Charity gigs need a unique selling point and this fundraiser, defiantly entitled Sod Cancer!, certainly had one.
Well, two. David Mitchell and Robert Webb are so busy with assorted solo appearances, columns and quizzes that it was a scoop to coax them together and they did not disappoint. Except by leaving their fans wanting more.
In a break from benefit bill tradition, the duo's appearances were peppered throughout the night.
Mitchell did stiff and uptight, Webb did louche and slightly dumb, together they underlined their instinctive chemistry. Best was a reprise of their seminal "are we the baddies?" Nazi skit, in which Mitchell's SS officer anxiously wonders why his cap has a skull logo on it.
At times the stars faced tough competition from some exceedingly well-observed supporting childishness, notably Stephen Merchant's inspired impression of an egg impatiently waiting to be fertilised and Adam Buxton's polite dad-dancing rewrite of NWA's F**k Tha Police.
Proceedings closed with M&W saying that what the show needed for a breathtaking climax was a surprise, at which point Miranda Hart appeared.
The woman beside me gasped, but she also gasped when Dermot O'Leary appeared, so maybe she was just asthmatic.
Sod Cancer!
The Bloomsbury Theatre
Gordon Street, WC1H 0AH
