Friday 19 August 2011

an evening with the humour of Bob Newhart and Tom Lehrer

We spent last night at an evening with Tom Lehrer and Bob Newhart.  Well, not actually with them, obviously, though both are still alive, Lehrer being 83 and Newhart 81, but at a touring show of Lehrer's songs and Newhart's skits that was running at the Colchester Mercury, for one night only.  As it was for just the one night you won't be able to go and see it locally in the near future, so really there's no point in my banging on about how good it was.

Tom Lehrer only wrote 37 songs, as last night's performer Peter Gill pointed out in his introduction (not the theatre director Peter Gill or the ex-drummer of Frankie Goes to Hollywood Peter Gill, but the jazz and rock-and-roll pianist from Cheltenham Peter Gill).  This sounds a small number, but only equates to running out of songs after three albums, which is as far or further as lots of bands got.  I don't think Joe Jackson made it past three albums, or at least three good ones, and the Kaiser Chiefs ran out of material and critical acclaim after two.  Lehrer wrote very good, clever, nasty, songs, and the Systems Administrator and I both like that sort of thing.  Peter Gill, as he points out on his website, has been around for a long time, starting off as a cocktail bar and wedding reception jobbing piano player, and he can play the piano, and sing so you can hear the words, with an unnerving leer and a twinkle in his eye.  His site says he is still available for private bookings if he isn't doing anything else, and if we needed a jobbing pianist and maybe lived a smidge closer to Cheltenham we wouldn't hesitate to book him.  And if you get a chance to hear his new show The Golden Age of Musical Satire I should take it.  We would.

The only Bob Newhart sketch I had heard previously, on R4, was Introducing Tobacco to Civilisation (here's a link, but why don't you read the rest of the blog first and then come back to it?  Introducing Tobacco to Civilisation).  The other routines, all presented as one half of a dialogue with an unseen partner or audience, are equally funny:  The Driving Instructor, The Retirement Party, Defusing a Bomb.  I should go and get a CD of them if you have a long drive ahead of you, or need cheering up.  The school for advanced bus drivers is clearly true.  We have been on a bus (in Eastbourne) driven by one of its alumni, and I think some of them may be working for National Express East Anglia.  Brake, accelerator, brake, accelerator.  You have to let them get right alongside the bus (train) and then slam the door in their faces (here's another link).

Digging around on the net before going out for some information on the show (like the running time) the Systems Administrator came up with a gem, the Theatre Information Pack.  This is put out by the promoters of An Evening with the Humour of Bob Newhart and Tom Lehrer.  It sets out their fee (£1000 or an 80:20 split in their favour), the optimal size of venue (50-500 seats so The Mercury is at their upper limit), minimum ticket price (£12) and the technical details for the set and lighting.  They specify that they must have one lockable dressing room with an iron, ironing board and suitable power supply, but their other requirements seem very modest.  No demands for kittens or blue smarties in the dressing room.  Instead they require access to tea and coffee making facilities, still bottled water, and light refreshements for three people (two vegetarian) no later than one hour before the performance, though sandwiches and soft drinks are perfectly adequate.  How can you not like such people?

The show was packed out, and should have made a useful surplus for the Mercury, which is handy as their public funding is being reduced in the cuts.  We are both keen to support the theatre, and this was the only remaining thing before Christmas that we wanted to see, pantomimes not being our thing and the Systems Administrator having a deep-seated aversion to Shakespeare.  I hope there are a few more similar shows out there, and that the Mercury manages to book one or two of them.

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