Thursday 28 March 2024

Playing to the heart of Sliema

One of the cardinal rules of any type of production is “know your audience” and in this respect the producers of The Comedy Knights get full marks.

Presented in the heart of Sliema at the Teatru Salesjan, it has been playing to packed houses as swarms of predominately middle class, born and bred Slimizi with (it is safe to say) a penchant for voting PN, flock to watch the show. In fact, two more extra shows have just been announced.

I attended yesterday and it was clear that the audience was receptive, ready and very willing to laugh uproariously throughout, which they mostly did. I say “mostly” because you would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to notice that the most raucous laughter was reserved for the sketches which poked fun at anything related to the Labour government. You could almost sense a cathartic sigh of relief in the release of laughter as the audience (most of whom are decidedly not happy with this government) got to share in some good-natured ribbing with people who share their views.

When it came to those sketches which hit closer to home, you know, like poking fun at Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil (hilariously played by Chris Dingli who flapped his way around the stage in a rather effeminate way as his “advisors” admonished him to just stay silent if he wanted to win the next election), the laughter turned down a notch and was mostly just rather nervous titters. Which is to be expected, of course. Pia Zammit’s brilliant impersonation of Michelle Muscat as a benevolent, condescending Evita Peron, on the other hand, brought the house down, and deservedly so. She was wickedly accurate.

Political satire in Malta is always like walking a tightrope; a balancing act of hitting just the right note, and ensuring that your audience is in on the joke. I have often noticed that when it comes to mainstream audiences, the writers like to dish out the mockery in carefully proportioned doses, sort of like the carefully timed political broadcasts by the Broadcasting Authority, so that everyone can feel that the “other side” has been offended in equal measures. The Comedy Knights make no such attempts, and nor should they, but while the many sketches spoofing everything done by this government provided a rich source of material, the problem with a number of them was that they are, ormai, old hat. The gaffes during CHOGM, the (non-American) University at Zonqor, the positions of trust given to incompetent civil services, have all been flogged to death on social media, so what the writers needed to do was take a long, hard look at their scripts and ensure that the jokes have not already done the rounds endless times. Some of the sketches included heavy-handed attempts at patently obvious humour where you can see the punchline coming a mile away and could certainly have done with some sharper editing or perhaps an injection of some unexpected twist.

Perhaps I’m too demanding when it comes to humour, because everyone else in the audience was practically rolling in the aisles, even at the jokes which were rather lame. I like my comedy sharp and quick with heavy doses of irony, and during long elaborate sketches which labour (ahem) the point for too long, I start to lose interest. However, in the sketches where The Comedy Knights were good, they were absolutely brilliant, and (apart from those already mentioned above) here are my picks of the top favourites:

Black Milied – oh boy, this was one which really hit the nail on the head of how well-meaning “liberal” types twist themselves into knots trying to be politically correct and end up being offensive anyway out of pure ignorance. When Thomas Camilleri’s character (I loved the fact that he played a black guy from Leicester with no clumsy attempt to make him look black) turns out to be Catholic just like his girlfriend (Jo Caruana) and her well-meaning but clueless parents (Marc Cabourdin and Pia Zammit), the shocked confusion on their faces was pure gold.

New Neighbours – here again there was a delicious twist in the end as the social class stereotypes which we assume are taking us in the usual direction, are suddenly turned on their heads. Larissa Bonaci was perfect as the peroxide blond, social climbing woman from Bormla who is so, so eager to fit in that she calls San Anton school, St Anthony , “ħeqq, in English hux?”

A Filipina is not only for Christmas – the not-so-subtle digs and undertones of this one were a bit too much for some members of the audience who gasped in pure shock at how Chris Dingli spoke about getting his wife a Filippina as if she were a piece of merchandise …I could sense people shifting in their seats, uncomfortable at the pure racism, but this was the beauty of this piece. Sometimes you have to cut a slice of the racist pie and serve it up in all its full-blown glory for people to realize how it sounds. The intelligence behind this script reminded me of some of the better Saturday Night Live sketches.

I wish I could go back to Gonzi – What can I say? I loved it. The singing, the pathos, the yearning. It was all there.

Costa Boy – I got the feeling that this was another piece which might not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but the way Thomas Camilleri sang so beautifully about falling in love with the guy at the coffee shop who answers him in grumpy monosyllables, was almost like poetry.

Sliema Girls go Maldives – No one, but no one, portrays vacant-faced Sliema girls like Jo Caruana and Pia Zammit. “U ejja!” “Mela!” Enough said.

Christmas at Castille – the ghosts of Christmas Past come to haunt Joseph Muscat (Chris Dingli) – this sketch had some very funny moments, in particular the way he recognized KMB covered with a sheet because of the shape of his famous crew cut. And I loved the way the Dom Mintoff ghost, complete with a glittering buckle, is announced with the word “Dom, dom, dom dom” sung musically. It is these types of little, quirky, hilarious touches which really make me laugh.

Next Best Organizing Committee – of all the CHOGM jokes this is the one that worked the best, because I have a feeling that it came quite close to the truth of what sometimes happens in governmental committees. A motley crew of people sitting around a table – Pia Zammit all earnest and fired up, Jo Caruana the voice of sensible reason, and Chris Dingli just sitting there like the village idiot with his mouth open with the others trying to act as if they know what they are doing. Every now and then they pause to say one word in fond, affectionate unison, “Phyllis”.

Why China? – Chris Dingli played the part of the affable guy who locks up at the theatre and had the character down pat. It was when he performed the song with the rousing chorus “Ara kif spiccajna”, however, that he really got the audience going as they joined in with gusto, commiserating with each other for being lumped with “this lot”. It was audience participation at its best, and even though it was verging on Panto, it also explains why The Comedy Knights have hit upon a formula which works for the audience it is intended. They sure know their demographic.

This is undoubtedly a very talented bunch of people and there is great potential in taking this idea of political satire even further because it is sorely needed. My own personal and very humble view, speaking purely as someone who loves comedy, is that next time round they need to be a bit more ruthless in cutting down on the scripts, and in honing their comedy so that all the sketches can be as fresh and razor sharp as possible.

The Comedy Knights are on at the Teatru Salesjan until 10th January. For more info go to their Facebook event page

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