REVIEW: Double bill delights at Buxton Comedy Festival

Writer- performer and Buzz Comedy Club comedian Tom Taylor and Sitting Room Productions brought the double-bill show '“ '˜The Game's Afoot, Try the Fish,' and '˜The Man With The Twisted Hip' to the Buxton Comedy Festival.
Tom Taylor in The Game's Afoot, Try the Fish" . Photo by Jane Hobson.Tom Taylor in The Game's Afoot, Try the Fish" . Photo by Jane Hobson.
Tom Taylor in The Game's Afoot, Try the Fish" . Photo by Jane Hobson.

‘The Game’s Afoot, Try The Fish’ was a smash hit at the Edinburgh Festival where it performed a three-week sell-out run.

With a nod to Bertie Wooster, but without Jeeves, Tom played all six, or was it seven, of the parts in these two mysteries, with the minimum of props on the stage relying on changes of voice and mannerisms to produce the range of characters.

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A full and appreciative house enjoyed his asides to the audience, his artfully manufactured ‘mistakes’ as he slid between roles and his many quotable one-liners.

He presented an enjoyably unbelievable detective, Charlie Montague, in smoking jacket and cravat who could become all the other characters as his whodunits unfolded.

The two shows were presented either side of the interval, each swiftly moving between characterisations interspersed with comments to the audience on how well he was, or wasn’t, maintaining his cast of characters.

At times we lost the plot which became rather convoluted, but at other points Tom held the stage and carried off a versatile and amusing performance.