2011 Edinburgh Fringe
Rich Hall Hoedown review
Putting a bar onstage - even if your stage is a big one - really is asking for trouble. Arch curmudgeon Rich Hall gets it tonight in the shape of five lairy local lads, who pop down for beers halfway through a song then decide it'd be a really good idea to put their crap party Stetsons on the bandmember's heads, one of them stealing Hall's cap in the process.
Hall looks momentarily exasperated that his "sacred area" is being infiltrated by such infidels, but then he did bring it on himself, opening proceedings by urging punters to get up and dance and drink and generally join in throughout. "I don't even know what a hoedown is," he admits.
In this case it's Hall and his band - also featuring the likes of fellow comic/musician Ronnie Golden and fiddler Nick Pynn, both of whom are also doing their own shows - cranking out comedy songs, country covers, even a radical reworking of an old hip-hop track, while the well-oiled punters get up to all sorts of hi-jinks. Well, they do this particular night anyway: five songs in and the side of the stage is full of people dancing along, with the star turn again looking bewildered. "Nobody ever actually did that before," says Hall.
The show itself is hugely entertaining, musically and comically, with Hall providing the wit and wisdom up front, and the band playing it impressively straight behind (that bass player really didn't fancy the Stetson). Hall's own compositions are often hilarious - if only a tad more ludicrous than regular country songs - and they essay a few cover versions along the way, everyone from Steve Earle to Dr Dre.
Things start getting a bit out of hand later on when the lairy blokes kill the mood by shouting bizarrely crude inanities at Hall's guest singer, but drink does also play a part in the evening's funniest moment. One well-lubricated girl, whose brazenly amorous mood is a little full-on for a public place and a tad distracting, then tries to climb into the empty row behind to go to the loo, stacks it, pours her pint all over her boyfriend and ends up in a crumpled heap.
Ho down? Oh that's terribly unfair...