The Rest Is Entertainment Live, One Man Musical, Mike Rice - Mark Muldoon's Comedy Diary

Written by: Mark Muldoon
Published: Monday 9th December 2024

Announcing the first ever live iteration of The Rest is Entertainment at The Royal Albert Hall, co-host Richard Osman stated "we've tried to keep the ticket prices as low as we can". To which fans may reasonably respond: have you though?

Cash-strapped audience members could, if they wish, pay £30 for standing tickets right up the top of the venue. Or maybe part with £40 to sit behind the stage, where they wouldn't be able to see the big screens, which feels like missing out on a fairly crucial element of the show. Alternatively there were £80 premium seating options, or a £55 charge to sit in the lower tiered seating, which is a considerable hike on the £38 the Off Menu lads were charging last year for the same seats in this same venue. If this is "as low as we can", it does somewhat leave you fearing what profit maximisation would've looked like.

The show itself is certainly a Christmassy affair. There's a substantial values alignment between Richard Osman and Christmas, which does perhaps contribute to this show being a little cosier than you might like. The podcast (and it's an excellent podcast - I've recommended it to so many people) works so well because Osman's gentle centrist dad persona is balanced nicely by co-host Marina Hyde's significantly sharper tongue. These more acerbic moments are sprinkled a little too sparingly throughout tonight, save for a strong reliance on Gregg Wallace as a go-to punchline. Alan Sugar and (Jeff Bezos's partner) Lauren Sánchez are also targeted, with winning results. But generally, matters proceed with much more of a soft-edged daytime TV feel. Do they have anything fresh or particularly interesting to say about 2024 cultural phenomenon Baby Reindeer? Or are they just noting its impact this year and going through the motions with comments already expressed via said podcast? You'd have to argue the latter.

All of which probably would've been fine if ticket prices were hovering around the £25 mark. You yearn for them to take advantage of the live format and tell more behind-the-scenes industry gossip or borderline libelous revelations they maybe wouldn't be able to get away with on the widely-listened podcast, instead of - as just one example of exclusive gossip we do get - the name of someone who wins an episode in the next series of House Of Games.

Podcasting can be a phenomenally profitable game nowadays, with one analyst estimating that the co-hosts of sister-production The Rest is Politics make £100,000 each a month. If Hyde and Osman are approaching that kind of money (for one day's work a week!) absolutely fair play to them for mastering the form. Some bits of the live show do work, as the co-hosts exchange well-considered Christmas gifts, and provide meta-commentary on how their less successful ideas are panning out. At one point we learn that Merry Christmas Everyone was written by the same person who made the Fun House theme tune. Our co-hosts are clearly talented enough to make a quality version of this show, if they're willing to give considerably more thought to how they go about it.

To speak plainly for a second: I've no interest in - and close to no knowledge of - the life and works of Andrew Lloyd Webber. A musical about him though? I loved it.

The show One Man Musical comes courtesy of industry stalwarts Flo & Joan, who showcase a depth of knowledge about Lloyd Webber that can only ever come from having been, at some point at least, proper fans of his work; fandom that allows them to precisely target what turns out to be a largely merciless portrayal of the man himself. The results are a delicious watch.

Lloyd Webber is played by George Fouracres, in an unhinged portrayal of a man whose self-absorption is off the scales. Flo & Joan, meanwhile, provide musical accompaniment upstage. If people who aren't fussed about musical theatre think it's amazing, aficionados may justifiably lose their shit. Tickets will shortly be on sale for a considerable 2025 run at Underbelly Boulevard, which feels like a nice space for them.

It's not exactly an uncommon opinion that "you can't say anything anymore" and that comedy has become too 'woke' these days. If that's your line of thinking, it may have escaped your attention that a slightly old-school, no-holes-barred style of comedy is arguably doing better than ever right now. Ricky Gervais continues to sell an astonishing number of tickets for his tours, but there are good comedians doing it too - thriving thanks to building up their own audiences via online platforms, without needing the help of 'legacy media'.

So alongside the likes of Fin Taylor (372k Instagram followers) and Vittorio Angelone (261k), you've got Mike Rice on 62k (still a thoroughly respectable number). By this stage of his tour - the final night - the show has maybe got a little too long for its own good. But if it's near-the-knuckle laughs you're after, you won't be left wanting here.

The test for any such comedian is whether or not their strong flavour of stand-up contains clever comic thinking, so you'll be pleased to know that Rice is (almost always) displaying exactly that, both in his written material (dating a right-wing American woman, Beyoncé, sex) but also as he dispatches a gold-standard improvised punchline centring on the Hare Krishna. On this form, his Instagram numbers have got some growth in them yet.

Read previous editions of this column (featuring Taskmaster: The Live Experience, A Christmas Carol (ish), Fern Brady, Grace Campbell and Nish Kumar).

Mark Muldoon is also available on Instagram and Bluesky. He definitely prefers the Fun House theme tune to Merry Christmas Everyone.