Summary
Ken Dodd The Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham FOLLOWING its Pounds 3 million, five-month-long refit, what finer way to launch the fetchingly revamped Everyman Theatre than to bring on the greatest gagcracker of them all. Tastefully redesigned in chocolate brown, azure and gold, although I had a hard time adjusting to the stumpy armrests, Frank Matcham's crown jewel re-echoed to gales of laughter, the odd indulgent groan and harmonious singing generated by the national institution that is the incomparable Ken Dodd. Still phenomenal after all these years, the Squire of Knotty Ash (and his Great Drum) delivered a masterclass in stand-up, unleashing a hysterical litany of trademark seven-to-the-minute one-liners that extended to NHS health checks, camouflage jackets, cross-eyed pets, freemasons, Star Trek and TV cookery programmes. Few stones were left unturned by the King of Comedy who belied his age and regally entertained the sell-out audience, whilst also exchanging plenty of warm, good-natured banter. Several residents from the Old Jokes' Home enjoyed an evening out, but that is one of the hallmarks of a first-rate comic: however many times you've heard them, those old jokes are still funny, and Ken has told them often enough: "55 years in showbusiness, ladies and gentlemen. That's a helluva long wait for a laugh, slaving away over a hot audience, dreaming of stardom, bright lights, beautiful people and champagne...so imagine suddenly waking up and finding yourself in Cheltenham." Very occasionally the pace slowed, his voiced dropped and a jibe or two was lost, yet he remained in total command and never floundered. Disappearing off at multitudinous tangents, before eventually returning for the long- awaited punch line, his hold over the audience was mesmeric. The humour was relentless, intermittently subsiding to enable his rich baritone voice to serenade us with Slow Boat To China, Love Me With All Of Your Heart, an Elvis impersonation and the justly famous Tears.
Sweet Diddyman Dicky Mint joined him late on (thank goodness he asked for a shandy), long after we had all been railroaded into declaring "We don't care what time it ends!" Just prior to everyone being reported missing, and with the oxygen rapidly running out, Doddy finally bade us farewell shortly before midnight with the soothing valedictory song Absent Friends, to a prolonged and wholly justified standing ovation. We'd had spent over four hours in the presence of a comic legend, enjoying more than our share of happiness. It was gold-standard, vintage Dodd. Positively tattifilarious!See the full content of this document
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Doddn't He Do Well
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