Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge and Other Less Successful Characters

Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge and Other Less Successful Characters

14 November, 2008
by: Emma

Walking into the Hammersmith Apollo, I have mixed feelings of apprehension, excitement and curiosity about Steve Coogan's new tour show.  Surely it can't be as bad as the press reviews and forums have suggested? Dominic Cavendish from the Telegraph wrote that Coogan: "should have quit while he was ahead…a bitter disappointment" and Autechre on safeconcets.com said: "In the words of Paul Calf 'bag of shite'.  But well done for ripping us off - how many millions are you making from this tour?" Perhaps the most histrionic forum post said: "Arguably the worst experience of my life" - arguably probably being the key word here.
 
Pauline Calf opens the show with a flashy musical number about the Marriott Hotel which is faintly entertaining but superfluous.  Her monologue is much better and while it mostly consists of bawdy innuendos, some are razor sharp and way above most run-of-the-mill 'cheap slag' characters: "He had a length like a bookie's pencil" is a winner. 

Duncan Thicket, a hopeless stand-up comedian, performs some dire generic routines ("Let's do nostalgic - the 80's...what was that all about?!") which serve as a great pop at today's comedy-by-numbers generation of talking heads and mundane observational stand-ups.  Paul Calf is the best of the 'less successful' characters and gets a huge laugh as he enters in a wheelchair impersonating Stephen Hawking.  He has some cracking lines like: "If Ross Kemp likes camouflage so much why is he always on the fuckin' telly?" He is just as much of a boozy layabout as always and his attempts to romance a gypsy lady flounder when she realises he has no prospects or money.  You can't help but think his final line when he hears her accent ("What you're a gypsy and a scouser? I'm amazed I got away with my second name!") is a retaliation to the shocking reviews the tour got from the Liverpool leg.

There are a few weak spots.  Most of these characters perform a big song with their act and not only do these feel like pointless padding but they set in motion a flurry of audience activity as everyone uses the musical hiatus to stand up and go to the loo - infuriating.  Tommy Saxondale and his anti-drugs lecture also misses the mark with some fairly unimaginative material.  The nuances of his character, the most normal of the bunch, are a lot subtler than the others and therefore lost in the transferral to stage.  Some bad puns that would work with Partridge fall flat with Saxondale and it's probably for this reason, that he's basically a normal guy making a crap joke.

And at last we come to failed talk show host Alan Partridge.  His new career path sees him as a motivational speaker for life with a 'three pronged attack program: Stop.  Assess the damage. Move on with small steps'.  There is a bit of a build-up to his entrance and a real ripple of excitement runs through the audience; this is what we came for after all, and Coogan really comes to life with this character - it fits him like a glove.  He is just as bigoted, conceited and gaffe-prone as always with hilarious results.  When telling a story involving black labour politician Trevor Phillips he recollects: he was receiving an award for being, I don't know, the least racist person or something."  The dialogue is also littered with classic Partridge-isms:  "If you'd have told me a few years ago I would write, direct and act in my own play about Sir Thomas More, I would have thrown a beefburger at you and spat on your back." 

At the end, instead of an encore, Coogan comes on as himself and for once performs a praise-worthy show tune about being a c*nt before walking off into the sunset with several hot girls.  A real two fingers to all the bad press he's had in the past and a wonderfully self-indulgent finish.

So it wasn't a 'bag of shite' at all, in fact it was a superb and really enjoyable show. As for the Telegraph review - it was the opening night, hardly a gig renowned for everything fitting straight into place. It should have been on track by the time it got to Liverpool that's true but most of the forum backlash was clearly a case of people jumping on the vitriolic band-wagon. I agree the second half is stronger than the first but should we be surprised that the Alan Partridge section is the best bit?  I think the name of the tour should have given us a clue, that and the fact he designated the whole second half of the show to it.  As Coogan himself said in a recent interview: "Partridge is my hit single and that's fine. It's like a musician doing a concert and performing interesting album tracks as well as the hits."

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Emma