 Tuesday, 13th November
2001, an extremely bitter cold day in Londy. I
emerged from the delays and stuffiness of the
Tube into the chaos of Shepherd's Bush in rush hour... |
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More in part 2
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| I wandered around for a bit, looking for
the Empire (and wondering whether I would get robbed and
where I might find a hot meal to warm me up) and my
friend, who I was meeting to go and see BBC LDN's comedy
extravaganza, in aid of Children In Need. I found
her outside the Empire, we picked up our tickets and then
grabbed a quick pizza before the show. |
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| The evening was truly excellent
entertainment. Mel (together with bump) and
Sue were on top form and compered the show, introducing a whole host of
prize winning acts. |
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First up was Perrier Award winner
Garth Marenghi, in his horror writer persona, reading
passages from the novels making up his Slicer trilogy.
Especially funny was the tale of one poor person's hands
falling off, blood everywhere, maggots, maggots, maggots ... in Leytonstone Post Office.
"Bring on the gibbon!!" - his bizarreness really
appealed to me. |
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| After such an excellent start, it
was hard to see how the rest of the performances could keep up
the high standard. Mel took the opportunity to ask for
some food between acts and a very kind gentleman, called James,
donated a whole packet of digestives to Mel's cause. Bless him! |
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Next up was Ross Noble, who has covered
for Mel
and Sue on their radio show. Unfortunately for this one guy in
the audience, who came in late, Ross was excellent...the
latecomer had apparently just come from an exhibition - lame
excuse - and a mail order exhibition at that! What an
opportunity for a mickey take!! The guy didn't stand a
chance! |
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| He then moved on to the theory
that the whole of the front row were actually papier-mache
puppets (as they didn't appear to be able to convey any facial
expressions) with little children inside, working the levers
to make them move. He also had an imaginary monkey with
him on stage, which he placed on his mike stand, carefully
adjusting the top first, so as not to harm the little
thing..."not many people would think of that, would they?".
And he pointed out how funny it was that the whole audience
watched that mike stand, as if there was really a monkey
sitting there! Very good. |
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| Hot on the heels of Mr Noble, was
the latest incarnation of Chris Green, Ida Barr - a
faded music hall star who explained that she'd had to come out
of retirement to earn a bit of extra cash. Having had to
update her act, she did her own renditions of Eminem's "Slim
Shady" and Missy Elliot's "Get Ur Freak On" - "The Real Ida
Barr" and "Get Ur Coat On" ... very random!! |
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Ending the first third of the gig
was Jo Brand, doing what she does best in her usual
costume of all black - anti-bloke, observational humour, from
hating kids to the contraceptive cap (and the nightmare of
chasing half way round London before you can actually get it
in!!). She also pointed out that if a bloke says "No"
you know he's dead! |
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More in part 2
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