To the Red Rose Comedy Club to see Alex Horne perfom When In Rome, an attempt to get more of us speaking Latin. Of course, I passed my O Level in Latin many moons ago (Grade C), so this wasn’t strictly necessary for me, but I went along.
We got there early to get some food and sat right at the front. This was obviously going to be a slideshow/Powerpoint led piece so there’d be no danger sitting right up front would there? OK, OK. If you sit in the front row at a comedy show, you’ve got a good idea of what’s coming.
The show’s in two halves with the first being largely straightforward stand-up. There’s very little Latin. And, yes, we got picked on (for having popped out for some ice-cream from the corner shop across the way for dessert). During the interval, Alex’s personal assistant, Tim, handed out Latin exams for us to complete. If I’m not mistaken, these were hot off a hidden laser printer and incorporated the name of a fellow front-row sittee. But mainly these were to gather names to incorporate into the second half of the show. Considering that this was to be Powerpoint based, there was no real reason for them to need to spend most of the interval tinkering with the “presentation”.
Actually, I’ve got to say that I was very impressed with what they did with it. The show was constructed along the lines of a Fighting Fantasy Book. At each point you could make a choice – the audience had been divided into boys and girls (or puella and puellae). Xavier got chosen and boys’ team captain, and was given a headband to wear.
The finale involved a Latin tug of war. I helped the boys win with a late “Quod Erat Demonstratum” and “Et tu Brute” (really!). I can’t give away the ending.
Very good fun. And worth catching at the Soho Theatre in a week or so’s time, as the tour concludes.