There is a lot to be said, in the world of entertainment, for reputation and for word of mouth. You see the audience is gathering to see a show, about which we know nothing and the advertising gives little away to help. What we do know, and we are almost all in the same position, is that we have seen Tom Swift and Ant Payne perform before and we can’t wait to see exactly what they deliver this time.
Even in the auditorium there are very few clues. The stage is empty apart from a desk with the sound and vision controls, a scoreboard and a huge backdrop emblazoned with a huge 3D moving logo for the show.
Wicked Productions have a great philosophy. They believe that people enjoy a show a lot more when they feel a part of the action and it takes no time at all for Tom and Ant to get the entire audience on its collective feet and dancing away in the “warm up”. It’s a great ice breaker and serves well to prepare us for the first round of Ant versus Tom – loving lifted from a certain Saturday evening prime time TV show – which, we all know is going to involve both of them, and probably a lot of the audience, getting either wet or messy or both!
A table with two pint glasses of water is placed centre stage as we learn that Round One of this competition involves one of the guys holding a mouth full of water while the other tells their 10 funniest jokes. As they place themselves front centre, and face the audience, row A are looking very nervous, and we don’t even get to the punchline of joke one before the inevitable happens.
Subsequent rounds involve gradually filling your mouth with marshmallows while, after each extra sweet is inserted, reciting the phrase Floppy Fluffy Bunnies – which is not even easy to say with an empty mouth. Then there is the Disney quiz which sounds harmless, until you add in the electric chair, (yes – it really does have an electrical charge running through it) a jolt from which is the forfeit for an incorrect answer.
In between the rounds of Ant versus Tom, the enthusiastic crowd is treated to songs, sketches, a seriously impressive magic routine (performed by the “Mexican Dangerous Brothers” – who look remarkably like Tom and Ant in Lone Ranger style masks), plenty of original comic routines and, as no Wicked Productions show would be complete without it, the Boombox. (For the uninitiated, it’s an 80’s style ghetto blaster which helps Tom answer everything Ant says with a short music clip from a popular song).
After a short interval, the second half features two more rounds of Ant versus Tom, designed specifically so that the games can be replicated by the children at home (well, maybe not the electric chair round), and, next up, audience members join in to rock out with an air guitar, get wrapped in toilet paper in the round Mummy, Mummy and then try and identify five words spoken through one of those spring loaded mouth wideners – which was much more difficult than it sounds.
By the time we get to the last round, the scores are only one point apart and, as the audience are totally invested in the outcome, with five points on offer the tension is high. The decider will be Russian Roulegg – 12 eggs, 11 hard boiled – one raw. The Tom and Ant way to determine which is the raw egg is to crack each one in turn on the head of the opponent. Nine eggs are eliminated before Ant slams the raw egg into Tom’s head and earns the five points that mean he wins.
The children, and a few of the adults, get very enthusiastic as the forfeit (a huge custard pie) is delivered with incredible accuracy and the show is brought to a close with the Wicked Productions traditional end of show song, The Best Finale of All Time.
With a combination of the slapstick style of Mayall and Edmondson in the TV show Bottom and the ad-lib comic genius of Morecambe and Wise, Tom Swift and Ant Payne work their way through two hours on stage with skill and precision. They deliver, in their inimitably anarchic style, a show that is so side-splittingly funny that many in the audience are actually aching as they leave.
***** Five Stars