Going to see the show was a lovely reason to see our brilliant friends in Surrey (next time we should just have a cosy DVD night; we miss them!). The show was really long (but felt so short, as the acts were only on for five to fifteen minutes each and we could've easily have sat there for another few hours).
We went to the Saturday night show (each show will have a slightly different line up). Unfortunately Chris Addison was snowed in so we didn't get to see him. But we did have a surprise guest to replace him who made up for it!
The Bloomsbury Theatre is awesome! I wish I'd had more time just to wander around and look at all the cool stuff on the walls. It's such a lovely venue and I'm sure I'll be back there for more comedy at some point.
The orchestra (it really was a month of orchestras) - The Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra - were on stage all the time (Martin White was at the back so I couldn't see him very well) and as they were getting set up we saw Danielle Ward wander past (how lovely). The orchestra would play short bursts of Christmassy music when the guests were leaving the stage/coming out on to the stage.
The show began with our lovely host, Mr Robin Ince, who was excited though tired and admitted he was wearing his second-best cardigan! He was on stage for various bits so I can't remember when he said what. Oh, I think in the first bit he was talking about people overreacting to snow. 'Thanks for braving it.'
The first act was Richard Wiseman, a psychologist who used to be a magician who was really wonderful and showed us some optical illusions. He was really funny and confident.
Then we had the lovely and charming Isy Suttie (who I'd seen quite a while ago at my Uni and remembered but wasn't hugely bothered about but now she plays Dobby in Peep Show - and gets to pretend to have sex with David Mitchell, lucky, lucky girl!) who I really enjoyed seeing. She read a really funny letter from her mum then did a song about alternative medicine. "Mother, don't make me take those pills." She kept singing in a really deep voice for comic effect.
And then it was Richard Herring doing his pope application letter (from his Someone Likes Yoghurt DVD and from his AIOTM) - it was funny as we'd been talking about that earlier in the day! It was lovely to see RH even if only for ten minutes and he looked very well dressed.
Then Robin Ince was back on! At some point he was talking about how someone (in a comments bit of The Telegraph) had called him 'the liberal elite' which was really good.
Marcus Chown was next. He's a scientist and journalist who's written a book called (hilariously) We Need To Talk About Kelvin. He came across as really nervous but his stuff was really funny and interesting. He was doing an award ceremony for scientists ie ones for underestimating. He was great. I might read his book in 2011.
Then Jo Neary came on. She was even more nervous than Marcus had been. She could barely speak and was asking for a glass of water as her mouth was too dry. After a few seconds of acute embarrassment we realised this was part of the act. She was doing a talk on sex toys from Christmas but had had (obviously fake) problems with the computer so had to show us her drawings. I loved her!! Really hilarous!
Then Robin Ince was back to introduce Martin White (who, of course, was on stage all the time anyway) to play his funny song from Dave Gorman's radio show (the podcasts are great!) "Dudley and his magic pants" which was loads of fun especially as we all got to join in with the chants of "Dudley!" I love Martin White and dream about him more than is usual (though I don't fancy him, or do I?!)
Then Robin Ince introduced Frisky and Mannish by saying he'd discovered them at Latitude and really enjoyed them while eating a cake. Then he saw them without the cake and still loved them (this isn't always the case!). I didn't know what to expect from Frisky and Mannish. I'd heard of them but didn't know anything at all about them. I didn't know that they were a musical act or that Frisky was a woman and Mannish was a man. But I loved them! And I didn't even have cake. They deconstruct songs in a similar way to Bill Bailey and James Sherwood but their song impressions are much more accurate (Frisky can impersonate so many singing styles, she's amazing.) I really need to see them again! Frisky had a cool tattoo - and I'm not normally bothered about them - three forte signs.
Then in the interval Richard got Robin Ince to sign his book and I took this lovely picture of them.
I think that Robin Ince is one of the loveliest people I've ever met; he's entirely unprententious and is geniunely interested in chatting to his fans about things.
Part Two:
I honestly can't remember the order of the second half. None of us can! But the acts were (roughly in this order!):
The first act after the interval (I'm fairly certain!) was Matt Parker, good looking, Australian, stand up mathematician. Yay! He's really funny, lovely and smart. And Australian!! We'd seen his show Your Days are Numbered: The Maths of Death in Edinburgh (Richard and I) and had given stickers with "My days were numbered" written on to Katja and Rich. Katja was looking for her sticker to show me when Matt Parker said "it's not TV, Miss! I can see you looking in your wallet!"
Josie Long was on - she did a character that was pretty much the same as her "been up space" character but instead of space she was giving a talk on the Thames barrier (!). Then she asked the orchestra to hit it and began to sing "All I Want For Christmas Is You"...to the barrier. Then she snapped out of character, did a few political jokes ("Nick Clegg promised he was gonna be here."),told us about the Black Panthers and wished us a Merry Christmas. She can do no wrong!
Helen Arney played some songs on her ukulele about wanting to have sex like animals. But it's very scientifically specific. Very very funny!http://www.youtube.com/user/newhumanistmagazine#p/u/11/ubMhA8AS68Y
Simon Singh answered five questions on the entire universe in five minutes and ended by electrocuting a gherkin! He's a great guy but what's going on with his hair?!
Robyn Hitchcock said that this gig was his last (is it? Was it?) I enjoyed his set (with two young, female backing vocalists who were great) but was getting a bit sleepy and needed something a bit more lively to perk me up. He was really good though.
Ben Goldacre was in shock as finally the rest of the country had caught on to his way of thinking and begun to hate Gillian McKeith!! He mostly talked about her and asked if we thought she was a liar (she said he was!). We said she was - he took a picture (and maybe video) and said we'd made him a very happy boy this Christmas. I love Ben and his mad hair! Sexy doctor!
Mark Thomas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our surprise guest and the most excited person about it being Christmas!! He was so clearly delighted to have stepped in at the last minute and was having a wonderful time. I'm really glad I'm seeing him next year. Yay!
Baba Brinkman - I've seen Baba do his Evolutionary Rap stuff quite a few times now. He's brilliant, clever, inventive and Canadian. He's great! Hope I get to see him do something else in 2011 (but doing that set makes sense for Godless!!)
Robin Ince finished the show (and did quite a few bits in between but can't remember exactly when) and was/is/always will be brilliant!!
Uncaged Monkeys tickets are here: http://www.ents24.com/web/artist/12597/Robin_Ince.html so that'll have to keep me going until Godless 2011! (It won't though, sure I'll see Robin in Edinburgh too!)
I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!!
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