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“One of the important tenets I have learnt in life is...”

written by yazzman13 on 23/11/2008

Good Points
Partridge + well exectued songs.

Bad Points
Weak material for some of the "less successful" characters.

General Comments
One of the important tenets I have learnt in life is to go into every situation with the lowest possible level of expectation. That way you can never fail to be pleasantly surprised went you don't die/get ripped off/have a miserable time.

It was with this glass half empty philosophy that I went to Friday night's show at the Brighton Centre with a sense of trepidation. The reviews for Steve Coogan's latest show (his first live gigs in 10 years) had been...well...frankly awful. Stories of people walking out, duff jokes and poorly rehearsed material abounded. I really wasn't hoping for much despite Alan Partridge being one of my comedy heroes. In fact I was just hoping Coogan didn't artistically murder Partridge with a final ill-conceived cash-in.

Mercifully, Partridge is as hilarious as ever and whilst Coogan's other less successful characters aren't great they are just about tolerable. Not a ringing endorsement I agree but think of it as having to eat your sprouts before you are allowed any desert.

To be fair Coogan has upped his game (no doubt reeling from the poor reviews), honed the material and learnt his lines after being on the road for a couple of months now. For £32.50 a pop I should bloody well hope so.

So let's get through the sprouts.

First of all Pauline Calf. Coogan as a kind of Lily Savage. Despite a promising musical intro extolling the virtues of the Marriot hotel chain (he has gone upmarket since the Linton travel tavern) the set descended into a lazy selection of innuendos which might have been funny in 1983.

Then comes Tommy Saxondale, a middle aged, middle England ex-roadie prone to anecdotes about touring with Def Leppard et al. I resolutely watched the whole series when it came out on BBC2 last year. Not because I particularly liked but because I was desperate to see something resembling Partridge's comedy gold. Live he is just as tired and disappointing. He lectures us on the dangers of drug use whilst showing amusing pictures of strung out characters on an overhead projector. He finishes up with an uneccesary lame song. Forgettable and hopefully, like Partridge, he doesn't get a second series.

Then we get Duncan Thickett one of Coogan's oldest characters, a wacky 80's T.V presenter in the mould of Timmy Mallett. I actually thought this was quite amusing as at least Thickett is intentionally meant to be unfunny and ludicrous. Still it really is music hall stuff and the kind of thing you might have seen on Britain's Got Talent. Coogan is a talented writer, actor and performer and frankly much better than this.

Things improve when last of the warm up acts Paul Calf rolls onto the stage. The work shy Manc scrounger who is the closest Coogan comes to the comedic ease of Partridge. He comes on in an electric wheel-chair he starts by sending up Stephen Hawking with a robot voice. Now this is more like it. He does quite a funny song about gypsies (some nice harmonies with his backing singers) and leads up nicely to the main event.

It must be hard for an actor/comedian to create a character so brilliant and perfectly formed that the rest of their career is spent either being pigeon-holed or desperately trying to recreate that alchemy through inferior characters. Partridge is the golden albatross that hangs around Coogan's neck despite his success in breaking into Hollywood.

Partridge is now life coach with his revolutionary 'Forward Solutions' programme which has helped the likes of Ross Kemp (there is a running gags through the whole show taking the mickey out of him, Coogan must have had a run in), Ainsley Harriot and Vanessa Feltz reach the top of their game. As author of 'Bouncing Back' Partridge as motivational speaker is a logical progression.

I was in stitches from beginning to end of the segment and I was happy to see Partridge back on form. Partridge then performs a play about Sir Thomas Moore (don't ask) which isn't quite so good.

We then finish off with Coogan playing himself and blowing a tongue-in-cheek raspberry at the press depiction of him as a drug taking womaniser ('largely untrue 'according to Coogan) with a catchy crude musical finale which I won't spoil (Charlie Uniform November Tango).

Let's face it we all wanted 3 full courses of Partridge but I guess like most indulgences I guess it is always best to be left wanting more.