Attention, scum! Surreal stand-up Simon Munnery visits Birmingham
When I settled in for a night of stand-up at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath I did so with some trepidation – knowing very little of either headline act outside of their Wikipedia profiles, I was both excited and nervous. The prospect of Ted Chippington’s self professed ‘anti-comedy’ and Simon Munnery’s surrealism were both daunting and exciting signposts for a first-time attendee.
The standing room only venue was buzzing as Chippington took the stage and yet over the course of his twentysomething-minute set the former ‘Reverend’ only served to confuse and bewilder his previously willing audience. His understated and offbeat comedy was met with the occasional patient chuckling from all bar his most ardent supporters in the front row, who howled with laughter in all of the right places.
Chippington’s gentle chiding of the unreceptive majority of his audience gave the impression of a somewhat world-weary father whose young had disappointed him. Ted expects more of us, the audience – perhaps more than he is entitled to.
His reluctance to conform to the norms of stand-up comedy won him few friends as he spent a good five minutes of his burgeoning set reading a German joke/routine/something-or-other, in full, to the amusement of seemingly no one bar Chippington himself.
And therein lies the problem. Chippington’s laissez faire attitude towards his comedy and indeed his audience suggests that he is in no way interested in entertaining the masses; he played that game in the 1980s and is now well beyond caring.
His renditions of the Brotherhood of Man’s ‘Save All Your Kisses for Me’ and Ottowan’s ‘D.I.S.C.O.’ were suitably baffling, as was the seemingly unending discussion about his father and a ‘Chicken bone’. Chippington eventually marched off stage, apparently tired of his audience’s unwillingness, or perhaps even inability, to accept his old-fashioned, rambling style of comedy; eventually conceding defeat to the disappointment of approximately three people.
In retrospect however perhaps Chippington’s ultimate joke was on us, he had just given us a full dose of the ‘anti-comedy’ routine he was famed for back in the day, and in the process reduced his audience to a state of confusion and indeed annoyance at his total disregard for convention. And if that was his intention Ted Chippington gave one of the most accomplished performances that you or I could ever hope to see.
A musical interlude in the form of The Graham Parsnip Liquidiser Torture Think-Tank (no sadly I’m not making that up) was up next, the ‘Think Tank’ seemingly channelled Danny Wallace and his ‘wacky’ sense of humour when composing their set. Nothing good can come from this.
Following the ‘Think-tank’ came the second of tonights headline acts – Simmon Munnery. Munnery, who has previously been heralded as ‘the next big thing’ of British stand up gave an assured and energetic performance that was the antithesis of Chippington’s difficult, awkward style.
He seemed a man content in his life and his art. Talking at length about his young family and his seemingly idyllic life in the country, Munnery displayed a subtlety and grace that was sadly lacking from the rest of the evening’s performers.
From my position at the rear of the room it was clear that Munnery’s connection with his audience was a genuine one – his brand of comedy was easily accessible, and his observational style did not grate on the audience as is often a possibility in the post-Peter Kay world. In a world intent on gimmicks, Munnery came across as affable and genuine; at one point he even treated us to a few short blasts of his harmonica.
In the end the evening was saved by Munnery, his light-hearted approach to many more serious topics was a welcome riposte to all that had come before him. If he happens to be playing a venue near you, you should go and see him. He may even get his harmonica out.
By Richard Summerfield