AHA! (updated)
I’m going to see Coogan tomorrow night (see previous blog posts…) but if anyone is going to the BIC tonight, post your review in the comments below. I’m dying to know if it really is only Alan Partridge who’s funny….
Well… thanks to those of you who’ve added their thoughts. I enjoyed it more than I expected, but mainly I thought that lots of his humour doesn’t work on a big stage. It’s subtle and it’s about tone of voice and facial expressions, not big belly laughs.
Having said that, some of the first half made me chuckle a lot – I even quite liked the random wierd skits (especially the singing, although my boyfriend HATED it) and Duncan Thickett.
Lots of people I know thought it was rubbish. I didn’t/. But I didn’t think it was worth paying £70 for. Sorry Steve. If it had been Partridge at his best, maybe… after all you don;t expect to find the warm up as funny as the main show. But it was reheated Partridge. Could do better.
Well I laughed, but overall it was the laugh of a warm up act or a newly commissioned BBC3 comedy.
Found myself chuckling at a few of Pauline Calf’s tarty antics, and the 4 letter expletive spinning round on umbrellas was quite amusing, I’ll give you that, but the tell tale sign for me was in the closing minutes I was desperately calling Centre Stage to
try and get in for Brendon Burns to hear a real comedian work his craft and end the evening on a laugh or two.
Here’s the Daily Echo review here….
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/leisure/reviews/3936599.Partridge_is_more_successful/
Coogan is always going to struggle with characters other than Partridge, and this was particularly apparent on stage. The first half was a vaguely amusing run through of those “less successful characters” billed on the line-up, and it was clear that most of the audience was waiting for the appearance of the man from the Linten Travel Tavern. The second half was more or less all Partridge, and the personal development seminar idea held a lot of potential, but it was weak and the gags were pretty much all well worn or simply not funny enough. A big disappointment- personally I think Coogan needs accept his comedy lot in life and stick to pure Partridge, or develop some equally as funny characters. I just got the impression that he feels that he’s a proper thesp now, and the that classic Partridge is beneath him. Shame.