Live comedy genius form Pappy (Pappy's Fun Club: Funergy)

Member Name: DannoStanno

Product:	Pappy's Fun Club: Funergy
Date:	21/05/09 (4 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hilarious. Surreal. Stupendous

Disadvantages: Nothing

Live comedy can be hit or miss and this troop of sketch-inspired comedians are unbelievable. I believe they appeared on television about 6 months back and it didn't translate too well. If you did manage to catch that, please ignore it and go see them live.

They were a massive hit at Edinburgh in 2008 and more recently i have seen them do their 'Funergy' show in Hammersmith, where they have built upon it and tidied it up. All the same it is still full of the frantic funergy and wacky sketches that make Pappy's Fun Club a unique and exhilerating show.

Who are they? Well they are four twenty-something guys (Brendan, Tom, Matthew and Ben) who each bring some refreshing comedy to the stage yet gel together to create a dynamic band of laughmerchants. The obvious (yet hilarious) jokes come from Tom, Matthew is often character based and the whipping boy, Brendan the apparent straight guy and Ben the slightly slow one.

On stage my immediate thought was that these guys could be annoying in that youthful, middle-class, snobbish comedy (that I am probably jealous of) yet all images of that were wiped out within minutes. Out came Ben as a 'Minstrel,' Matthew as an 'Owl,' Tom as 'the internet' and suddenly I was transfixed into another world of comic surreality, slapstick and intelligent wit. The costumes and props are absolutely amazing in that very amateur way which goes down well with crowds. Their ability to be funny and put themselves down about it works extremely well . Also the way that there loose series of sketches collaborate together to narrate an overall story was great, especially as they clearly didn't need to take their act seriously.

This is what makes them great masters: They manage to mess around and have fun and enjoy themselves as much as the audience without losing any integrity in their art.

All in all, go and see them if you have a chance.

Summary: A highly original comedy show that reeks of mirth, fun and talent