Pappy's (Oval Tavern, 18/5/15)
Yesterday saw the opening night of the first ever Croydon Comedy Festival, an event largely consisting of Edinburgh previews that will run into mid-August. Many of the gigs will take place on the outside stage of the Oval Tavern, a reasonably high platform in front of a selection of picnic tables. I was a bit sceptical about how this would work and indeed opening act Caroline Mabey struggled to engage the whole audience, some of whom were clearly more concerned with having a pint and a natter than watching the show. I'll touch upon the unacceptable standard of audience behaviour at pretty much all the live performances I attend some other time.
It appeared most of the 50-odd crowd had come to see Matthew Crosby, Ben Clark and Tom Parry, collectively known as Pappy's and were in rapt attention throughout their hour long set. The trio are clearly working back towards match fitness on the live scene having spent the past couple of years focusing on their BBC3 sitcom "Badults" and their podcast "Flatshare Slamdown". This was something of a greatest hits performance with material predominantly taken from their 2012 show "Last Show Ever".
It's a testament to them that despite seeing a lot of this material twice already, Pappy's sketches make me laugh all over again. They're largely short form pieces of silliness that don't outstay their welcome, like "The World's Most Incompetent Censor" and a recurring segment on Dean the dinosaur, who struggles to adapt to the demands of his friend's leisure activities. Their hit rate is impressively high. All three of them are terrific performers but it's Parry who becomes the star of the show tonight, improvising as the world's tallest man on Clark's shoulders and riffing his way through a sketch as Julius Caesar in a folk trio.
Their closing piece moves through the stages of a relationship with the assistance of a member of the audience. Well-written, clever, silly and hilarious, it exemplifies all that is great about Pappy's. The acts to come at the Croydon Comedy Festival have much to live up to.
It appeared most of the 50-odd crowd had come to see Matthew Crosby, Ben Clark and Tom Parry, collectively known as Pappy's and were in rapt attention throughout their hour long set. The trio are clearly working back towards match fitness on the live scene having spent the past couple of years focusing on their BBC3 sitcom "Badults" and their podcast "Flatshare Slamdown". This was something of a greatest hits performance with material predominantly taken from their 2012 show "Last Show Ever".
It's a testament to them that despite seeing a lot of this material twice already, Pappy's sketches make me laugh all over again. They're largely short form pieces of silliness that don't outstay their welcome, like "The World's Most Incompetent Censor" and a recurring segment on Dean the dinosaur, who struggles to adapt to the demands of his friend's leisure activities. Their hit rate is impressively high. All three of them are terrific performers but it's Parry who becomes the star of the show tonight, improvising as the world's tallest man on Clark's shoulders and riffing his way through a sketch as Julius Caesar in a folk trio.
Their closing piece moves through the stages of a relationship with the assistance of a member of the audience. Well-written, clever, silly and hilarious, it exemplifies all that is great about Pappy's. The acts to come at the Croydon Comedy Festival have much to live up to.
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