It's the moment the comedy world has been waiting for. Craig Campbell, Stewart Francis and Glenn Wool back together again at last. Ok, it's not the Stone Roses, but there is something rather lovely about these three Canadian troupers touring together after forging their own separate paths over the last decade and a bit. This show, first reviewed in the Evening Standard here, is rather fun. This is not just a souped-up club gig with each act doing their contractual 25 minutes, but a team effort, with the performers popping up onstage when it is not their turn. It also works really well because they are all so different – Francis with his one-liners and tap-dancing chipmunk impersonations, Campbell with his extreme sports exploits and Wool with his stoner-tinged satire. Hopefully it won't be another 16 years before we see them together again.
According to Stewart Francis, he and fellow Canadians Glenn Wool and Craig Campbell last performed together 16 years ago. When Francis started with some cheesy puns about long-dead star Leslie Nielsen, I feared they were going to do the same jokes all over again. Luckily this was just the warm-up. What followed at the Leicester Square Theatre were three contrasting acts and a delicious surprise.
Francis made much of being the biggest star with a series of self-mocking boasts about his panel show ubiquity before introducing man mountain Craig Campbell, whose penchant for adventure gives him some distinctive material.
Need to know how to fend off a mountain lion or drip feed morphine? Campbell is your man. He also does a mean impression of a paper cup being carried along in the wake of a speeding train.
After the interval token Brit Milton Jones popped up with some Francis-style wordplay — “Anyone want to buy a broken barometer? No pressure” — before Glenn Wool managed to be simultaneously laidback and furious about religious intolerance and a nightmare gig in front of a Jewish octogenarian coach party. Nice work all round, no need to axe anything here.
