Frank Skinner: Showbiz
St David’s Hall, Sat 28 Sep
****
‘The Championship isn’t as easy as it looks, is it?’ Frank Skinner asks, a few minutes into his set, dispelling the notion that comedians only use local knowledge to build rapport with their audience. ‘Sorry,’ he laughs, ‘this might be the last chance I get to say that.’ Thankfully, the audience laugh back.
Showbiz, Skinner’s first tour since 2014, is ostensibly about celebrity; a topic that gets touched upon rather than fully explored. There is, however, some excellent starry gossip, including a bit about the ‘charred remains’ of Bruce Forysth, and an anecdote about A-listers playing parlour games at Elton John’s villa in Nice, both of which prove fertile ground for laughs, as well as useful trivia. Who knew, for example, that Bob Dylan is bad at charades?
But the idea of a theme is dispensed with early on. The joy of the show lies in its digressions; Skinner skips from one subject to another with typical eloquence and wit, covering everything from ‘the Curse of Strictly’ to the possibility that Yoda from Star Wars might be a benefits cheat. There is also a brilliantly off-kilter re-imagining of a classic film scene.
Only occasionally does he play it too safe, coasting through a couple of predictable lines, including one about a ‘bell mechanism,’ and some of his cultural references, such as a bit about Janette Krankie, feel old-hat. But this irrelevancy is also part of the fun.
Most of the laddish material of his 90s pomp is gone, and what’s left is a wiser, more crafted act. During one of the show’s highlights, he describes his relief at no longer being shackled to his own libido, a stage in life it was hard to imagine his younger self ever reaching.
Age is clearly on his mind. He is now 62, and thinks that many are surprised he’s still going; ‘it’s like when you see a wasp in November,’ he quips. If Showbiz proves anything, it’s that there’s plenty of life in this old wasp yet.
words Josh Rees