Socks Do Shakespeare at Camden Fringe

If this blog is to be believed it was almost five years ago that I had last seen the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre. That was five years of bad luck with the occasional Socks gig in the London area always clashing with something I had already booked.

So when a date was announced that there was a chance that could make I jumped at it. The start time (6:30pm) and location (Islington) were far from friendly but needs must and I sneaked out of work early, grabbed a train and a tube, then walked the final mile or so down from Highbury and Islington to the Bill Murray, which is a little off the beaten track.

There was a bar so I grabbed a pint while somebody wrote "15" on my hand in green pen.

The club room was small, dark, packed and hot. That was far from ideal but the discomforts were forgotten as soon as I heard Kev Sutherland say the familiar, "Hello, we are the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre. And so am I. And so is he."

The only other material that I remembered from previous shows that I had seen was the I am a Sock song, which I guess is mandatory. The Socks do tours, or seasons, on a theme and this was all about Shakespeare so it was new material to be, apart from the odd clip that I had seen on YouTube, though Kev tries to keep his live act and YouTubing separate so there is not much opportunity to see the live show except by going to it.

For the next hour the Socks did what the Socks do and, I believe, better than I had see them do it before. The hour simply whizzed past and I spent almost all of it laughing. The only times I was not laughing at jokes I was groaning at puns.

Socks Do Shakespeare was simply far funnier than it had any right to be. Kev Sutherland is an artist who knows his craft and his audience. It had better not be another bloody five years before I see the Socks again.

Socks in Teddington

I have a great deal of admiration for Kev F. Sutherland, the man behind The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre. The Socks would be enough for that but he does so much more and has a relentless schedule that takes him across the country delivering art classes, doing caricatures and being the Socks.

This travel brings the Socks to London most years and this time it was even better as they came to Teddington and that is walking distance from home.

Admittedly I was not at home. I was working in Cardiff that day but I escaped in good time to get to the Landmark Arts Centre before the show, if not to eat an evening meal. That's a very small sacrifice to pay.

The Landmark was built to be a church so it comes with high ceilings, almost invisible in the dark, and an echo to match.

I was the first one in (it was not meant to be open) and was lucky to spend some time with Kev talking about places that films and TV shows were made, we were close to the famous Teddington Studios, while I grabbed some peanuts and a bottle of beer. An excellent start to the evening and worth the price of admission in itself.

I was soon joined by some friends that I had persuaded to join me for the evening. The Socks' humour is somewhat off-beat so there was a little trepidation about recommending the show.

I need not have worried. Almost with the opening words they were laughing out loud as were the other fifty or so people in the theatre.

The first half of the show, Boo Lingere, was a series of sketches, spoofs and puns on a horror theme, a new set for this year.

There was a short break, I'm sure more for Kev to rest in than anything else, where another beer was consumed, then it was a second half of older material.

I had seen some of this before but that did not make it any less funny and the loud laughter continued as before.

There were a few spills along the way, as expected, and Kev's ad libbing abilities were remarkable, especially as he was doing it in two characters at the same time.

There is no point in over-analysing what the Socks do or how they do it. The point is they are funny. Very funny.

Laughing at socks (again)

When I saw the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre back in September I went by myself, not risking the experiment on other people, but I when I went back just seven months later I brought five other people with me.

We approached Leicester Square from different directions so it was sensible to arrange a meeting point and even more sensible to pick the original Pizza Express in Wardour Street. Pizza and wine consumed we walked the short distance to the Leicester Square Theatre where I successfully convinced that the two PDF attachments on my phone entitled us all to entry. Who prints tickets?

Once inside I managed to get a few words with author, performer and general star, Kev.

He was just back from giving a performance in Aarhus, Denmark which I have been to so the opener was on how well jokes that rely heavily on cultural references go down with people who do not watch British TV. Quite well apparently.

This time I was prepared for laughter which was just as well as it was soon required.

The Socks are in many ways a traditional double act with a straight guy and a silly guy, the difference being that they are the same guy.

This is quite hard to believe at times so well established are the two characters. At one point one sock told the other off for ad libbing as though he really was not expecting the line!

The Socks are anarchic, which is to say that the script, such as it is, consists of a few defined sketches and songs loosely laced together with free-form interplay between the two Socks.

Some of the sketches work better than others and I think that there was some new stuff in the show that is still settling down. The second half was a lot stronger than the first and was near faultless.

And I don't count dropped props as a fault, that happens so often it's an integral part of the show. Another excuse for ad libbing, such as doing part of the Star Wars scene in an Elvis costume!

The whole point of going to see the Socks is to laugh. Out loud. A lot. And that's exactly what we all did.

Fun with socks

First a few words about the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre.

The socks are the creation of Kev F Sutherland, a comedian, writer, producer and comic artist whose comic strips appear in The Beano and Marvel comics. I discovered Kev a few years ago through the comics side of his work and have followed his work since then through comics forums, Facebook and Twitter.

And so it came to pass that I found myself in the Leicester Square Theatre with a copy of the Beano Annual 2008 in my bag.

I was there a little before the doors opened officially and, ignoring protests for the theatre staff, walked through and introduced myself to Kev. For the best part of half an hour we talked comics and comedy and I got my Beano Annual signed.

Then the show started.

I had some idea of what to expect from the YouTube videos but, even so, I was astonished with how quickly the act worked.

No warm-up act and no scene setting, it was full-pelt comedy from the very start and literally within seconds we were all laughing out loud. Not chuckling, smirking, chortling, or tittering. Laughing. Out loud. A lot.

You know it's just one man behind the curtain and the socks look just like socks but disbelief is immediately suspended and we are drawn in to the quick-fire verbal battle between the two socks.

We get current political references (e.g. William Hague) mixed with classics from TV and film and a splash of music. And the laughing never stops.

The set is roughly two sessions of forty minutes with a well deserved beer break in the middle (well, I thought that I deserved one).

The after show party (!) was held in The Imperial, the nearest pub, which added London Gold, a discussion on Dr Who and the hottest beans that I have ever eaten.

All too soon it was time to head back to Waterloo (walking because of a tube strike) and on to home. Time to reflect on what was sincerely the funniest show that I have seen in a long long time.