After a long week or so of work, I can finally watch another one of these. Even better, the lineup is a great one- Steve Frost, Josie Lawrence, Jim Sweeney, Tony Slattery. This is as strong as they get.
Film and Theatre Styles: Jim asks Steve for his daughter’s hand in marriage
Clive, getting a response: “…Theatre of Cruelty? Well, that’s what we’re doing here.”
Steve, starting the scene: “SO, YA WANT TO MARRY MY DAUGHTER.”
Jim, taking the style literally: “No, I want to marry your daughter’s hand…”
Steve: “You marry the hand, you go ahead and marry the rest of the body.”
BUZZ
Clive: “Pantomime…”
Jim: “…THE REST OF HER BODY? It’s not HERE, is it? I TELL YOU WHAT, BOYS AND GIRLS, IF YOU SEE THE BODY COME UP BEHIND ME…”
Steve even gets the audience to do a ‘OH YES HE WILL’
Jim, breaking toward the audience: “OOHH….well done…”
Clive: “Hang on, let’s up the intellectual level a bit…with the Flowerpot Men…”
Steve: [flowerpot men noises]
Jim: “…does she talk like you as well?”
Steve: [makes drinking hand motion]
Steve, as he does in these styles like Shakespeare, keeps talking until he’s out of breath, nailing the patter and rhythm. Jim, once he finishes, gives him a bizarrely confused expression. Steve shrugs.
Clive: “…I’ve got a phone call from the RSC for you two…they’re saying ‘stop doing it like that’…”
A very funny scene, one that kept the plot going, and with two people who could definitely work with each other. I’ll gripe that there wasn’t a whole lot of movement, but when one of the performers has MS, that’s not especially a fair gripe, is it?
Emotion Option: Tony and Josie (in a launderette)
Josie, inspecting Tony’s underpants: “…that’s a funny tan color…”
Tony:
Josie: “…OH, EXCUSE ME…”
Depressed-ly
Tony: “….that’s not the color of the underpants…i just had a bit of an AC-cident…”
Josie: “I KNOWWW, I can smell you from ‘ere…”
In the Greedily style, Tony engulfs some of the underpants
Clive: “…pity”
Tony:
Josie: “…you’re pathetic, aren’t you…”
Tony, preposterously: “…that’s not pity, that’s INSULT…”
Lust
Josie: “I don’t want to pity you, I want to lick you. I don’t want those clothes to go into that washing machine, I want to lick them clean, I want to lick YOU clean…”
Tony:
Tony: “….alright…”
BUZZ
Fantastic game, made even better by the Tony-Josie dynamic, which was about to become even stronger after the Paul-Josie dynamic would cease.
Helping Hands: Steve helps Jim (ft. Tony’s hands) set up a party
Jim, frantic as hell this game: “ORIGAMI NAPKINS! FOLD THEM INTO SOME INTERESTING THING! LOOK, A DACHSUND!”
After Steve suggests they make the place look nice, Tony…throws a little hat on a glass. This gets a nice reaction.
Jim just starts cracking up, as Tony isn’t even trying to make anything out of the props onstage, as he instead just throws them about.
It’s a quick game, but the frantic nature of it, as well as Jim corresponding his character to how batshit insane Tony was being, makes it still really funny. Hell, even STEVE cracked up mid-game, and…he’d yet to do that so far on WL.
Props: Tony and Jim vs. Steve and Josie
Tony, reaching into prop: “Okay, bingo time! Contemporary Israeli Architecture: 42!”
Jim gives Tony the most confused look after this. Tony’s even confused as to what he’s just said.
and, AS PER USUAL
Jim: “Hello, my name’s Esther Rantzen
Tony: [VOMITS INTO PROP]
Steve: “….NOW THEN NOW THEN NOW THEN…”
[Yeah, that’s certainly not dated at all…]
Clive, postmortem: “I think I’ll give some extra points there…for the mentioning of Jimmy Savile…”
Boy, that may have been the last time you ever heard that phrase.
Old Job New Job
Jim and Tony: Pizzeria Employees
Steve: Used to be a Mountain Climber
Steve: “Is that a bottle of cheese there? Claim it, for Norway…”
Steve takes a moment to let the wind flow through his hair (?!?)
Jim: “OH, SHUT THE WINDOW!”
Steve: “YOU MAD FOOL! TIE THE SPAGHETTI TO EACH OTHER! If one goes, we all go!”
Jim: “BUT THAT WOMAN’S EATING IT!”
Great ending to a fairly decent scene. Not as good as the first go-round, but Steve was working very hard there, and it showed. Tony couldn’t find much to do other than make a bad pun.
Prison Visitor: Josie
Jim: burgled buckingham palace
Steve: Killed a bald dachshund
Tony: ran off with a sumo wrestler
Jim takes a few moments to bob along to the music. I owe this to his knowing Richard, and the fact that sometimes Richard’s aptness, especially in terms of contrasting feelings for comedic purposes, catches him off guard.
Jim’s number and response is very quaint, very cute, and Josie has a nice comeback verse. It was one of those that just came together, and the rhymes sort of fell into place.
Clive: “But what has [Stephen] killed?”
audience member: “Jeremy Beadle!”
