The old jokes are still good

Press, 29 December 1980, Page 12

The old jokes are still good

AT THE CINEMA Hans Petiovic

“Pleasure at Her Majesty’s”.' (Academy) conies across like a welcome reunion with old friends — you? have heard most of -their jokes before but they can break you up again. After only a seemingly short time, it is amazing how funny it is to hear this-b'.-nch sing again: “He’s a lumberjack and he’s 0.K./H'e works all night and he sleeps all day . . . He eats spinach for his lunch/And he goes to the lavatory ... He wishes he was a' girlie/Eike his dear-old papa.”

Peter Cook comes on in his disgusting raincoat, sits next to a man reading the London “Times,” and announces: “I’ve got a viper in this box, you know — Oh, yes — You know, it is not an asp.”

John Cleese walks on stage with a bird cage and says: “I wish to ' register a complaint.” But trying to convince the man in the pet shop that the parrot actually is dead is another matter;

;7.As Dame Edna- Eyerage,' Barry Humphries puts on liis regal airs . and - trara, throws "gladies” to the audience arid tells them never" to mind because the Poms are all “full of. British spunk —- spunk ~ spunk.” “Pleasure at Her Majesty’s” was put together -by a bunch of English come-

dians for a gala performance at London’s Her ■ Majesty’s theatre (get it?) in 1978 to raise;;.; funds -for-. Amnesty International.

Another title for the show could have been-’“Monty-Py-thon meets the Goodies Beyond the Fringe” and, in fact, most of the artists stem from the days when people from the Cambridge/Oxford comic reviews first hit the big time on television. y Cleese and Cook are there (Dudley Moore does the commentary but could not appear because he was in California at the time making “10.” David Frost gets a passing mention.) The film starts with the rehearsals for the. main show’, with the cast recalling their old sketches, many famous faces making brief appearances and a. lot of name dropping. ... • : All very delightful to watch, but the cream. of. the show comes after- interval with the on-stage performances.

There is some amazing pestidigitation with, fingers only, the Pope tells Michelangelo that he does not think a kangaroo should have been included in the painting of the Last Supper (and probably it was the penultimate supper), a beaut Shakespeare sketch, and lots more. .

.Monty Python and the Goodies may not be everyone’s idea of what comedy is supposed-to .be .about but for those who go for this kind of nonsense, “Pleasure at Her Majesty’s”: is not to be missed. . ~

.i'(A follbw-iip by the same group, '“The Secret • Policeman’s Ball,” is... also on • its way. It already had been scheduled : for a . late - night television showing but was inexplicably taken off at the last, moment.) ; -

It is worth going into the cinema ’ right, on .’time because the short is a return of the send-up, “Hardware Wars;” with electric toasters and irons flying through outer space. ■'