The other night I finally got to see a show that I’ve been wanting to see for years, but kept missing it – Paul Merton’s Silent Clowns.
Settling down for some good comedy, the rather sparse, but appreciative audience welcomed both Paul Merton and pianist Neil Brand to the stage. Paul introduced the evening, most of which would consist him him telling us about the clips and films he was showing us that evening. You could tell he was enthusiastic about the subject and keen to share these delights with all who were interested, and his love for the films and performers certainly came across.
He began with a couple of scenes from a
Snub Pollard film,
It’s a Gift, where he plays an inventor who has all of these
Wallace and Gromit style gadgets to help prepare his breakfast and get him dressed, as well as a car powered by magnetic force. All very clever stuff. Then there were a couple of very short French films, one which had a bloke playing the cello and another called
Artheme Swallows his Clarinet. For both of these Neil Brand explained what he was playing through the films to help us
understand the demands of improvising the piano accompaniment. He is amazing in his ability to play music and sound effects as well as help convey the story. We also saw a scene from Chaplin’s The Pawn Shop, and the house-front falling down bit from Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Jr, which was famously copied by The Goodies in their episode The Movies. We were shown two full films - Laurel and Hardy’s Liberty and Buster Keaton’s Seven Chances. I thought the Laurel and Hardy was great – I’ve never really seen much of their silent films, so it was good to be able to broaden my film experiences there. Although I will have to say it was both funny and terrifying and at times I was almost having to watch through my fingers because the stunts of them being at the top of a high building were far too realistic and scary. Interestingly Paul Merton was talking to some people at the stage door after the show and saying how Laurel and Hardy were really quite high up when they filmed it, not as high as it looks, but still dangerous if they fell.
I liked Seven Chances, which took up most of the second half. I’ve seen a clip of the bit where he’s on the hillside being chased by ever increasing amounts of before, so I was looking forward to seeing the rest of it. The story is partly taken from a stage play, and at times it does seem rather slow paced. But over all it was still very enjoyable.
After the show it was round to the stage door, as is usual for these things, to get the book signed and have a quick photo. Although I had lots of questions and comments in my head, I didn’t manage to formulate them into sentences to talk to either Paul or Neil, but I did listen to what they were saying to other people and I agree that it’s so much better to appreciate these films by seeing them on a big screen with live music. I want to see some more now!
