Monday 8 October 2018

REVIEW: Andy Zaltzman: The Bugle Live. - The Lowry Theatre, Salford.



'The Bugle' began life in 2007 as a satirical podcast recorded between Andy Zaltzman and John Oliver, two close friends sparring over the week’s news with easy rapport. The show quickly gained worldwide success and led to John Oliver transferring stateside to work on his own HBO hit show; ‘Last Week Tonight’, much to Zaltzman’s faux chagrin (He affectionately fired shots at “little Petey Primetime” in tonight’s Lowry show). Without Oliver, the show looked lost and took an indefinite hiatus. But in the last two years The Bugle has returned with regular “guest co-hosts” including Helen Zaltzman, Alice Fraser and Nish Kumar, who have brought the show back to its full glory. However, it is in its latest incarnation that the podcast has found its voice. With downloads averaging 2 million per month, it was clear that there was an audience for the show and live recordings to paying fans were the next logical step for an audio podcast in which live responses and interaction with audience could breathe life into the comic performances of the hosts. So as a bona fide fan, I found myself amongst hundreds of converts in The Quays Theatre at the Lowry to attend the live recording of “Bugle number 4083”.

The stage was set with a laptop, two standing mics and two lecterns, which served as a reminder that this show was to be read, not memorised and slickly delivered by its performers. Zaltzman arrived and began his customary introduction to the podcast, with warm up material about whether we are in Salford or in Manchester and then began The Bugle proper, by reading us the section of the ‘audio newspaper’ that inevitably (cue the audience shouting their first catchphrase of the night) goes “in the bin”. It was a fun routine about whether having a baby is better than getting a puppy, which has a decent hit rate. It is worth remembering that this routine, like everything else we heard tonight, was making its first and last appearance, and like all of tonight’s content, was decent comedy.

After the introduction, Andy and producer Chris (welcomed by the audience with the customary abusive shouts of “F.U. Chris!!”) were joined by Alice Fraser, an Australian comedian and Bugle regular. She had an affable style and like Andy, enjoyed wordplay and the rhythm of comedic writing. This was fine, but these two are at their best when they’re accompanied by someone with a more relaxed, natural style like Kumar or Helen Zaltzman.

Tonight’s episode covered issues such as the Kavanagh nomination for supreme court, Theresa May dancing onto stage in the conservative party conference and the brawl that concluded the UFC title fight. Regular punchlines made an appearance and Zaltzman launched into the ever-unpopular “pun-runs”. The audience delighted not in the convoluted puns Zaltzman subjected us to, but the pain these groaners induced in his compatriots on stage. Particular highlights of pun-free routines included Andy’s viscerally imaginative re-telling of the UFC title fight and an excellent segue into body-shaming the planet Venus, which began life as a routine about being a climate sceptic based on comparative stats with other planets that the media aren’t worried about.

Inevitably some routines were better than others; some dragged and some felt excessive, but this is the charm of attending a live recording of a weekly satirical show. At the time of recording the Kavanagh news was less than 24 hours old, whilst the McGregor v Khabib ruckus would have given Fraser & Zaltzman about 12 hours to write material. When one steps back and thinks about Andy Zaltzman’s achievement with The Bugle, (which he works on alongside his touring stand-up shows that also require him to write new material every night) it was very impressive indeed. Each week the podcast generates a whole hour of consistently funny, deftly written and up-to-date satire with a sprinkling of the absurd. No other comedy writer is out there producing material at the rate that Andy Zaltzman is, and few are producing satire of this quality.

The Bugle is available on all podcast platforms and 'The Bugle Live' will continue to post new dates at venues across the country.

Reviewer - Ben Hassouna-Smith
on - 7/10/18

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