Another week, another chance to see the I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue tour – this time in Reading. As there’s only one show left in this tour, I’m going to write about the show, so this is a SPOILER WARNING in case you don’t want to know.
We arrived at the theatre in plenty of time, making sure we knew where the stage door was for after the show. C & K had already found it, and were pointing it out to me from the road above (the theatre’s in a hole) when we noticed Colin Sell. We were just debating whether or not to shout hello (we didn’t in case we scared him), when the door opened and out walked Barry Cryer. He happened to look up and C and I both waved, so Barry waved back. He’s probably still wondering who the mad people waving at him were.
I had a front row seat, almost right in the middle (my reward for organising a whole group of other people to go), so I had a wonderful view of the whole show. The desks were quite close to the front of the stage and the guys were so close I could see every giggle, smirk, corpse and every raised eyebrow. It was also wonderful to see Humph thoroughly enjoying all the music rounds! He would sit there and do that thing that all jazz musicians seem to do – close his eyes, smile and sway gently as if in a meditative state.
There was a slight drawback to being so close – the mic that they used for the singing rounds and the sound effects was right at the very front of the stage, so whenever anyone was standing there I found it was quite uncomfortable to look up at them, so I would often end up watching whatever was in my eyeline (which was how I got to notice Humph doing his jazz nod thing), whilst also trying to look past whoever was singing to see either Jeremy or Tim and not appear to be watching whoever’s crotch!
As I said before, this tour is a kind of greatest hits of Clue, so some of the rounds were exactly the same as they had been in Oxford – Uxbridge definitions, chat up lines, sci-fi theatre (which was fabulous to watch Graeme doing an impression of Darth Vader playing Lady Bracknell – and laughing too much!). The letter writing round was hilarious, if slightly surreal, as Tim and Jeremy’s Queen Victoria suddenly began speaking German! Mornington Crescent was as good as always, and I liked the moment when Tim said there must be beginners in after some people had clapped a move.
There was audience participation in the form of kazoo playing – everyone had been given a kazoo and before the show there was much amusement to be had from watching people struggling to work out how to play one! When the time came for us all to play it was quite alarming to hear the sound of I don’t know how many kazoos playing all at once. I couldn’t have said what the tune was and I’d seen the laser display board!
There was another advantage to sitting at the front – I could hear Jeremy playing the kazoo at the end of the show. And he was perfectly in tune! Thinking about it, he’d sung the second half of his One Song to the Tune of Another not that much out of tune either (although his Pick-Up Song was very bad – but then it is difficult to sing unaccompanied). It seems I may have been right …
It was round to the stage door after the show where a crowd gathered and waited … and waited. Eventually everyone came out and there was a surge of fans with stuff to sign. I wondered over and said ‘hi’ to Tim, who then signed stuff for Aussie Shelia (from the Saucy Gibbon) and was chatting to her, so I stepped back a bit to give them some space (but then a bloke interrupted and wanted Tim to sign a book, which I thought was quite rude!). I got Barry to sign my cd, then spotted Graeme, who also signed it, whilst asking if he had signed everything I own! (he’s getting very cheeky) I said ‘almost’, although I’m thinking of taking my sofa for him to sign next time!! Then there was time for a quick photo and got a lovely hug.
Then I was off to find Tim again, who was surrounded by a (slightly) smaller crowd. I asked for a hug first (finally getting my priorities right), to which Tim said he thought I was never going to ask – as if I wouldn’t!! A photo then some chat and giggles while we stood still arm in arm from the photo pose for what seemed ages, but probably wasn’t. A bit more chatting followed , then it was time to say goodbye.
Finally I got Jeremy to sign my cd. C asked him to sign her book, in which he wrote ‘I love you’ (which she’s blogged here). K and I then told Jeremy off for giving us both his cold last week – in a very jokey way! Then it was time to find my little car and drive home.
