Comedy and Poetry

IVOR DEMBINA AT THE WHITTINGTON PARK COMMUNITY CENTRE

Reviewed by Maddie Ryle 4/7/10

Like all decent comedians Ivor Dembina knows how to deploy his stereotypes to good effect. His brand of humour, typically Jewish in its self-effacing manner,  challenges our assumptions about people, politics and their history.

Mr Dembina has a busy touring schedule for this show, from slots at City Café in Edinburgh to the House of Lords. However I’d be surprised if any of the locations are quite as unassuming as the Whittington Park Community Centre, with Ivor mooching about in front of the kids’ fruit collages, presenting a poised blend of authority and intimacy whilst waving a broom handle in lieu of an armoured tank.

In his show, Ivor retells his developing relationship to the Israeli-Palestinian situation as a 'story with jokes' - and on the way proves his mother's adage that all Jews are funny (or at least that her son is).

For five years Ivor has crafted a reflective and well-woven narrative that charts his move (Hendon to Hebron) from his inherited Jewish identity - voraciously anti-Arab - to his later self-defined identity as a pro-Palestinian activist in the Occupied Territories.

He certainly has a shrewd and sensitive personality. As a child Ivor's enthusiasm for the Israeli state came partly from his understanding, thanks to Jewish National Fund collection tins, that you can secure property in the Promised Land for the price of a penny. By the time he has actually gone to the occupied West Bank, where his cousin lives in an illegal settlement, he believes that Jews should give up the territory occupied since the 1967 War (but hang on to New York).

In classic storytelling mode this comic bildungsroman keeps subtly picking up on earlier threads. The combination of attention to narrative detail and relaxed spontaneous performance style, makes this a thought-provoking, moving - and definitely funny - hour of entertainment. Check www.thinkbeforeyoulaugh.com for details of future shows.

PHILL JUPITUS AND TIM WELLS FINALE

Reviewed by Jamie Shorten 6th June 2010

The finale of the first Stoke Newington Literary Festival ended with some banging and occasional whimpering courtesy of poet/performer Tim Wells and performer/poet Phil Jupitus.

This weighty and laddish event consisted of playing vinyl recordings (on a single turntable!), with some chewing of the cud in between.

This was leavened with charming interventions; from comedienne Miriam Elia reading from the tiny Diary of Edward the hamster, R.I.P 1990-1990, and an acapella performance of Radiohead’s Creep by the La De Dahs in the closest three part harmony.

The lads managed a measured and word perfect rendition of Ian Drury’s Reasons to be Cheerful (Part 3), in less close harmony.The discs spun were mostly from the Skin and Suedehead Stable, Reggae, Skaand Soul (Northern, as well as soft Southern).

The crackling, spitting vinyl sound, enhanced by fagash and Watney’s beer, brought back 70’s memories of the radiogram lurching on its turned teak legs, the bass cranked up to a Richter level.We had poetry of the conventional sort as well.

Tim Wells elucidated a sad afternoon of cherchez la femme, the poem’s hopeful denouement eliciting several ahs from the soft-core female section of the audience.

The evening was perhaps more visceral than literary, the free bar for the hangers-on served to enhance this feeling. The end of a great week-end. ‘Back to normal’ says Suzanne Moore, whatever that is.

JOHN HEGLEY AT THE STOKE NEWINGTON LITERARY FESTIVAL

As playful and contagious as usual, John Hegley delighted the audience at The Stoke Newington Literary festival. We were soon singing in rounds to The Animal Alphabet, accompanied by John on banjo and  mysterious Cello man,  to his witty nursery rhyme pastiche.

Musical comedy was brought to life using methods more reminiscent of the pre-school madrigal than the music hall –  transcending the petty boundaries of age, class, and politics.

A sense of warm irony and nostalgia filled the hall to create a somewhat trippy atmosphere imbued with Monty Pythonesque silliness and kindergarten imagery.

Details of his personal life – the Luton bungalow he calls home, his father’s roots in La Belle France – his grandmother's advice and anecdotes from French holidays past were masterfully interwoven with comic references to spectacles, Armadillos and other curiosities from the animal kingdom. Suddenly we all had a childish side, and Hegley brought mine to the surface brilliantly.
Caught in his web time and  time again,  falling foul of his tongue-in-cheek tongue twisters.

Hegley peered down at us in mock frustration: we were misbehaving toddlers, he the disapproving teacher.I'll know for next time.

TALENTED LOSERS at The Pangea Project

Reviewed by Flora Neve  18th April 2010

The Pangea Project's been building up a reputation for spoken word events. Colin Shaddick, voted Best Eccentric of 2009 by the Eccentric Society of Great Britain finally got me to one.

I discovered Shaddic.  Witty, inventive, a master of transformations: children become adults, animals become human, birds become angel-birds.  Then back to'the gaping nostrils' of  his early life. . His child, fascinated and threatened by signs of the adult world.  Aunt Tilda's handbag,  the scissors or the brass razor his brother gives him.

Confusion was the order of the day and family members, birds and urine had a big part to play.

Details were observed with delicacy, using  tight metre and  half-rhymes. The domestic scenes  wonderfully surreal.  Aunt Tilda dropping her knickers 'with a dull flop' and pissing all over the kitchen floor, while the budgie shrieked from his limited lexicon.. During his second reading we met a saucy clairvoyant who, deciding that 'lines on the hand  aren't all that grand' took a more deviant turn, .  

Dave Russell poet/musician followed making  tribal sounds with drum and maracas.

And with an abundance of animal imagery personified  the mythological Coyote, who he had writing soaps and playing  the stock market.

Others followed and a great night was had by most.