A Budgerigar Called Sparticus
03 June 1999
Back in the very first Bath Fringe Festival, when David Johnson and Michael Godwin presented a review of comic sketches and songs, the UK had only recently joined the European Community. Twenty seven years later, we are still struggling to integrate ourselves with Europe, a fact that Johnson and Godwin lampooned in their new revue entitled A Budgerigar Called Sparticus.
Comic turns were vetted by Euro-joke directives as we were given a lesson in Joke Construction by a particularly humourless German bureaucrat. The ideas were good, but - as with most of the other sketches in this amiable review - the punch lines were muted and the execution left a little to be desired.
Still, there were a few laughs to be had, such as a telephone caller trying to get through to a customer service representative while being led through a bemusing maze of push-button alternatives.
A nostalgic trawl though the 1960s and 1970s failed to catch many laughs, though there was one priceless aside with Johnson ruminating on ‘the spectacular demise of lard.’
Though the writer/performers were ably supported by Guy Saunders, Alison Brady, Dave Pearce and Rosie Bulford, most of the jokes raised more smiles than laughs. But then, a smile is not to be laughed at.
Matthew Zuckerman