Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
Wednesday's edition of Got Booty (marketed as Got Booty and Beyond) marked the end of an era for ComedySoc's improvised comedy-based panel show. It was the final show with Henry Ward presenting and Dan Wood and Tom Crowley captaining. Really, it was never going to be a “normal show”, with the teams “blasting off into space” on a journey to find...something; that part of the plot wasn't hugely elaborated on.
The evening's entertainment began with the teams being told they were running out of fuel and to find alternatives. Reflecting the awkward atmosphere that seems to pervade improvised comedy audiences at the beginning of any performance, the first suggestion was “the palpable awkwardness in this room”. Other suggestions included sadness, as well as Charles Deane's magnificent beard. Following this round, and realising they were being recorded by URY, the teams proceeded to imitate Christopher Walken doing various absurd things, to rather hilarious effect, despite Dan Wood's questionable accent.
The following round involved a Got Booty classic, the insults round, in which team members insulted each other using various audience-suggested objects, such as red pesto, Micro Machines and cat litter. This lead to some interesting assertions, as really this round can be hit or miss depending on how well performers react to their given stimulus. Examples include Lewis Gray accusing Charles Deane of being “like a Micro Machine, in 2000 times miniature”, and Deane's rebuttal that this would imply there was a version of him 2000 times larger. Sadly the subsequent round of “Finish the Lyrics” failed to materialise, after it became apparent that no-one had written any lyrics to finish.
One of the more bizarre acts of the evening occurred during a round in which teams had to describe the surfaces of the planet, again using objects (such as Lambrini or children's laughter), when Ward declared that “The Jaffa Cake monsters are attacking!” and then proceeded to throw Jaffa Cakes into the crowd, one of which hit me in the eye. I still ate it though. Happily, the subsequent round involved the revival of an older Got Booty game which was lost in the reformatting of the show last year, the “Here's one I made earlier” round, where contestants provided previously drawn or created products, on the theme of aliens. Perhaps the highlight of the evening was Charles Deane's “Head and Shouldron”, an empty bottle of Head and Shoulders with pipe-cleaner arms and legs and paper teeth. Other submissions included a normal Spanish man with a tentacle, “springons” and a Lion chocolate bar with “A” added to the front.
Perhaps the most dramatic twist in the evening, however, occurred when Henry Ward was savaged by an alien teddy bear and caught space hypothermia, causing him and the team captains to “regenerate”. After much strobe lighting, Ward had been replaced by Anjali Vyas-Brannick, Wood by Charles Deane and Crowley by Lewis Gray. At this point I feel the show almost seemed to be going on too long, and that the regeneration would have made a better final act, yet there was still more humour to come, particularly in the new team captains (with thick Northern Irish and Northern accents) reading our German scripts.
The evening was rounded off by the traditional “Ballad of Wikipedia”, featuring the “two-headed alien” of Rosie Fletcher and Freyja Winterson attempting to play the guitar. In perhaps classic comedy fashion, the show was eventually won by Anjali's teddy bear, Marmaduke van der Kumquat. Despite some technical and scripting difficulties, the evening was in the end thoroughly enjoyable.
You must log in to submit a comment.
