★★★★

Gilded Balloon (Venue 14)  | Aug 20-25 | 13:15 | £12 |

I remember my mum trying to convince me years ago to sit down and watch a best of Tommy Cooper show on television, I thought I was ‘far to cool’ to watch it….I was wrong. I watched in stitches as magician in a fez attempted to cook a duck, pull an ever growing selection of goods from his cloak while making some of the most hilariously bad puns I had ever heard. 

Just Like That! The Tommy Cooper Show is a compilation of the late magicians finest and most recognisable work along with some material not seen before. Expect the cheesiest of puns along with some magic incantations that make no sense to human ears. I spotted some younger people in the audience who I thought may not get the fast delivery, whirlwind of jokes and visual gags but by the end of the show they were all won over.

When you enter the Wine Bar at the Gilded Balloon you are played in by pianist (and Tommy’s glamorous assistant) Christopher Peters, which gives the show a vintage cabaret feel from the beginning. John Hewer does a great job as the fez wearing conjurer, no one can rival the original but this is probably the closest you are going to get to seeing Tommy Cooper on stage. 

All of this has been organised and supported by The Tommy Cooper Estate to commemorate 30 years since his passing and the show will be transferring Museum of Comedy in London’s West-End from September 2014.

The show was let down a little by the venue, a noisy air conditioner in one side of the room stopped you hearing what was being said at some points of the show (no mic’s are used) and there are seats to the right of the performance area which have a restricted view of what is on stage. None of this is the fault of the show but needs to be looked at by the venue.

To catch the show before it moves to London pop into the Gilded Balloon at 13:15, to find out more and to get tickets click HERE.