Classic Entertainment!

Mr Winchester and Tommy maintain their friendly banter and infectious enthusiasm throughout, and the laughs come regularly enough to keep things fresh and entertaining

Review by Thomas Kerr | 12 Aug 2007

Proper jokes, no surrealism, and no women. That's Classic Entertainment according to Mr Winchester and his sidekick Tommy, aliases of Perrier Award nominee Dan Renton Skinner and Tom Verrall respectively. The two of them storm onstage in a hail of enthusiasm that belies the fact they're playing in a glorified portacabin, informing the audience that they're from the classic school of comedy – the likes of Freddie Starr, Jimmy Tarbuck and Michael Barrymore (six years ago, of course).

Old school comedians are pretty ripe for parody – the oddly depressing, faded grandeur of the British seaside seems to rub off on them in a faintly pitiable manner – and Mr Winchester and Tommy launch joyfully into exactly what you'd expect: ironic racism (if there's a fire we're to “run like a Kenyan,” advises Tommy), entirely pre-scripted improv and the obligitary musical number or two.

The early laughs don't quite continue at the same rate for the entirety of the show, and at times the jokes are laboured or obscenely obvious, leaving you with the sense that what would have been a truly top class half hour act has been padded out to fill the hour. Not that it really matters, though, because Mr Winchester and Tommy maintain their friendly banter and infectious enthusiasm throughout, and the laughs come regularly enough to keep things fresh and entertaining, oddly enough.