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The Review - THEATRE by DAN CARRIER
Published: 20 September 2007

No banana skin for these monkeys

MONKEY BUSINESS
Comedy Club

THE MONKEY Business comedy club is a strange fish – it is stuck in the upstairs room of a Kentish Town pub. But thankfully its surroundings provide ample copy for the comics.
Friday night was a case in point. Edinburgh veterans and circuit newcomers bid to out do each other with curious tales and simple one liners. The opener was a cracker. Nick Doody’s delivery was spot on, wandering in front of the stage and talking without a microphone. His banter flowed and his introspective takes on standing in a upstairs room in a pub was extremely cool.
Ed Bainbridge followed with a short but sweet set, then Simon Munnery took over. Munnery’s patter is well honed and his joke to story ratio high enough to make you start giggling at the next joke while you haven’t quite finished laughing at the one before. His riff on a stay at a mid-western American town where booze is banned was particularly memorable.
It led gently on to Lewis Schaffer, who uses the fact he hails from New York to create an act. Schaffer’s takes on relations between the cousins from both sides of the pond was covering well-trod ground – PG Wodehouse’s novels of the 1920s and 1930s did it well, for example. But that is no criticism: if Wodehouse found it funny, it was, and the fact Louis has updated it is all good.
Compere Martin Besserman has got it just right – a grand mix of funny people come beating a path to his door and a new branch of the Money Biz is opening in October – the upstairs rooms at the Sir Richard Steele in Haverstock Hill will host another night of belly laughs. Spread the smiles, Martin – it’s not a bad thing to do for a living.
Every Friday
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