The Chuckle Brothers, March 5 2011

You probably remember Chucklevision, maybe even To Me, To You - even if you don't you probably know the Chuckle Brothers. When i saw they were coming to play at my University, i joked with some friends about going. It wasn't until i was at the counter paying for tickets, i realised i was actually going to go. It still wasn't until i was sat in my seat waiting for the show to come on that it registered what i was actually watching. And i couldn't have been more excited. I grew up with the Chuckle Brothers, and never thought i'd actually be seeing them. The show was a Harry Potter rip off, the full title being "Barry Potter and his Full Blood Brother Paul in the Ghostly Shadows". I desperately wanted it to be good, but i wasn't expecting much. What i actually got was so SO much more.

Bits of the show were amazing, some bits got a bit old, and some bits were completely mind blowing. Call it a kids show if you want, literally anyone can enjoy this show. Some of the jokes could be seen coming from a mile away, others seemed completely improvised while they were going along. Most of the show was scripted, but that didn't stop them breaking away form the script, and even after playing the shows so many times, they still struggled to contain their laughter during some parts.

What i wasn't expecting from the show, was a musical. I was expecting jokes, i was expecting catch phrases, and i was expecting something to happen to the audience. All of this happened, we got blasted with water, we got rice thrown at us, we got every catch phrase we could possibly want but we also got a whole lot more.

What annoyed me about the show, though, was the magic. I'm not usually one to fall for slight of hand tricks and clever card games, but the magic tricks in the show were mind blowing. I still can't understand how they did some of them, and it's slightly annoying. Some of it, you could tell. Wands shooting out of sleeves, flowers coming out of the shirts, but a champagne bottle disappearing into a hollow tube? Mind. Blown.

While there did appear to be a little bit of filler in this show, they managed to bring it back and link it up to the story nicely for it to make sense. They also did a short bit using UV. I was so impressed with how they made it work, it was unbelievable. So easy to do, but so well executed. If you looked hard enough, you could just make out the people running around holding them, but you really had to try.

A group of 5 of us went to the show, but only 3 of us really got into the spirit of it. We joined in with the shouts, we pretended we had magic wands, and it was such a great show.

The further in the show got, the more musical it appeared. The highlight of the show, by far, for me was when they covered 'Everybody Needs Somebody to Love' by The Blues Brothers. Despite Chucklevision starting in 1987, nearly 25 years ago, they still pull off the voices, still seem really excited to be there and seem to enjoy every minute of it. After the show, we wandered over to the stage door, and waited. After about 10 minutes, we see Barry leaving. We waited, and not long after, Paul came out too. We walked over, really nervous, as we'd all grown up watching these guys and loved them to bits, and were totally lost on what to say to them. I eventually plucked up the courage and asked for a photo. They were more than happy to have a photo with us, and even got one of their crew to take the photo for us. Best. Night. Ever. If they ever come near me again, i'm going. I'm definitely going.