Worthing Pavilion: On the Bus with Harry Hill, Paul Zenon and Lee Mack
It's relatively rare that you see modern day stars of comedy and
entertainment offering their services for free in aid of a refreshingly
old school charity venture.
So it was particularly good to see performers of the stature of Harry Hill, Paul Zenon and Lee Mack pitching up at the Pavilion this week for a night of fun in aid of The Wonderbus, a hugely worthwhile venture started by Paul to provide a good night out for many of Britain's isolated and criminally neglected OAPs.
A packed Pavilion delivered a good mixture of all ages, with quite a smattering of children aged 10 and up, maybe younger, many drawn by the clowning and silliness of ITV's Saturday night flagship entertainer Harry Hill, who in recent times has often had 90 minutes of prime time all to himself with You've Been Framed and his superbly daft TV Burp.
Brighton resident and TV magic stalwart Paul Zenon kicked things off and linked the different acts together, in an evening that at times genuinely felt like a Noughties take on old time music hall. Whether bantering with the audience, casually pulling off baffling illusions or just delivering some perfectly timed comic patter, Zenon was a very likeable host, who has clearly thrown his heart into the project.
With a couple of two-piece bands - The Blakeys (in tune with the On The Bus theme) and later The Harrys (backing Harry Hill, complete with bald wigs) - providing the live music, and two guest acts in an enjoyable eccentric veteran one-man band and a cheerfully silly ballooning act, the evening moved along at a cracking pace.
Harry himself was on good form, bringing almost an edge of menace to his compulsive mix of puppets, slapstick, running gags, song references and gleeful deconstruction of current TV talent shows. He's so watchable because while you get a sense he sort of knows where he's going with his material, he's always willing to be sidetracked - on this occasion by a stray Star Trek balloon left by an earlier act - and to have some fun with hapless audience members.
Those who felt his metamorphosis from stunning stand-up to everybody's favourite TV comedy uncle might have blunted his edge, left in no doubt that a live Harry Hill experience is definitely the real deal - a man with many more ideas in his comedy rucksack, particularly the hugely entertaining car horn orchestra finale.
Sadly, the one performer who seemed a bit out of place in all this good natured tomfoolery was Lee Mack. I like Lee's stuff and he's shown his versatility on TV in recent years, whether in sketch show format (ITV's award-winning The Sketch Show), sitcom (BBC1's Not Going Out) or various TV and radio panel and game shows (as host and panellist). He's funny and he can do mainstream entertainment, no problem.
So, why then - in what in every other respect was an overwhelmingly family-friendly show - did he pepper his stand-up spot with a non-stop stream of expletives? At one point there were so many F-words and C-words flying it was hard to pick out the rest of his sentences. Yes, he had some funny material, and he's a powerful and energetic presence on stage - but in an audience clearly gathered by enjoyment of mainstream comedy, why did he deliver a set designed to win over a beery, lairy comedy club crowd? He can be funny and clean, as his radio and TV appearances prove. Pity he didn't respect the audience enough to tailor his performance appropriately.
Overall, it was a great night and I hope loads of cash was raised for The Wonderbus. But were we the only ones who felt Lee's contribution really didn't stand up?
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