Jus Like That!
Live Review

The ghosts of dead comedians haunt the Fringe, and barely a year goes by without at least a couple of tributes to bygone heroes. Jus Like That is the Tommy Cooper one, oviously, and it’s been around for a good few years – it was nominated for an Olivier Award on the West End in 2003 – and now lands at Assembly Hall.

Unlike many similar shows. Jus Like That eschews any biographical narrative. Apart from a brief dressing-room scene at the start, in which Clive Mantle’s Cooper simply cracks Cooper’s one-liners in a slightly different setting, this does not venture to look at his life, his volatile marriage, his heavy drinking or his legendary meanness. It is basically an 85-minute impersonation of one of the most impersonated figures in comedy, performing his stage act. What next? Ooh Betty: A Tribute To Frank Spencer?

Mantle makes a decent fist of capturing Cooper. Although he can’t hope to recreate that legendary charisma which meant, to reuse the cliché, he’d have an audience laughing before he’d even done anything, Mantle becomes increasingly believable as the show goes on.

But – and here I’m clearly in the minority given the nearly-full house and the longevity of the show – I just didn’t see the point of this. By being such a straightforward tribute act, it’s just a presentation of familiar old jokes and bungled (and very occasionally successful) conjuring tricks. The gags are so firmly rooted in the public consciousness there is no surprise, and I never felt transported by a performance that, although solid, never seemed anything more than an extended impersonation.

Like a pub covers band, Jus Like That might be fun for some – but the artistic value is dubious.

Money, old rope. Old rope, money. A-huh-huh-huh.