ALTHOUGH Barry Cryer devotes a whole song to his disappearing short-term memory, the first thing to be said about this show is that it represents an astonishing feat of recall.
The 44-year veteran of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, and writer for just about every great comedian of the past 60 years, can summon up a story or a joke from practically any point in his life.
He is joined by fellow Clue lifer Colin Sell, whose piano playing is the butt of many a joke on the Radio 4 panel show. (“How is the old Maestro? Failed the MOT again.”) In reality, of course, Sell is a gifted musician, and at one point in this show he gets to deliver a comic song of his own.
But he also steers the evening, picking letters from the alphabet to set Cryer off on a chosen topic, and occasionally ensuring his co-conspirator doesn’t forget to include a great anecdote.
In the second half, Cryer takes his cues from notes the audience has dropped into in a bucket, and there is no subject about which he cannot be funny.
Not only is the show hilarious, but Cryer reveals a real generosity of spirit. There is no easy railing against the bogeyman of political correctness and no putting down of young comics – in fact, he rates a lot of them very highly. Here is a man who has worked with comedians from Jack Benny to Ross Noble and can say something positive about them all.
Surprisingly for a man whose latest book is called The Chronicles of Hernia, he doesn’t much dwell on his age, and it is only at the end of the show that he mentions he is an octogenarian.
“Sex at 81 is fantastic,” he says.
“But we live at 83.”
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