Paul Harry Allen – the showbiz middle name coming from his gay Yorkshire Terrier, who in turn was named after Harry Hill – has been performing on the comedy circuit since 2003. He made the final of the Hackney New Act Of The Year competition in 2006 and has performed with the Comedy Project sketch group.

Paul Harry Allen: The Lost Letters Of Cathy G
Live Review

Rummaging around in a second hand shop in London, Paul Harry Allen, discovers a bundle of letters from the Sixties belonging to someone we only know as Cathy G.

As someone who spent most of my teenage years writing letters to various pen friends around the world (and still have most of their replies in a box under my bed) I was fascinated by the concept of this show. In age of texting, email and facebook, we have lost the art of writing letters, and when we receive one, it is a thing to be cherished.

I wasn't sure if the audience would share my empathy with the subject matter, though. Do others also long wistfully for the time when we looked forward to the postman delivering our mail, to the thrill of opening envelopes with stamps from foreign shores and the excitement of reading letters often in broken English,  a comic source in themselves.

Allen’s premise is similar to that of previous Fringe visitors the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, who found collections of unidentified slides in a junk shops and garage sales in America and set the images to music.

Aided by projection of the letters themselves, Paul narrates their content, allowing us to meet various hilariously naive romantic young French boys vying for Cathy's affections, American schoolgirls sharing their stories and most interestingly of all, a young teenage groupie, whose exploits with various famous musicians of the Sixties including members of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch and her obvious disdain for Cat Stevens and Jimi Hendrix, are fascinating historical records of a time when London was where it was all happening.

Perhaps we all wanted images, too, to see who Cathy was, to hear her adventures and to find out what happened to all these correspondents. The communication was all one way and it was Cathy's story that was missing.

However, the day I was at the show, an audience member told  Paul that she worked next to one of the addresses mentioned in the show and offered to investigate whether the current occupiers knew anything about who used to live there. With a bit of detective work, this could be a show along the lines of something Dave Gorman might have pursued.

I totally loved it. What a refreshing joy. Whoever didn't like this has no sense of humour...

A. Smith, June 2012

A total joy. I have seen him a couple of times and he never ceases to make me belly laugh.

Susan, May 2012

Not funny one iota, like your embarrassing uncle who tries to make you laugh - and fails!

John A, April 2012

Just seen him in Darlington, excellent act and the Stephen Hawking bit at the end pushed me over the edge haha

Dave, September 2011

This man is a genius

Jake Cornford, June 2008