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Funergy: a combination of fun and energy;
and pretty much the most concise definition
you can get of Pappy’s
knockabout style.
The typically ridiculous
premise of their boisterous new show is that
to reduce carbon emissions, they’ve
created a device that could maybe see the
National Grid running entirely on a sense
of fun. It seems reasonable, as that seems
to be pretty much what’s
powering all four of them.
No matter how daft
or cheesy the material, they fling themselves
into it with gusto. The laughs come as much, probably more, from
their gang-show mucking about than it does
from carefully-considered scripting. But
they’re
such effortless performers, it’s impossible to know what’s
prepared and what’s spontaneous, and it certainly seems like
a lot of the back-biting badinage is improvised.
Though
they come across as ridiculous fools, there’s a keen sense of
structure and purpose behind what they do.
Funergy misses some of the most clever and
subversive moments that won last year’s
offering the if.comedy nomination, but still
everything hangs together nicely.
After an
initial flurry of quickfire gags and banter,
always sharp and silly, the pace, and indeed
the quality, dips a bit as we meet characters
such as a whimsical owl, the arrogant internet and an aging stuntman.
But as the show progresses they all come
together in one ridiculously puffed-up storyline,
which pulls all the threads together as we advance towards the preposterous
denouement and sublime show-stopping song. Elaborate but dirt-cheap
props add to the sense of purposefully amateurish exuberance that
pervades the whole hour.
Aside from this is a potted version of the
Fringe, offering snapshot scenes of imagined
productions such as Text Message Hamlet is
hit and miss; while a metaphorical bust-up
between East Midlands towns is as outlandish
and inspired as it is funny – and
all in petty revenge for having bad gigs
in Nottingham.
The surreal material, though,
is less than half the story. The success
of Pappy’s stems entirely
from the enormous personalities of its creators.
The dynamic works excellently, with the smug
smarts of Matthew Crosby, the ribald buffoonery
of Tom Parry, Ben Clark’s nice-but-dim
shtick and the wide-eyed innocence of Brendan
Dodds.
Their cartoony characters match their cartoony props, which
means this clean hour will entertain kids
as much as the adults whose inner child the
outrageous shenanigans are so obviously aimed
at.
Steve Bennett
Original link: www.chortle.co.uk/shows/edinburgh_fringe_2008/...
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