Harry Enfield is, as he told his audience at Takapuna’s Bruce Mason Centre last night, 64 years old. And in a nearly two-hour show Enfield told the story of those 64 years through an absolutely compelling blend of anecdote and familiar characters.
The format of the show—Harry Enfield And No Chums, it was badged, although much credit was offered to the various chums who helped make Enfield the comedy champion he was to become—was quite simple. After a quick intro in character as the King, a role he’s played in The Royals, Enfield started at the beginning, in his childhood as a young lad eating coal, and led his audience through his life, from his early days as part of the duo Dusty & Dick, opening up for The Stranglers, through his big break voicing Spitting Image, on to his days on Saturday Live, and eventually into Harry Enfield and Chums.
And for those of us who grew up in England in the 1980s, this was a glorious blast of comedy nostalgia. Enflied is a gifted storyteller, and the biographies he crafted of his characters was a beautiful blend of insights into the origins of Stavros and Loadsamoney and the rest, and opportunities to bring these characters back to life. Kevin the Teenager, of course, got one of the biggest cheers, but Enfield is self-aware enough to know that, at his age, it’s a little much to be channeling at 13-year-old.
All this would have made for a very agreeable, if forgettable, evening. But, as we’ve said, Enfield knows how to tell a story. He knows that his success was very much a function of having talented mates, and he was sure to give credit whenever it was due, and Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson, in particular, got plenty of mentions as the titular chums of Enfield’s long-running series. And Kathy Burke—Waynette Slob and Perry the Teenager—was singled out for particular credit.
It wasn’t just the storytelling. Enfield’s real talent lies in his voice. He is blessed with an uncanny ability to capture a character—one of his creations, or a person from his story—with a single word, or even a single noise. It’s not simply imitation, although his takes on John Cleese or Bob Mortimer were almost scarily accurate. It was the fact that it only took one word, one grunt almost, to put a character firmly in your mind.
And so were treated to visits from Angry Frank, in a bit that brought possibly the hugest rounds of laughter of the evening, or Mr. Chumley-Warner. And the Q&A session that rounded out the evening offered us a glimpse of a character that never quite made it to the air, an Irish priest with an excessive fondness for children. Shocking, to be sure, but Enfield somehow manages to keep just to the right side of offensive, just enough of a fig-leaf of “Ooh, I’m being satirical” that gags and bits that could get other comedians into a lot of trouble somehow manage to land with applause and not silence.
Harry Enfield And No Chums was never going to offer anything new or groundbreaking. It was very much a greatest-hits show from a comic who has created countless wonderfully memorable characters, and a couple of hours in their company made for an exceptionally entertaining evening.
Harry Enfield will perform at Auckland Town Hall on Friday 21st November, and Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch on Saturday 22nd November.