Smutty giggles from Lee Mack
By
Bruce Dessau
15 Mar 2010
You can take the comedian out of the holiday camp but you can’t take the holiday camp out of the comedian. Former Pontin’s bluecoat Lee Mack might have been playing a rammed Hammersmith Apollo on Saturday night but the McGill postcard cheekiness of the seaside entertainer was never far away in a riotously unpretentious set overflowing with smutty giggles.
This was a show that hit the ground running with a stupidly silly magic trick and never looked back. There was no overarching concept, just a glorious march-past of quickfire swipes at neverending DFS sales, dubious late-night television, unlikely rhyming slang, supermarket loyalty cards and anything else that sprang from the Blackburn-born panel game star’s grasshopper mind. Unreconstructed in his attitude to Geordies, large women and people of restricted height, but a choirboy by Frankie Boyle standards.
Mack, right, is a fascinating throwback, forever only a “wa-hey!” away from an Eric Morecambe impression as he raced around the stage, pausing only to undertake a mock post- mortem on occasional subtler gags that died. If the scripted skits were skilful though, the high-velocity ad libbing truly earned Mack his stars. His withering put-downs stunned hecklers at a stroke and a sublime off-script all-guns-blazing encore sealed the deal.
Also 10-12 May. Information: 0844 277 4321, www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (3)
Sounds like a cross between Redd Foxx and Don Rickles. All a bunch of hasbeens.
- Warren Zimmerman, Biloxi, MS. USA, 02/06/2010 08:06
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Well he took the camp outa this one.
- Bill, Hove Sussex, 15/03/2010 16:49
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I was a Bluecoat. at Hemsby, with Lee! He was a real livewire, a top guy and a superb dj.
Funnily, we always had him tagged as the "Bluecoat least likely to succeed in Showbiz" - shows what we knew.
I'll always be in his debt for being a superb punter and more than trebling our 'bluecoat fund' with one bet on a horse!
- Bryan Martin, Blackpool, 15/03/2010 14:19
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