great show and it meant we had time to hang around for a bit and for the first time in ages I managed to make it back to my own home rather than someone else's!

Wonderful show - it wasn't the smoothest show they've done but we like it a bit rough around the edges - it was just great. If that's how funny their material is when they write it on the same day, I think that's a technique they should adopt more often!

And I'd also like to take this opportunity to point out a suspected conspiracy to keep us from the front row! Half the front row was reserved but no-one sat there - eek!? I can imagine Noel and Julian must get a bit (well quite) pissed off seeing out laughing, crying faces smack-bang in front of them week after week - nevermind! Then again - perhaps the seats were reserved for us! (I think not)

"Biyowteefool laydeez"

Review 16th February

Usually, when you're told that a show is fantastic, brilliant, should not be missed, then you approach the aforementioned show with some trepidation. However, I was hysterically pleased to find The Mighty Boosh is in fact both fantastic and brilliant; indeed totally unmissable. It's better than that. At points in the show, I was crying. Other times, hyperventilating. The rest of the time, I was laughing. In the manner of a hyperactive hyena. I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise for some of the noises that exploded from me. Please accept my humblest, but I couldn't help it. The Boosh does that to you.

The show completely exceeded my expectations, and I had come heavily laden, considering the hype I have received from Brookes' comedy "nephew and niece" (Susan and Laura). The audience did seem to be mostly composed of regulars, considering the cheers coming from the audience at what appeared to be appropriate points in the show. I can fully understand why people would make excursions to the Hen and Chickens a weekly event. If it wasn't for the Irish Sea, I definitely would too. The only word I can find to describe the show, the performers, and the general state of being that it inspires is FIZZY!

"The walls are full of cracks and the cracks are full of strangers."

Review 1st March

Where do I start? This weeks show was wonderful! The most I have laughed since I have been going there I think and it’s very hard writing a review of something when you missed most of it through laughter. The first half is a bit of a blur to me - I know that Gallow and Seruvial were in it and we found out that Gallow is related to Howard in some way (“It’s Gallow…Gallow Moon”) but that’s about it! The whole “Married on the Morrow” sketch gets funnier every time I see it and I just adore all of it so much. I know I’ve mentioned this before but it’s Julian’s mannerisms and voice as Gallow that are just so fantastically hilarious! I really hope Seruvial and Gallow make their way into the Edinburgh show! Some of Julian’s stand up is featured in the first half as well which is fantastic because they are so brilliant and I love hearing his routines. I can’t remember anything else about the brilliant first half except that Julian’s wife was called Lucy…and that she was flicked off somewhere in the theatre! The second half is amazing and it is great to be able to see The Mighty Boosh II slowly taking shape. It’s fantastic hearing Vince still harping on about his band and his video with Bjork and seeing Howard brought back from his depression and getting a little carried away with his “erotic dance moves”!!! Julian made Noel laugh when he was talking about his uncle Pedro’s dreams (“Uncle Pedro dreamed. Now ‘we all dream’ you’re thinking and, yes, we do all dream but do we all dream? Yes, we do”) There wasn’t too much new stuff this week but what there was caused much pain-through-laughter on my part! There is a bit involving Noel and Julian being dressed in wolf masks that was elaborated on with some brilliant choreographed pogoing and dancing this week and there is no way I can write in words how funny this was! There was another bit (or should I say “sound”?!) which was made up on the spot by Julian about eating his own pubes and I hope that this will be kept in the show next week because it was just brilliant. The amazing and magical yeti dream sequence is by far the weirdest and most fantastic part - At least Julian could “find his face” this week! Noel took his reasons for “punching the sickly” to new levels and felt guilty afterwards especially when Julian added to it by pointing out that he was “giving it all that” and flopped across the stage in a dying way! The ending of the Boosh is really cleverly done too and Julian is a great hair actor! I’m sure he can take Howard far in his new bodiless state!

The whole show was just pure brilliance and I am amazed that they can keep up this ridiculously high standard of comedy week after week after week but they do it with such an ease it is a wonder that they are still so down-to-earth, friendly and normal!

“This is a Ugandan man who has just brought home a watch and his wife has turned to him and said ‘Why do you keep bringing home watches? We already have four! Buy some food I’m staaaaaaaarving!’”

Review 8th March

Julian and Noel have been accompanied by a variety of other performaers over the past few months, either working witht hem or doing their own short set. Shelagh Martin, Tim Hope, Tom Fynn and Lee Mack. This week had a bnig surprise for me when Noel Introduced The Universal Grinding Wheel, who, although they got a mixed reception, I thought were entertainingly weird and I was much pleased. The downside, of course, is that as Grinding Wheel did their own set, there was little time for much stuff from Noel and Julian. In the first half, though we got to see Gallow and Seruvial, a brief bit of the small wife and Julian being pummelled to death by the shower spray man - I always find this painfully funny, there's somehting about a stocking-faced man with a wire frame head and a cheap Argos shower spray for eyes and mouth that's both unsettling and brilliantly funny.

The second hallf is coming together well (but where did the egg go?). It's hinted that Howard Moon is working for Bob Fossil ("the man"), though he doesn't get a mention. I keep hoping Rich Fulcher will come charging on in wet trousers at that point, but I suppose he's still stuck in the land of the free, eating tacos and shooting large mammals.

Howard Moon wanders off to the arctic, and has a progressively bad time there, hallucinating wildly, but this gives the excuse, as if one were needed, for a fascinating dance piece with two dogs. I've already seen the Yeti dance but it is so painfully funny, and yet beautiful too somehow. Vince Noir always gets hurt though, and Howard's revelation doesn't help. The slides, new this week, went down very well with the audience, but Vince looks gutted to find out what Howard had been up to in the park - poor Vince. Frozen laughter is good, but Julian and Noel have no need of dubbed sound effects - the audience bring their own. Ans whilst it's not quite attention to detail, the cheaply made props seem exactly right and visually appealing. The beautiful ladies that Gallow makes in his shed, the shower spray man, and the whole set-up for the futuristic end piece - the lighting on Julian works so well.

Although sketches wander about and lines or running orders get forgotten, there's some things that are certain each week - the place is packed, the show is funny, and there's celebrities lurking in the audience enjoying the show. TV's Stewart Lee, from Fist of Fun and End of the Road Show was clearly enjoying the show this week, especially the second half. What better recommendation for YOU to go and see it next week, Then you, like me, can boast to your friends "I saw them before they were really famous". You've not got much time….

"Moments....."

Further reading: The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell, 1914, Flamingo Modern Classics