Pappy's: All Business

In these financially straitened times, Pappy’s are no longer a Fun Club – this year they are All Business, and the show takes the form of a corporate pitch to us, the shareholders/audience. It’s a neat concept, but unfortunately it seems that their economising drive has forced them to rely on cheap jokes and flimsy sketches. Each scene is carelessly presented and then self-consciously dissected, and although there is some enjoyment to be had in these knowing winks at the audience, it is frustrating when sketches appear more like throwaway gags than properly realised scenes with any characterisation or narrative. Most of the content – and therefore the humour – of the show revolves around the banter between the three performers, and their chemistry and good-humoured infighting carries them. The constant corpsing is irritating, though, when they seem to find each other a lot funnier than the audience does. There is some good material here, and more than a few laughs to be had, but the show is very patchy in general, and the scripted disarray threatens to descend into a genuine shambles. If Pappy’s really want to turn their business around, they need to regain some of the energy and innovation of previous years, which make this show look flat in comparison.