fri 4th June

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* The Great British Variety Show

Seaside holidays, the Pier, Blackpool, saucy postcards, blah, blah, blah.
Everyone knows this routine, it has been bashing the boards in one shape or another for over a hundred years. And it isn't likely to die just yet, because when you get down to it...really get down to it...this is what humour ( well British humour anyway ) really is.
Whether you claim to be: enlightened, PC, alternative, most humour comes out of this. A fat guy and a skinny guy representing the naive. Laurel & Hardy, Abbot & Costello, Morecombe & Wise, Little & Large, Vic & Bob, Newman & Badiel, etc.etc. Why? I have no idea...but it just is funny.

It seems almost unbelievable, as we move into a new, enlightened, millennium that we take this type of act with us...I can't think how it has survived in this 'classic' form. But I suspect it is that it demonstrates, quite reassuringly, that as a culture, we have not lost the ability to laugh at ourselves and our own fundamental flaws, 'undisguised'...thank goodness. While guys like these keep doing it, I will keep watching it...it is probably one of the best entertaining evenings you can have...if you want to offend no-one and just have a good laugh!

British humour personified!

pbg

A beautifull aerial performance with passion, pain and poise. An artist of outstanding talent and technical ability. This is a truly remarkable fusion of drama, ropework and poetry of movement. John Paul holds the audience completely. I don't believe anyone would be left unmoved by this performance.

Flick was shipwrecked during the Spanish Armada, and washed up on the coast of South Wales...she claims? Well if you can get your head round that idea your well on the way.
Real 'Bedlam Cabaret' material this one...you would only see an act like this on the Fringe or Student circuit. In the style of Vic & Bob ( Vic Reeves Big Night Out)...you either love it or shake your head in disbelief that anyone would get onstage and do it. Something along the lines of a crazy women fusion of, The Marx Brothers and Mr Bean ( well in mainstream terms anyway)? Perhaps a Lee Evans reference or two? Well that's a pointer in the right direction if nothing else.

Ably assisted by 'Gareth' (another victim from the audience, who coped very well I thought ) Flick proceeded to explore the possibilities of a magicians routine with a brown bag...well everything was brown of course!
The energy was there, the routine well executed and the unexpected beautifully polished into a great routine. I enjoyed it, and I have a feeling Flick Ferdinando is going to repeat in my mind, a bit like Python...then of course you're hooked!

* Boum

Arriving directly from Paris for this one gig, 'Boum'. A Gallic surrealist band