Another night at the Sosh for Nick Steel’s great Bath Comedy empire. Very well attended – and there is more good news: Covid, the Greek alphabet and World War Three permitting, the full-scale Comedy Festival is at last scheduled to return, bigger than ever, at the end of the month. Three cheers! And God knows, we are in need of a laugh these days.
But, to tonight. The opening act, Sam Fraser is an amiable woman, who talks mostly about her work as a ‘weather girl’ on TV, and as a schoolteacher, with riffs on why the name Samantha is rubbish. Mild stuff, you might think. But actually, Fraser’s act is mostly brazen sexual innuendo of one sort or another, with anecdotes about cock rings, sex dolls, and what possibilities there might be for oral sex with rabbis. Yes, rabbis, not rabbits. You had to be there.
Next up, Les Bubb, is an astonishingly skilled clown and mime – and no, there isn’t any hint of Marcel Marceau, red noses or over-sized shoes. He’s in a field of his own. Crazed routines, sometimes to music, sometimes not, in which he flings himself around in all sorts of physical contortions, swallowing a microphone, carrying an imaginary piano with an audience member, then ‘playing’ it, on and on. An endless variety of left field, unexpected physical pranks, all executed with supreme skill and timed to the millisecond. World-class stuff.
Headlining is the return of Arthur Smith, who’s performed on Bath comedy stages possibly more than anyone else over the last God knows how many years. He’s an ecologically sound comic, in that he likes to re-cycle jokes – some of which have been re-used since the dawn of time, as he unashamedly admits. But he is on form with topical stuff as well, and his audience rapport and sense of timing are better than ever. It’s doubtful anyone else could get away with a slightly off-key rendition of a Leonard Cohen song in the middle of a comedy routine, or finish with a serious poem. Comedically, this is the equivalent of relaxing in a warm bath, and the audience are suitably refreshed and appreciative.
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Reviewer: John Christopher Wood | Star rating: ****