The Colour Ham @ The Stand, Glasgow

As The Colour Ham embark on the first night of their prestigious residency at The Stand, Glasgow, we send Cat Cochrane to investigate...

Review by Cat Cochrane | 27 Jan 2014

Just where can you find a slick fusion of comedic hypnotism, cheeky magicianing, schoolboy slapstick and the odd live injury...? That’s the question on everyone’s lips. Luckily such an act does exist in the form of rampantly brawny The Colour Ham, who on the first night of their esteemed monthly residency at The Stand, Glasgow, ticked all the above – and broke the pen nib along the way.

Following on from the popular success of last year’s Edinburgh Fringe shows, the trio have honed sketches old and new into a lickety-split speedball of laughter which, when on occasion goes awry – i.e. a sprained ankle in the early Irish dancing scene – only adds to the freshness of their oddball charm.

Bringing their copious talents to the brim in equal sum, it is the dapper broodiness of Colin Cloud’s mentalist executions that draw the oohs, while the cockily ripened illusions of Kevin McMahon incite the aahs. The side-spilts and bellyaches find plenty of range, courteous of the gormless stooginess of Gavin Oattes, whose comic timing has its own team of superlatives.

On any given night, The Colour Ham is not for the shy, nor the wallflower among us. The show’s reputation comes with a warning that as a sitting duck, good odds will see you pulled onstage, and by the wonder 
of hypnotics seen throwing shapes to Justin Bieber’s Baby with gusto. Diverting your gaze won’t save you from being picked and told you were thinking of chips 17 minutes into the performance – it’s that kind of 
show.

The laughterfest comes to a gripping ‘how did they do that’ finale, involving the perfect description of the night’s raffle ticket winner, whose blushes are shared by all as a birthday cake awaits him onstage. 

 

The Colour Ham next perform at the Stand on Wed 5 Mar