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| Smokey's Barbers - Manchester International Festival review | Smokey's Barbers - Manchester International Festival review |
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| Smokey's Barbers began life as an internet sitcom, filmed in a real barber's shop in Surbiton, south-west London. The pilot notched up half a million views and now the young cast have been enticed up to Manchester to translate their gritty comedy from computer screen to stage performance. | Smokey's Barbers began life as an internet sitcom, filmed in a real barber's shop in Surbiton, south-west London. The pilot notched up half a million views and now the young cast have been enticed up to Manchester to translate their gritty comedy from computer screen to stage performance. |
| The live show picks up the same storyline, revolving around out-of-the-loop African boss A Dot (Afolabi Dasaolu), who is constantly wound up by his younger employees. They make fun of his accent, turn up late for work because they're too busy tweeting, and have no idea how to use hair trimmers. Womanising head barber Jazzie (Jazzie Zonzolo) swaggers around, bragging about how many "chicks" he has, while A-Squeezy makes customers bleed by incompetent hair cutting. Fellow "waste man" Humza (Humza Arshad) hangs around even though he doesn't work there. Things get messy when Jazzie's "baby mother" discovers he's been cheating on her, and his mates react by taking hashtag-adorned selfies of the messy situation on their smart phones. | The live show picks up the same storyline, revolving around out-of-the-loop African boss A Dot (Afolabi Dasaolu), who is constantly wound up by his younger employees. They make fun of his accent, turn up late for work because they're too busy tweeting, and have no idea how to use hair trimmers. Womanising head barber Jazzie (Jazzie Zonzolo) swaggers around, bragging about how many "chicks" he has, while A-Squeezy makes customers bleed by incompetent hair cutting. Fellow "waste man" Humza (Humza Arshad) hangs around even though he doesn't work there. Things get messy when Jazzie's "baby mother" discovers he's been cheating on her, and his mates react by taking hashtag-adorned selfies of the messy situation on their smart phones. |
| The crew break down the fourth wall and interact enthusiastically with their audience. We're asked to help with their job ("Does anyone know how to use a Babyliss hair trimmer?"), to yell slang back at them, and those "chicks" among us are even asked for our numbers. They're interested in girls and social media rather than cutting hair and provide an amusing glimpse into a shoddy work place with defiant, young employees. | The crew break down the fourth wall and interact enthusiastically with their audience. We're asked to help with their job ("Does anyone know how to use a Babyliss hair trimmer?"), to yell slang back at them, and those "chicks" among us are even asked for our numbers. They're interested in girls and social media rather than cutting hair and provide an amusing glimpse into a shoddy work place with defiant, young employees. |
| Race-based comedy isn't cutting edge; we've seen comedians from ethnic minorities, such as Omid Djalili, exaggerating accents and mocking their own cultures before. Equally, some of the improvisation is a little secondary-school-drama-class, with a few prolonged and awkward jokes that may have fled a little too far down the risqué route (there's not really a way that talking about choking your ex-girlfriend can be funny). But if Smokey's Barbers can represent and relate to a young, urban audience through satirical and tongue-in-cheek comedy, they deserve credit. | Race-based comedy isn't cutting edge; we've seen comedians from ethnic minorities, such as Omid Djalili, exaggerating accents and mocking their own cultures before. Equally, some of the improvisation is a little secondary-school-drama-class, with a few prolonged and awkward jokes that may have fled a little too far down the risqué route (there's not really a way that talking about choking your ex-girlfriend can be funny). But if Smokey's Barbers can represent and relate to a young, urban audience through satirical and tongue-in-cheek comedy, they deserve credit. |
| Some adults in the Pavillion sat stonyfaced throughout, but the teenagers in the audience enjoyed it. 16-year-old Edd Futch from Wythenshawe thought young people can relate to the show: "It was aimed at us language-wise," he says. "It was relaxed, chilled out and well planned out." Najeé Ross, 16, from Longsight agreed: "I thought it was good, it was entertaining and funny overall." | |
| Smokey's Barbers is a bit rough round the edges, not a surprise given that this is its first live outing. But if the gang's well-shot mockumentary style YouTube videos and contagious stage energy are anything to go by, with a bit more practice on stage, we should expect to see something big from these guys...I mean, something sick from these wastemen. | Smokey's Barbers is a bit rough round the edges, not a surprise given that this is its first live outing. But if the gang's well-shot mockumentary style YouTube videos and contagious stage energy are anything to go by, with a bit more practice on stage, we should expect to see something big from these guys...I mean, something sick from these wastemen. |
| Jamal Edwards and SBTV presents Smokey's Barbers at the Pavilion Theatre, Festival Square, 9th - 10th July at 8.30pm. £12, concs £7. | Jamal Edwards and SBTV presents Smokey's Barbers at the Pavilion Theatre, Festival Square, 9th - 10th July at 8.30pm. £12, concs £7. |
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