Three exclamation points worth of comedy on a Monday night? Three! My expectations for the night were high. I figured the chances of me laughing so hard that boogers would come flying out of my nose were very good. And why not, Snuff Box is comprised of dark comedy geniuses Matt Berry (The IT Crowd, The Mighty Boosh) and Rich Fulcher (The Mighty Boosh). Berry and Fulcher have been on the cutting edge of British comedy for years, often acting in secondary and tertiary roles that end up being scene stealers. Snuff Box, a BBC3 series from 2006, gave the duo a chance to star in their own series with Snuff Box Live being a promotion vehicle for the North American release of the series on DVD.
As an unabashed fan of Berry and Fulcher’s work I should have loved this event. At conclusion, I was left stunned with how terrible Snuff Box Live ended up being. I can get past the fact that I don’t enjoy Sean Cullen. He’d previously worked with Rich Fulcher on the TV show Unnatural Acts so it makes sense for him to host. However, if they where honest, this night should have been called SEAN CULLEN LIVE!!! with snuff box.
This, ultimately, is where most of the disappointment with the live show lays, too much Cullen and not enough Fulcher and Berry. It’s highly unlikely anyone came just to see Sean Cullen, and this was punctuated when, after some technical difficulties, the three had to share two microphones. This left Fulcher without a microphone until a fan yelled at Cullen to pass his mike to Fulcher.
Not that Berry was doing much of anything with his. He spent most of the night looking like he’d just been told someone ran over his dog. The few signs of life he showed where when he was asked about his involvement with The Super Furry Animals (he appeared in their video for “Run Away”) and when asked to sing a song, Berry played an acoustic version of the Snuff Box theme, which ended up being one of the very few highlights of the show; along with his answer as to what he likes to watch on TV, Autumnwatch.
The decision to play an entire episode of Snuff Box for the audience was also a poor choice that doesn’t make sense. It felt like time filler as it’s likely anyone who hadn’t already seen the Snuff Box television show would not be interested in seeing it live. Why show an episode to an audience that has already seen it? Worse still, nothing was said about the episode once it was done playing. No inside jokes, no thoughts on the creative process, not so much as a witty anecdote.
Now, I like The Comedy Bar. It’s a solid venue for comedy even if it is a bit too small to host an event like Snuff Box Live; the show sold out in a day with an additional late show selling out just as quickly. The quality of the Snuff Box Live is certainly not something I’ll hold against them and would be glad to see more comedy there. Nor should you take this review of the Live show as a condemnation of the television show. It happens to be one some of the funniest dark comedies to come out of the UK in years, a must watch, the Live show? Not so much.
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- Daniel S.