Chris Corcoran and Elis James aka Mr Chairman and Rex Jones, the Caretaker, invite you to join them (and the third mystery comedian who remains un-credited) at the committee meeting of a small club in a nondescript location in the rolling hills of Wales. We are instantly transported via Corcoran’s loud Welsh flag tie and their soft, though largely inconsistent, Welsh accents.
This show is interactive from the get go. We played a game guessing songs from single rings on a bell (very challenging and slightly pointless) and then became full committee members, seconding various ideas and proposing people for a variety of roles. Total strangers soon become friends, bonding over their ability to avoid being made to do or say anything anywhere near the stage. We nominated a minute taker, we followed the agenda, we booed and cheered when told to – it was all very official, apart from the fact that it was a piece of comedy, which even the actors themselves couldn’t take seriously.
One of the songs we had to guess at the beginning was (Spoiler alert!) Wham’s ‘Wake me up before you go go’ which due to a technical hitch, or two (or not a hitch at all) seemed to issue over the sound system at every possible opportunity providing seemingly unscripted opportunities for hilarity. It was during these moments in particular that the audience responded best to the ability of the comics standing before them. The closing plea for more members of the choir, which featured a video clip of some men old enough to be grandfathers singing the likes of Katy Perry was also particularly brilliant.
Corcoran and James have managed to restrict themselves within the show by hiding behind loosely fleshed out characters rather than being themselves, which has granted them so much praise in the past. The motif of the committee meeting should perhaps not have passed the vote.
