7 September 2010

Fun with socks

First a few words about the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre.

The socks are the creation of Kev F Sutherland, a comedian, writer, producer and comic artist whose comic strips appear in The Beano and Marvel comics. I discovered Kev a few years ago through the comics side of his work and have followed his work since then through comics forums, Facebook and Twitter.

And so it came to pass that I found myself in the Leicester Square Theatre with a copy of the Beano Annual 2008 in my bag.

I was there a little before the doors opened officially and, ignoring protests for the theatre staff, walked through and introduced myself to Kev. For the best part of half an hour we talked comics and comedy and I got my Beano Annual signed.

Then the show started.

I had some idea of what to expect from the YouTube videos but, even so, I was astonished with how quickly the act worked.

No warm-up act and no scene setting, it was full-pelt comedy from the very start and literally within seconds we were all laughing out loud. Not chuckling, smirking, chortling, or tittering. Laughing. Out loud. A lot.

You know it's just one man behind the curtain and the socks look just like socks but disbelief is immediately suspended and we are drawn in to the quick-fire verbal battle between the two socks.

We get current political references (e.g. William Hague) mixed with classics from TV and film and a splash of music. And the laughing never stops.

The set is roughly two sessions of forty minutes with a well deserved beer break in the middle (well, I thought that I deserved one).

The after show party (!) was held in The Imperial, the nearest pub, which added London Gold, a discussion on Dr Who and the hottest beans that I have ever eaten.

All too soon it was time to head back to Waterloo (walking because of a tube strike) and on to home. Time to reflect on what was sincerely the funniest show that I have seen in a long long time.

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