FRANK SKINNER: SHOWBIZ

A review by Tanya Howard

Following a national tour, the comedy legend that is Frank Skinner brings his new stand up show to the Garrick Theatre. Frank Skinner: Showbiz will show for a strictly limited run for five weeks, which ends on Saturday 15^th February.

The show begins with the warmup act, Pierre Novellie, a South African born comedian who moved to the Isle of Man at the age of seven. Having never been to school before due to the South African schooling age breaks being different, so he became the South African kid with a French name going to an English school.

I had not heard of Pierre prior to seeing him on Frank’s tour but I have to say I was highly impressed and laughed throughout his set. From jokes about his time at school to how he adapts his accent to different scenarios because his South African voice could only be used to sell insurance, you could tell that the whole audience was enjoying his routine.

His best joke of the night was when he reflected on the eating habits of Brits and how we love wet food. From cooking the Sunday roast to the point of being bone dry to then douse it in gravy, to dipping biscuits in tea and the worst for him being peas made wetter by making them mushy.

Did you know that in Wigan you can actually order Pea Wet which is the left over pea juice from mushy peas, I couldn’t imagine anything worse. Although for Pierre worse than that is Baked Beans, expecting something like Cannelloni Beans in a Passata sauce, the beans that have never been seen in nature, in a bed of tomato water almost pushed him over the edge. Especially as we then get something like dry toast and put them on top, equalling our favourite wet, wet, wet food.

In the programme Frank shares some of his jokes that didn’t make it to the tour, including the story of the original show title ‘Crow-Jizz’ which may have slightly alienated ticket buyers so it’s probably a good job his agent misheard and thought he said Showbiz.

Following a short 15-minute interval Frank Skinner took to the stage for his set and I honestly couldn’t tell you the last time I laughed as hard as I did that evening. At 63 years old he is classed as one of the older comedians, but he is still going strong and is just as funny as when he first started.

Walking on stage Frank opened the show with “Nice to see you…” which he quipped was a good catchphrase that wasn’t being used anymore. He also mentioned how Bruce Forsyth’s ashes are buried under the stage of The London Palladium which must be his own personal hell because he hated it when other comedians were applauded instead of him.

A lot of his set referred to his age including the loss of libido as you grow older, becoming a father at 55 and the joy of watching TV in your pants when your partner goes away. Especially as this is the only time Frank is allowed to fill his belly button with salt and dip boiled eggs in them, strange that his partner would want to ban it when she’s in the house.

Frank has quite a crude sense of humour and is not too interested in offending anyone, so his set included jokes about Prince Andrew, the recent Royals stepping down scandal, and he manages to make an impact but keeping the comedic humour without alienating the audience.

Frank has a tendency of going off on a tangent whilst in the middle of a joke but he does eventually bring you back, and one particular anecdote was especially hilarious was a walk to the toilet when he went too early on dropping trouser and had to hold his member “like a cat on a cushion” on the way to the urinal. Feeling like an unsettling Deliveroo driver delivering a parcel he had to just own the walk and hold he had opted for.

I would definitely recommend getting yourself a ticket to Frank Skinner: Showbiz if you get a chance. There’s a lot of bad things happening in the world and it’s easy to get caught up in negativity, so a night filled with guaranteed laughs is the perfect solution. The only downside could be the pain you get from laughing so much in such a short amount of time.