Pippa's Old Time Music Hall

Pippa's Old Time Music Hall

20 November, 2009
by: Evolmike

Can comedy go retro? In terms of content, surely not. What was funny a century ago nowadays is considered twee, or at best not "ha ha funny" but "classical funny." Of course this all depends on your age and historical inclination; although Music Hall isn't a format originating from within the ascertainable memory of many people who still sport all of their mental facilities. Maybe that's the point. Once everyone's forgotten about something, the recycling can begin. The reverse engineering approach to originality. Clever, technically.

Pippa Evans and friends are young, ruddy-cheeked and spunky. Their audience appears to be principally middle aged. But here we all are, keeping alive the dreams of our great grandparents. Okay it's not quite as arcane as all that, it's basically sketch comedy for the stage. But the musical interludes slip into the starched undercrackers of light entertainment, old school cockney croonings and what not. I find myself wondering if this isn't revivalism at all and that the traditional British cockney knees up has remained a fierce and steadfast discipline, unwarped and unwethered by the otherwise unshakable sands of time. It certainly lands well; the punters seem familiar with it all. The singalongs. Oh, the singalongs. I think to enjoy singalongs you have to be above or below certain ages. Or maybe I'm just a miserable sod. Still, I must admire their ambitious (and eventually successful) attempt to get the audience to sing two songs at the same time.

So the retro cockney dressage is more of a theme than a guideline, a pseudonymous platform for a variety of colourful skits, of which many are well written and all are well timed. Highlights included an energetic ragtime duet by a husband and wife (after the tragic loss of the husband) a pithy sketch about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and the still baffling proposal of the first ever Christmas Tree, and of course the mad, mad eyes of the amazing Wilfredo and his hypnotising array of facial slurs. Portrayed with a thick, stereotypically nasal Spanish persona. Funny how in a world bent arse over tit about political correctness, it's still okay to rip on Spaniards. But then again, this is retro comedy. One has to make some attempt to recreate the effervescent zeitgeist that brought us the black and white minstrel show. Right?

There's just something weird about seeing the young performing the old for the sake of the middle. I wonder who is trying to impress who and for what reasons. I wouldn't call it contrived, just a little bit... creepy. But it's so light and fluffy and smiley and good for you, how can it possibly be creepy? I don't know it just is. But creepy's good. I can always get on board with creepy. Even if it's inverse creepy. There's room for the imagination if you need it, is what I'm saying. I don't know what I'm saying.

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Evolmike