Comedy, music, nostalgia and queue jumping

Last night, S and I went to the recording of Mitch Benn Is The 37th Beatle at the BBC Radio Theatre.

It is an excellent show. (As a reviewer, I don't believe in over-complicating things.)

Comedy

It's funny and witty. It's clever and musical. It's musically clever while being funny.

(And not musically smug-clever - not even slightly. It's musically funny-clever.)

I don't want to tell you about the show because it would be much more enjoyable to hear it (BBC Radio 4, 5 February, 6.30pm) than for me to summarise it.

(Obviously. If the summary's going to be more fun, that's about as thorough a hatchet job as any critic could write.)

Music

But I will just add that writing songs which are instantly recognisable as being Beatles-ish without simply ripping them off is quite an artform. Mitch Benn can do it - and make it funny at the same time.

The show we heard - and the show which you, of course, are going to hear in a few weeks - is a cut-down version to fit into a thirty minute radio programme. He's touring a much longer version and, if this is anything to go by (which clearly it is), I'm confident to highly recommend the full show (even though I haven't heard it).

Go to http://mitchbenn.com to find out where/when and how to book tickets. That's what I'm going to be doing.

Nostalgia

Going to the show reminded me of the time I used to see live comedy, most weeks (okay, maybe once a fortnight is closer to the truth) - generally in smoky rooms under pubs or over pubs or, if I was feeling rich, in the Comedy Store.

Bill Bailey, Eddie Izzard, Jo Brand, Jack Dee, Harry Hill - I could go on (and on and on) - yes, I saw all of them in tiny venues.

That lead to the terribly difficult decision - should I seek out new (and potentially hilarious) comedians? Or just look for whichever places had the luck to book those people and just go there?

The answer, of course, was a bit of both - although that was frequently due to turning up too late and not getting in. More about not getting in later.

And, last night, between the BBC and dinner at http://www.imperialchina-london.com/, we walked past the delightful place where Eddie Izzard used to run the Raging Bull comedy club. I can't decide if the strip clubs and 'adult' shops are more or less seedy than they were all those years ago. I think I'll just say that it all looked a bit different.

I couldn't quite remember which of the questionably enticing doorways used to lead to comedy at 10pm on a Saturday night. Then again, it didn't seem that important to work it out either - and we were hungry.

Queue Jumping

Tickets for BBC shows are free (I'm proud of the BBC, etc.) - which means they over-allocate because they reckon (presumably correctly) that there are rascals who will ask for tickets and then not turn up because, you know, the tickets were free.

Any day other than Tuesday, I'd be more than happy to arrive early to get a low-numbered sticker on my ticket. But, on Tuesdays, N goes swimming after school and that made the timing as tight as an inappropriate simile which I don't wish to put here.

So, by slightly nefarious means, S & I managed to get around the problem by a little queue jumping, i.e. using a small amount of chutzpah to ask Mitch's wife Clara to ask Mitch to put us on the guest list.

Thank you, Clara and Mitch. It was an utterly excellent night out and it would have been substantially rubbish if we hadn't got in.

The story of why I was in a position to ask them for anything is a subject for another day. (Call that a teaser, if you like.)

Surprise! There's a competition too!

Yes. A free DVD from my own personal and eclectic collection to someone who can explain why this photo reminds us that House Of Cards Season Two starts on 14 February.

I'll probably put all the correct answers in a proverbial hat and randomly pick one. No, the winner doesn't get an unfettered choice from my DVDs. But I might give a decent range to pick from.