Guest blog from Chris Harlow
When I heard that Frisky and Mannish were making an appearance as part of the Leeds Comedy Festival, I immediately wanted to get my mitts on some tickets. Admittedly though, I had heard little of this duo beyond their coverage on Radio 1’s Scott Mills Show (a guilty drive-time pleasure, prior to him being ousted from the slot) and their antics at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Having read rave reviews from previews shows, and being a bit of a music geek, I thought this would be a right laugh – nothing like releasing a few extra endorphins.
To the delight of audience members, the majority of which admittedly having been to a show in the past, the well-known F&M classics “Kate Bash” and “Carpenters Grime” featured in this ‘new’ programme for 2012. There is no question that this pair are very talented, with well-orchestrated harmonies and vocal ranges that give top 40 artists a run for their money.
Poking fun at pop is the obvious recurring theme in this show. The duo highlight trends of ‘popular’ artists, who are actually just recycling chord progressions, which makes for some interesting mash-ups. They reach out to a range of musical generations, with numbers like Rihanna’s ‘Rude Boy’ in the style of the Bee Gees, and the inescapable recent Gotye hit in the style of a post-Home and Away bouncy Dannii Minogue.
The ‘Made in Chelsea’ link would have probably gone down better had more than half a dozen audience members admitted to watching this week’s episode. Having said this, although my viewing history amounts to the adverts that I’ve flicked past, there was no doubt what the pair were alluding to, and general hilarity of the sketch infected audience members. Yar and nar.
The audience participation at the beginning of the show could afford to have been more original, but it still managed to warm the audience up enough to get them on their feet for a round of ‘slamming, shaking and shimmying’ to a Spice Girls megamix.
Not having been to any previous shows, it’s pretty tricky to say how this show differed from any in the past, other than by looking for evidence online. If you don’t get chance to catch them at Udderbelly or Edinburgh Fringe this summer, F&M are due to return to Leeds later in the year for a night at the City Varieties. I’ll be sure to go along to the latter.
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Indeed interesting… But I am a bit reluctant about comedy, as I am really hard to be made to laugh ^^