two ISIHAC tour reviews
10/09/2007 00:00 GMT

Posted by lisa

Here are two reviews of the "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" tour, one from thisisnottingham.co.uk and another from someone's blog.  Please note that the blog entry contains spoilers.

REVIEW #1 - from http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133942&command=displayContent&sourceNode=188957&contentPK=18346175&folderPk=103546&pNodeId=188964

SURE-FIRE DEVICES TO RAISE BELLY LAUGHS

09:00 - 10 September 2007

There is still a place for parlour games in the 21st Century - and this was the sell-out show to prove it.

Not a ticket to be had - hardly a surprise for a phenomenon that's been incredibly popular on the radio for more than 35 years.

Fans of I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue, need no introduction to the format and personnel.

But with a cast of comic veterans Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, with Barry Cryer, and relative newcomer Jeremy Hardy, it's easy to work out exactly where this self-styled antidote to panel games pitches itself on the comedy scale.

Humphrey Lyttelton is the chairman, with Colin Sell at the piano. But the lovely Samantha was sadly absent, her excuses ranging from buttering up a pensioner in Beeston to helping a City Hospital anaesthetist with his patients and watching him knocking one out in front of her.

Not so much near the knuckle, rather the kind of rudeness that can just about get onto Radio 4 and Radio 7, where the show has its home.

The performers are on the road thanks to the demand of the fans, yet the tour is apparently unrelated to the BBC - the shows won't be broadcast and it seems the corporation was a little tetchy in releasing the brand name for the venture.

But the momentum is unstoppable: panel game favourites such as Mornington Crescent, one song to the tune of another, verbal charades, updated proverbs and more reduced the audience to belly laughs and tears of mirth, and everything in-between.

The crowd was easy to crack??? a bit like the best man's speech, when you can't really lose. Still, no points are awarded and there's no winner. Except the audience.

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REVIEW #2 - from http://baggy.livejournal.com/683734.html  WARNING - CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!

I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue
I’ve been listening to ISIHAC on the radio for a few years now and have managed to get though a fair amount of the programs over it’s 25 years on air.

For those not in the know it’s a panel based comedy thing that’s described as the antidote to panel games due to its irrelevant and off the wall humour which is sometimes scripted sometimes improvised.

Still providing the laughs after all these years are ex-Goodies Tim Brooke Taylor (67) and Graeme Garden (64) (who I saw do their own show recently). Comedy writer Barry Cryer (72) is also still there after a lengthy time along with chairman of the proceedings Humphrey Lyttelton who is a sprightly 86, although during the second half he had a few senior moments as he got his cards mixed up and needed help from the producer. In addition to these old turns was regular guest panellist Jeremy Hardy (46).
The evening was described as a kind of best of ISIHAC which meant that a lot of gags from the years were used along with some new ones to keep things fresh.
One of the old ones included:
"Nottingham is a fine city with a fascinating history. It's well documented in official records that the city's original name was 'Snottingham', or 'Home of Snots', but when the Normans came, they couldn't pronounce the letter 'S', so decreed the town be called 'Nottingham' or the 'Home of Notts'. It's easy to understand why this change was resisted so fiercely by the people of Scunthorpe."

Over 2 lots of hours they were given plenty of silly things to do some including Colin Sell on the piano as they sang One Song To The Tune Of Another, one of them being 'Girlfriend In A Coma' to the tune of 'Tiptoe Through The Tulips'.

Highlights included Sound Charades where the teams had to give clues to a movie or book etc. Graeme & Barry’s creations of Hamish & Dougal were give a welcome cheer as they passed wind while walking up a brae for Braveheart (Brae fart, geddit).

The Uxbridge English Dictionary is one of the funniest for me as the panel come up with new definitions for words usually with a second delay before the laughs as the crowds figures the joke out. I liked Jerermy’s: Sanctity – French woman with many breasts.

Mornington Crescent is a game that makes no sense, and isn’t meant to. The team members say the names of tube stations that are meant to have relevance to each other, but don’t. This time a sat nav device was in use by the team and had the woman’s voice telling them things like Ran over cyclist – 20 points, and can you stop at McDonalds I need a pee, and I love Jeremy, and why can’t you be more like Jeremy.

Group karaoke attempted to get the entire audience to hum a song in order for the panel to guess it. But as most of the crowd were shy and the rest out of sync it was tough for them to guess Bohemian Rhapsody until some brave girls near the front upped the volume.

The team ended the evening with a rendition of 'I Can Do Anything Better Than You' played on the swanee whistle and kazoo which lead into Humph showing us what his real job is when he played his jazz trumpet. A nice end to 2 hours of laughs.

Usually every half a year the gang would perform at 3 venues recording 2 episodes for the radio at each. But this time they were on their first ever non recorded mini tour for 35 years. I’ve read that if it was a success then a longer one might be coming in 2008. If so I’ll be there.

There were people of all ages there including some young kids who I think would have been very lost in this world of sophisticated word play and sexual innuendo from Humph as he received the reasons why their (non existent) scorer Samantha couldn’t be there.

I think it’s one of those things where you have to know a bit of the history to be fully amused but could probably get by without. All I know is that at some points there was a definite tear of laughter in my eye.