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A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewPaul Merton’s Out of My Head
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" Looking at all those posh canapés, small versions of working class food: mini burgers and miniature fish and chips. Who did the catering? The Borrowers?"
— Paul Merton
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(Photo: Caroline Webster) |
His show Out of My Head comes to London at the end of a national tour. There is a point in the second act where the audience are invited to name a sport and an animal that they love. In front of a psychiatrist from the Maudsley Hospital (Suki Webster), Paul and two members of the cast (Richard Vranch and Lee Simpson) make up a story contributing only one word each alternately. Ever mischievous, Paul will start something that the others have to continue and he is so quick he can recover from any holes dug for him should the joke rebound. The resulting scene is charming and quixotic.
Much of the show returns to the theme, when early on in his career and he was overworking, accepting all offers, Paul was treated for six weeks in the Maudsley, a well known South London psychiatric hospital. He will tell us of the fun to be had as an inpatient when he pretends that he is actually visiting his visitors rather than being visited. He asks his visitors when they are expecting to get out and how they find the doctors. He will recall his schooldays and a fearsome nun by the name of Sister Galista (Suki Webster) who will fly in to remind him of his schoolboy misdemeanours. He will tell us that at school he had read The Complete Works of William Shatner! He is also an excellent mimic with credible vocal imitations of Cary Grant, Peter Lorre and others from the days of classic film.
He will set up a repartee with Little Paul, a ventrilioquist’s dummy dressed in the same grey suit with the double breasted long jacket but some of the humour pales. He doesn’t even pause for breath as he brings up the dressage events at the 2012 Olympics and who it was who thought up making horses side step as a sport.
His humour is word play orientated although his great love is slapstick and he develops this theme as he sets up a programme of The Dragon’s Den where Paul tries to pitch his ideas for promoting slapstick to the funding entrepreneurs. The Dragons who are well known British TV personalities are hopelessly lampooned. Although Out of My Head has many moments of sheer pleasure it is slightly disappointing as over two hours, the comic momentum becomes a tad strained.
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| Paul Merton’s Out of My Head
Written by Paul Merton Directed by John Nicholson Starring: Paul Merton With: Richard Vranch, Suki Webster and Lee Simpson Running time: Two hours 15 minutes with one interval Box Office: 0844 482 9675 Booking to 20th October 2012 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 2nd October 2012 performance at the Old Vaudevcille Theatre, The Strand, London WC2R 0NH (Rail/Tube: Charing Cross) |
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