Monday, May 21, 2007

Matt Berry and Jonas 3

If I'm going to make my ears bleed I would hope it would be to something far more worthy than the likes of these guys.

Matt Berry and Jonas 3 we said, bit of comedy, bit of music - probably a bit like Bill Bailey. We like him. Burley error of gigantic proportions.

First hour - Jonas 3 playing some of their noise. Less stage presence than a thimble. I kept thinking, when are they going to be funny? They weren't. I kept thinking, when will I be able to actually hear the words of these songs? I didn't.

Ah well, we thought, we're sure Matt Berry the 'comedian' will make up for it. Second half, voila Matt Berry, accompanied by Jonas 3. I'm sure this gig was advertised as comedy. I didn't even smile, let alone laugh, and I'm not that difficult to amuse.

Jonas 3 on their own were crap, Jonas 3 plus Matt Berry were even more crap.

This evening's experience reminds me of the marmite ads. Half of the audience were leaping around, singing along to the songs and generally lapping up this strange excuse for comedy. The other half sat, bewildered, waiting for the show to get started. Quite a few left, quite a few refused to stand when Mr Berry kept encouarging us to, many did not join their hands in even a pretence of applause at any point.

Are the Burley's getting old and not grasping the gentle nuances of modern comedy or is Matt Berry just a very sad man?

A few months ago Rich, me and Marcus went to see 'The Ice Crystal Maze' at the ADC theatre in Cambridge. A student production by some guys who were taking their first steps into comedy. Some of them would definitely have been better sticking with their physics degrees. Some of them actually froze on stage and couldn't think of any jokes. It was dire. This evening's show was worse. £10 which was certainly not well spent.

You win some you lose some. Let's hope the next one's a winner. Ross Noble, I'm sure you won't let us down.

8 Comments:

At 7:22 pm, Blogger xletsdancex said...

Well I for one had a great evening, Jonas 3 were really musically interesting and refreshing, and all the same with Mr Berry. You just seem a bit narrow and boring, and (judging by your other posts on here) not particularly bright, so I am sure you could'nt get some of the jokes due to some of the long words used during the performance, and as for hearing the words, I could prefectly well, don't know whats wrong with you...

Go watch Middle of the road unoffensive Ross noble, oh you are, good for you...

-John Gable

 
At 7:44 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was just searching Google to see if someone had written a good reveiw of this evening, obviously not HA!

J3 were not to some tastes but it did'nt take an idiot with half a brain to figure out that THEY WERE NOT A COMEDY ACT! they arnt supposed to be funny, they are just really good musicians. So waiting for a laugh out of them was just a plain dumb thing to do

Matt Berry was pretty funny but that idiot that ran backstage messed up the encore a bit but it was still good how they pulled it off! **I cant be in love if it's plasic dundundun**

I also did'nt see anyone leave during the set who did'nt come back to enjoy the rest of it!!! including myself (gulty as charged!) MON THE BERRY!!! xxxxx

 
At 10:37 pm, Blogger Rich Burley said...

Oh the irony. Jonas the 3 were the most uninteresting, inoffensive, middle of the road live band I've seen in a very long time. They exuded minus stage presence (the singer didn't even look at us most of the time) and looked like exactly what they were - a backing band without a frontman.

The main gig was a classic case of mistaken identity. I thought it was going to be comedy - it wasn't. Just a dull gig by a talented comedian who, like Russell Crowe and Keanu Reeves, should think twice about giving up his day job and take some singing lessons.

Still, the people who knew all the words seemed to like it - a bit like Singalong Sound of Music, then.

btw, Cambridge Uni is a great place to learn intellectual fascism, but I'd look at your own command of long words before you start knocking other people's. (Tip - try looking up 'unoffensive' in the dictionary. You won't find it there.)

 
At 8:48 pm, Blogger Jonathan Potts said...

John Gable,

could'nt ???

unoffensive ???

whats ???

prefectly ???

...and you call Mel "not particularly bright" and unable to get jokes because of "long words"? You can't even master the shorter ones!

Anyway, what sort of sad pathetic man amuses himself by turning up on a stranger's blog and insulting her?

 
At 1:24 pm, Blogger Kate said...

Ah, sorry you didn't enjoy your evening. I found your review via a google search as I went to the London gig last night and loved it.

The audience there seemed to like it too, but there was very much a feeling of there being an in-joke, like we were all a group of people who'd discovered this guy and his quirky music. I can imagine that to anyone who hadn't seen Mr Berry's TV work or heard any of his music before it could have all seemed a bit strange.

Personally, I've been walking around with a smile on my face all day humming the tunes! My only complaint was that the set was too short!

I hope you enjoy whatever you go to see next.

 
At 4:49 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Both bands were fantastic in my opinion...I agree with kate in the way that you wouldnt get the humour if you had'nt seen any of his shows. Is wasn not advertised as a comedy show though at all, so judging both acts on that is a bit dumb.

 
At 5:16 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

THE NIGHT ROCKED U SUCK

 
At 5:32 pm, Blogger Mel said...

Thanks for your comments Kate. I think a lot of comedy has a degree of in-jokes and can be much funnier if you have seen the comedian before. My disappointment was that in this case it was quite inaccessible for anyone who didn’t already know all the songs, even though I went along wanting to be amused. However, I’m glad that for those who were familiar with the songs and with Matt Berry’s strange, slightly volatile comedy style it was an enjoyable evening.

 

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