Surprise is a key ingredient of standup but Jack Rooke and Joseph Morpurgo explore the potential of dusting down their hit 2015 shows for rare revivals
B
ands tour classic albums in their entirety. Movies are re-released to mark big anniversaries. Great plays get put on over and over again. But in live comedy, revival isn’t such a big thing. It’s an artform predicated on surprise, the startlement of the new. Recycling old material is not the done thing. But might that be about to change? I saw two shows at Soho theatre revived to celebrate their 10th birthdays, two comic performers who clearly saw value – and a new audience – in bringing decade-old sets back to the stage. Both are restaged by production company Berk’s Nest – who don’t rule out more of the same if these two go with a swing.
Both shows could be classified as “theatrical comedy”, arguably more susceptible to this treatment than straight standup would be. But the timing is a coincidence – and the two shows are (re-)presented in quite different ways. Joseph Morpurgo has been working with Berk’s Nest on a brand new show, his first since 2017’s Hammerhead. The idea to restage Hammerhead’s predecessor Soothing Sounds for Baby, nominated in 2015 for the Edinburgh comedy award, was a byproduct of that process, presumably with a view to reminding audiences of Morpurgo’s solo pedigree (away from Austentatious, for which he may be best known) before the release of new material.
