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By
Harriet Mancey-Barratt
There's a feeling I often get when reading reviews that someone
doesn't have a lot to say about a group, so resorts to simple and
straightforward abuse of the band/theatre company/touring midget
circus.
Unfortunately,
I couldn't quite think of what else to do after seeing the Oxford
Revue's Funny Guy. Simultaneously bland and irritating, the Revue's
second show of the year merely left me rather cold.
To
be fair to the Revue, there were some passing moments that made
me chuckle. These tended to be the shorter, tighter skits, such
as the 'random baptism' with a manic-eyed religious fanatic running
around the stage splashing Evian at passers-by.
Generally,
though, much of the humour depended on mocking very posh people,
namely the public-school, netball-playing students of Cambridge
University. That's not funny if you're very, very posh yourself
and attend Oxford, then it's just a comedy show without a lot of
comedy.
The
fact that much of the material consisted of potentially self-referential
wit could have worked in the Revue's favour. However, the direction
didn't often allow this to be developed. Where it did, the result
was some witty observations of Oxford life, complete with alcoholic
tutors and over-eager literati.
On
the whole, though, Funny Guy put me off any further Revue productions.
A pity, since, with a little more work, the clever ideas could also
be hilarious. Until then, despite realising how harsh this sounds,
steer well clear of anything bearing the name of the dreaded Oxford
Revue.
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