Clive: “…a happy-ish thought, but uh…”
Clive: “a bald dachshund…I take that as an unkind reference to somebody here, a BALD DACHSHUND…”
I’ll say that, for a guy who’d openly struggle with finding the right rhyme in his later hoedowns, Steve does admirably here, especially carrying on a German accent. Even better, the morbid nature of the act grosses Josie out…which he polishes off with an ‘OH JA!’
This makes Josie crack a bit.
Tony, to start off the scene, yells, through the bars, “LOOK OUT BEA, HERE COMES VINEGAR TITS!”
Now…lets just assume this WASN’T one of the more obscure references to come through the programme…it’s still a funny line. Sans context, it works. But Tony gets his laughs from people who do know the…again, incredibly obscure reference. Hell, it even gets Josie.
I’ll say that Tony’s is actually the least memorable of the three, as Tony stumbles on his last line, and Josie spends time calling him out on it. Other than the vinegar tits line, no uncovered territory.
[Also, I am gonna get a lot of unneeded traffic from very specific horny people over that ‘vinegar tits’ line, I think. I hope I don’t have to make it the post title.]
Film Dub: Steve and Josie (husband and wife)
Steve: “HELP, I CAN’T TURN THE LIQUIDIZER OFF!”
I do love Steve adding the little touch that has character is pregnant, especially with the line ‘it’s not going to do the baby any good’.
Josie: “When you said you were going to get me a vibrator, I didn’t know you had that in mind…”
Josie: “What you wearing this night dress for?”
Steve: “I GOT IT FROM LAURA ASHLEY…”
Quaint enough game. Proof that Steve and Josie can work together, because they certainly will in the future.
Party Quirks: Tony hosts
Josie: thinks she’s in a washing powder advert
Jim: blackmailer
Steve: heavyweight boxer
Clive: “Is the party underway?”
Tony: “Oh yes, I’ve just put my extra heavy-duty sunglasses on…in case Clive arrives without a hat.”
Hell, a few ‘OHHH’s from the audience.
Jim, as usual in this game, completely owns his characterization, channeling Eric Idle a smidge, and nefariously mixing…soup.
Jim: “Got any photographs, Tony? I’ve got some photographs, Tony…know what I mean? [slurp]”
Tony, walking away: “I haven’t got a BLOODY CLUE…”
After Steve enters to his own theme music
Tony: “this is the WILDEST party I’ve ever been to…”
Even better, Tony lets them all in, and has everyone interact with each other, which is a nice move, even if he knows who half the guests are already.
Of course, Tony nabs out Josie AND Jim in one fell swoop, earning the audience’s respect, as well as capping off a pretty fun game of Party Quirks.
Clive: “Brilliant, Tony…just a shame you’re not getting any points since you were rude about me in the beginning.”
Scenes from a Hat:
Clive: “A bald man going into a hairdresser’s demanding a haircut.”
Tony, despite the warning from Party Quirks: “…you must be joking, Mr. Anderson, I couldn’t possibly….”
Clive: “Oh, dear…you’ve had 2 warnings, Tony…”
Clive: “They think they can hear a ghost in their house.”
Steve: “Eh, George?”
Jim: “Yarr?”
Steve: “Did you hear that?”
Josie and Tony: “oooooOOOOOOOooooohh…”
Jim: “Yeah, I heard that, sounds like a ghost.”
Steve: “No, it’s the Bee-Gees, rehearsing next door!”
Jim, clutching his ears: “OH, CHRIST!”
Clive: “Behind the bikesheds”
Josie and Steve come to smoke
Steve: “…how’s it going, headmistress?”
Clive: “Ballet in a chip-shop”
Tony: “….non-brewed condiment, please.”
Clive: “dropping a contact lens in a bubble bath.”
Jim: “Hello Josie- OH, BLIMEY!”
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ
Probably the best top-to-bottom SFAH we’ve had so far, as the performers knew the scene’s strength was in brevity.
Hell, I’m even gonna include the credit reading, because it’s one of my all-time favorites. Tony has to read in the style of a drunk australian soap star
I die laughing every time. THIS IS WHAT HE DOES FOR 95% OF THE CREDIT READING. Towards the end, he decides he should at least do something else, so:
Overall: This one started slightly weaker than the last few…but when it got good, it was incredible, and gave us some of the best games of the season, especially that killer last half of the show. Everyone was one fire throughout the night, so much so that it was very hard to pick who was best and worst. Still, from that credit reading, as well as the last two games, I might have to give it to Tony Slattery. Even if he’d slip once or twice, he was still strong as hell tonight, and giving funny material and Clive slams. But it literally says nothing, because everyone else was also giving A material, though I’ll note that Jim took a step backward from his last few, and Steve also took a step backward, though he did make Josie laugh, which is rare.
Show Winner: Tony
Best Performer: Tony, for giving hysterical stuff all night, including that credit reading
Worst Performer: Josie, as she only seemed to set up jokes, instead of tell them, tonight, save for Prison Visitor.
Best Game: Party Quirks. Out of everything, it seemed like it utilized everyone to the best of their ability, and managed to get some laughs out of everyone, including Clive. SFAH, Emotion Option and Prison Visitor came close.
Worst Game: Props, by default.
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