Spicks and Speck-tacular @Canberra Theatre, Canberra(11/12/08)

Sun 14th Dec, 2008 in Gig Reviews

The Spicks and Speck-tacular has played to more than 85,000 fans across Australia, and Canberrans were lucky enough to have an early Christmas present as the music nerd crew of Adam Hills, Alan Brough and Myf Warhurst hit the capital once again. The Thursday night late show was a little bit more special as the the team were celebrating their 50th stage show. Spicks and Specks has been a huge hit with more than 1.4 million Australians tuning into ABC religiously each Wednesday to unleash their inner music nerd.

Kicking the night off was The Spektors, led by Kit Warhurst (Myf’s big brother) of Rocket Science and Manic Suede fame and rounded out by Stevie Hesketh (Jet) and Gus Agars (The Vandas; The Gin Club). The band did a good job of getting a seated, theatre crowd rocking in their seats as the prelude to the main event and were both musical and comedic pivots throughout the show.

Enter stage left, Adam Hills, Alan Brough and the lovely Myf Warhurst. As the trio launched the show with a smiley, vaguely celtic jig, we knew it would be a wholesome night of entertainment for all the family. There was the one exception to this: during Hills’ stand-up routine where he dropped the ‘c-word’ (clitoris), but one could argue it was used in an educational way.

This, and the other spontaneous moments were the best of the night. Some of the scripted jokes were showing their (50-show age), and the format showcased neither Brough’s nor Warhurst’s encyclopedic music knowledge, which has largely underpinned the success of the small-screen version. As a final gripe, you can’t charge 55 bones for a ticket which includes 20 minutes of crowd Q&A – that’s just not theatre.

The flip side of not using (or paying) higher-profile guests was that a few of the locals got the chance to get amongst the action, and Canberra produced ample volunteers. The lucky eight showed some good music savvy and produced some genuinely entertaining moments. The Defence Force was well represented – with both the raunchiest contestant and the eventual winner coming from the military.

A very entertaining night, although for fans of the show it is safe to say it is more enjoyable in the comfort of your own lounge room where you can easily throw the closest blunt object at the person sitting near you making annoying, repetitive commentary, because that really isn’t acceptable in the theatre. Is it?