© Paulyne Antoniou
It’s quite something to be able to say that you went to a gig where the venue was in the shape of a giant, upside-down, purple cow. I have to hand it to E4 for going all out at the Underbelly. It was my first time, and I will for certain be going again when the next opportunity arises (Possibly, for another Boosh-related gig in the form of a slurring, smoldering, red wine drinking, lady-type!)
Dan Clark brought mainly a song-based set to the cow, along with his accomplices Ben Parker and Boosh-band Bassist Jimmy Sims!** For anyone who has attended any of the Clarks nights or saw him at West Ends’ Apollo, they went through the great classics, they included a song about Dan’s relationship with his doctor – a Greek girl called ‘Pippa Papadopoulos’, one about how no one really cares about the Olympics, he was also nice enough to do Simon Cowell the favour of outing him as a gay, via song of course, and Justin Bieber was kindly asked to f*** off.
© Dave Brown
In between melodies was some audience banter, there is always one drunk out to spoil it for the rest of us but Clark took him on and knocked out everything the guy could throw at the comic. I will hand it to heckler however, that the response he had when ask if he liked his name, where which he said, “Not as much as the name Stu” was amazingly random and, understandably, had Dan stumped too!
During his usual stand-up, he broke it to us that he suffers from OMCD – Obsessive message checking disorder, and for all the girls out there wondering, he doesn’t ask for much in a lady, he simply wants a sexy, clever, cute, girl who is preferably from somewhere hot (For the free holidays), and doesn’t have periods. So not much really.
The night was a fun, intimate gig. The set was only an hour-long, but with so much packed in, back-to-back, top-notch comedy songs accompanied by some great, professional and talented musicians, and along with some classic stand-up, it was a smashing night all around. Even though this is his last gig for a while, he now goes on to work on Series 3 of HNTLYL, and there is also word of another Clarks night to return in October, so Dan Clark fans would be mad to be disappointed!
Series 1 and 2 of How Not to Live your Life are available on DVD, along with the Soundtrack which is avaliable to buy online, composed by musical partner Ben Parker.
Also, speaking of the Underbelly, Rich Fulcher aka Eleanor the tour whore, will be using and abusing the poor cow from 18th-20 June. Tickets available here!
**EDIT: Whoops! Turns out this is not true, Jimmy Sims was actually Mika’s Bassist. Depending on the reader this could be either a good or a bad mistake to make. Apologies.
Thank you for your review, I almost felt like I was there and not confined to my sofa bed with the head cold from hell. I myself visited the purple cow on Saturday (I have decided to call her Gertrude). I went to see a play called “Ernest and the Pale Moon” – it was not Boosh related although the moon featured in it quite a lot. As it is featured in the title, this was probably to be expected. But yes, it’s a great venue and I hope to be visiting again as there are lots of good comedy type thingys happening! I believe Dan is writing a new show. This is good news. As for romance Dan appears to be one of those men who are are very hard to please!