jasper carrot and band

Jasper Carrott - Stand Up and Rock

Malvern Theatres

****

Stand Up and Rock was the label on the tin and that is what we got!

Jasper Carrott provided a half hour of stand-up comedy at the beginning of each half of the evening, and this was followed by the singers and band providing us with a range of mainly sixties rock numbers. The combination and balance worked well.

Jasper provides a very warm earthy, irreverent blend of gags and songs with his raw Brummie accent and culture. He is quite willing to be very un-PC, and by and large the audience loved him for it. We get jokes about testicles, prostates, menstrual cycles, as well as caravan drivers, technology, the French, obesity, and a lot about ageing!

The witty commentary on many of the ordinary and everyday absurdities in life provided plenty of hilarity, accompanied by the impish and mischievous elements where he is less PC and slightly rebellious!

Jasper is a consummate entertainer and his managing of an audience is skilful and very warm – he develops a very friendly interaction with his audience and has the confidence and experience to improvise at times, to go off-script.

The musical elements of the evening were led by Bev Bevan, the percussionist/drummer of ELO for many years, and by Geoff Turton once of The Rock Berries. The latter’s hit number ’He’s In Town’ was used in a recent film about the Krays, a fact Geoff humorously recounted.   

Added to these we had Suzy Woo, a younger singer with a lovely clear voice. The songs were nostalgically transporting the audience back to the sixties with a number of favourites from that era, supported by large, projected images of the sixties on large screens.

The audience was largely constituted of folk of a certain age for whom this was a trip down memory lane, a reminder of the heady and wild days of the sixties when they let their hair down and broke the rules. It was also a time of some alienation and confusion – as was well expressed by the Dusty Springfield song – I just don’t know what to do with myself.

Towards the end of the evening Jasper reappeared, picked up his guitar and sang some very humorous snippets. Then Jasper joined the band in some lively numbers that got the audience clapping and stamping their feet  - the team worked them up skilfully to conclude a feel-good evening of escapist entertainment – welcome for many in these troubled days in the world at large! To 23-06-17

Tim Crow

22-06-17 

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