Critic Ed Hill experienced TV star Paul Merton’s latest stage show in Canterbury on Wednesday night – a homage to the Silent Clowns of a bygone era.
The comedy of slapstick and pratfalls may seem unsophisticated to modern tastes but in Paul Merton’s show Silent Clowns, staged in Canterbury last night, the comic brings alive the appeal of early film comedy.
The performance was at the Shirley Hall in the grounds of Canterbury’s Kings School. The venue is one being used by the city council to stage productions while the Marlowe Theatre is rebuilt.
The hall seemed particularly appropriate to watch the ancient film stock; the curved ornate ceiling reminiscent of the early cinemas that such films would originally have been shown in.
Any notion that this was going to be an evening that revolved around Merton showing off his comedy talents was soon set aside.
In fact, the comic best known for his appearances on Have I Got News For You only told one joke the entire evening and this was to illustrate how the humour of the old films worked not only on a visual level, but also on a verbal one, even if it was through text projected on to the screen.
Rightly, Merton wanted the films themselves to show their genuine comic value to a modern audience.
The man who worked the hardest during the evening was Neil Brand.
The pianist, who specialises in providing live music to accompany the films, played for two hours at a blistering pace, subtly enhancing the mood or highlighting moments of action.
He was so good that I forget he was there and felt I was watching a normal silent movie soundtrack.
Early films had curious titles such as the French example, Atheme Swallows His Clarinet.
The bizarre comedy short showed how quickly film-makers managed to get away from simple shots of trains arriving at stations and people walking over London Bridge, to comedy tales designed to make an audience laugh.
As Hollywood developed pioneers like Charlie Chaplin, it brought professionalism to film-making that revolutionised the industry.
Merton’s passion for silent movies seems justified when set in the context of a large audience watching a film together compared with at home on a small television screen.
I was surprised to find myself literally crying with laughter at one moment during an early Laurel and Hardy picture.
The expressions on Stan’s face dealing with an unruly crab caught in his trousers had me in fits.
I know it sounds crude, but it was performed with such skill that I believe even the most cynical comic critic would be forced to raise a smile.
I would definitely recommend the show to anyone interested in the genre of film.
It not only demonstrates how the conventions of movies that we are so familiar with began, it appeals to an audience young and old.
Merton is to be congratulated on bringing these movies to a wider audience around the country rather than at some cultural hot-spot such as the London Film Theatre.
Catch it if you can. The next show in Kent will be at the Assembly Hall in Tunbridge Wells on Friday, May 15.
POSTED: 16/04/2009 11:00:00
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