The original Establishment Club was founded by Peter Cook in Soho in 1961. Five decades on his widow Lin has given her blessing to a revival of the hotbed of comic creativity that hosted legends Lenny Bruce, Frankie Howerd and Barry Humphries and ushered in the satire boom.
On the basis of this late-night relaunch, the Coalition can sleep easy in their beds. After a strong start this show, pun intended, rather petered out. There was not much here to shake up the “conveyor belt” comedy that master of ceremonies Keith Allen attacked in his opening monologue.
Allen was easily the best thing here, claiming he had “invented comedy in 1981” before inviting George Galloway onstage to tell a gag that suggested the politician should not give up the day job just yet.
The subsequent parade of acts was hardly drawn from contemporary humour’s sharp edge. Veteran Arnold Brown had some good lines, such as “I’m of the Jewish persuasion. I can’t remember who persuaded me to be Jewish” and Phil Nichol injected energy into proceedings with his Proclaimers impersonation, but the problem was quantity over quality. After three hours, madcap ex-footballer Terry Alderton finished to polite applause.
This was the first of two trial nights with a view to running a regular revue. The concept of a bolshie late-night comedy club is appealing but the organisers need to slash the running time and find some performers who do topical gags. This was a case of too many cooks, not enough spirit of Cook.
Tonight (020 7439 0747, ronniescotts.co.uk)
