The Other Murray Brother first appeared in 2019 as a BBC Scotland short (see it here), and subsequently spawned a series of short YouTube videos that got millions of hits. The videos featured Judy Murray and her lesser known son, Duncan (aka stand-up Chris Forbes) who, unlike his famous siblings, couldn't even hit a tennis ball. As the family embarrassment Judy had tried to keep his existence a secret, and she steadily developed her character as the exasperated parent
So here's the same couple transferred to the stage. Could the premise hold up sufficiently to maintain an hour long show? The answer is yes. And no...
It was clear that the central idea was too week to stand on it's own for that long, so the stage format is very different. Judy come son first, does a brief intro, and then comedian Des Clarke takes over as MC. 'Duncan' comes on soon after, looking for ways in which he can, finally, impress his mother. This involves him attempting various activities, to his usual low standard, and being judged on his performances. To break up the repetitive nature of this process, there are guests on to do short sets. Magician Colin Cloud performed some mind tricks, punster Darren Walsh delivered a few one liners. Two teenagers from the Murray family came on to dance, cheerleader style, with a flailing Duncan, and an audience member was dragged up to join in a horse race. Clarke held it all together in his usual calm manner. Proceedings climaxed with Duncan finally showing us he could be good at something.
Some ideas worked better than others, so there was a patchiness to the show, but with enough laughs to make this an entertaining hour. It won't win prizes for intellectual content, but it was a lot of fun. Forbes stays in character throughout, with some smart ad libs, and the odd nod to breaking the fourth wall. Murray, usually so deadpan in the (heavily edited!) videos, spent a lot of time corpsing and clearly enjoyed herself up there. And she can still deliver that deadpan when required. Overall I'd say a three out of five.
This was the final performance of The Duncan and Judy Murray Show.
No comments:
Post a Comment