Bob & Jim: Fringe 2012
Live Review
Underbelly Bristo Square

With their affected mild-mannered Thirties Cockney accents – all ‘blimey!’ and ‘crumbs!’ – Bob & Jim evoke a more innocent variety-hall era of entertainment.

They engage in crosstalk banter, crack out the ukulele (even updating a  George Formby classic) and contrive silly shenanigans such as their séance. It’s all rather sweet, Morecambe-and-Wise style stuff, and their devotion to the cheesy pun or self-described ‘whimsical double entendre’ is effortlessly endearing.

There’s a panto-style element to their feud with the evil Barry and Martin, who definitely don’t look anything like them, with boos and hisses greeting the nemeses; but there seems to be a palpable disappointment from the duo that this crowd aren’t throwing themselves into the spirit of this as wholeheartedly as they could.

Still, it’ll take a bit more than audience reticence to throw these old pros off their game. They have a good sense of pace and performance, with inventive twists on  mime and effective crowd work. Their gags can be as quotable as they are cheesy, but sold with such a captivating ‘please like them’ demeanour, they almost always tickle.

Yet the naive pair can’t convert their amusing tomfoolery into a more substantial show. The set-pieces seem isolated, and sometimes a bit too forced, so they don’t build up a head of steam over a nonetheless enjoyable hour.

Given the style of the act, their attempt at post-modernism, where the duo appear as themselves,  Dan Kapacinski and Tom Selby-Gummeridge to explain the genesis of their creation as if it were a DVD extra, doesn’t really work. We want to remain in their fake world – which would ideally be in black and white – and somehow be taken on a silly journey within it, like Pappy’s or Peacock and Gamble may do. Nonetheless, there is enough commitment and enough neat touches here to make for a enjoyable hour of old-fashioned fun.