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The Very Best of the Edinburgh Festivals 2024
Review: Assembly Hall
Review: Orchestra of Sound
Review: After the Silence
Published 14 Aug 2010
After years of performing as Pappy's Fun Club, the Fringe's silliest sketch group return as the newly suited and booted Pappy's, suggesting their childish apolitical antics are out, and topical recession comedy is in. Thankfully this is not the case. In their opening sketch, Pappy's create a stock exchange of sorts, simply handing each other Oxo cubes before bellowing "It's all gravy!" It would elicit a groan in a straightforward standup gig, but in the hands of this infectiously enthusiastic trio it seems utterly inspired.
All Business roughly follows a narrative arc in which Pappy's desperately try to find a buyer for their dying company, aided by a singing dog while battling their dangerously sexy French counterparts. It all sounds tired and a tad outdated, but Pappy's daft old-fashionedness only seems to tap into all your unconscious longings for childhood until you've practically regressed, heaving with laughter at a full-grown man tap-dancing in a patchy dog costume.
Corpsing, breaking props, ad-libbing, accidentally saying the C-word – Pappy's are poles apart from the slicker approach favoured by many of their contemporaries. And yet, however hopelessly disorganised they may appear, you know there is some careful choreography here. If only they didn't break character so frequently to comment on how well each sketch is going, adding an unnecessary layer of irony to their otherwise blissfully simple comedy. You don't want to think while watching Pappy's: All Business – most of the time you're too busy laughing anyway.