To get through the third night of BBC Radio 1’s Fun and Filth Cabaret you needed a strong stomach or a repressed gag reflex as the show went truly dirty in pursuit of the utterly hilarious. From the moment guest host Paloma Faith sprayed chunks of pizza over the members of the audience lucky enough to score seats at the front it was clear that filth, fun and Faith went hand in hand. Joining that trio were the regular hosts Nick Grimshaw and Scott Mills, whose more down to earth presence offset the weirdness that ensued across the hour. Much of that weirdness was provided by Faith, whose calm delivery of offbeat non-sequiturs kept Grimshaw and Mills on their toes as she managed to wear more sequinned outfits in just that show than could be found on the Royal Mile all day.
Up and Over It were the main dance act of the evening (not including the acrobatic Cancan dancers who began the show) and completely astonished the audience with their Riverdance inspired piece using only their hands. It might have seemed like the sort of act that could only work close up but even those in the back seats were whooping at the apparently drunken, violent madness played out before them. Dizzyingly energetic, they set the bar high for Abandoman who followed them and created a romance between two members of the audience, Helen and the inconveniently named Donal.
After clarifying that he was not actually his alter-ego Murray Hewitt, Rhys Darby delivered a quick but clever set on robots and a genius song on the kazoo that was unfortunately cut short by gravity. Morgan and West followed with an imaginative and incredibly magic trick that brought the whole audience in as accomplices, exposing their own methods of misdirection and sleight of hand with a genial air before eventually stunning everyone with the trick’s denouement. Faith, wearing a costume from her days as a magician’s assistant complete with a giant red flower fascinator, brought even more glamour to the proceedings than the Steam Punk attire of the magicians themselves.
Schlomo then showed us one of his dreams come true as he joined with Michael Winslow to narrate, through beat-boxing, the story of how Police Academy inspired him. However, then came the highlight of the evening as Grimshaw joined with Scottee in an act that was disgusting and hilarious in equal parts. The ‘light entertainment’ act involved taking mouthfuls of brightly coloured liquid, later revealed to be cream, and then dribbling it out to create a mess all over their shirts, the stage and each other’s faces. Quite literally making the show, stage and hosts filthy, it ensured the night ended on a high note and the audience left beaming. If you have a chance to earn a ticket for night four, I suggest you take it with both hands. Broadway Baby will be there too.
