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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

And Nothing But

Simon Munnery

Go Faster Stripe · 2016 · 57 min

A loose, dry hour of stand-up from a British alternative veteran.

Simon Munnery begins And Nothing But by being dragged onto the stage by “wild horses,” which is actually just a rope tied around his ankle accompanied by horse-hoof sound effects, setting the tone for an hour of deliberately underwhelming, self-effacing whimsy. This isn’t high-concept character work like his past alter egos, Alan Parker: Urban Warrior or The League Against Tedium; instead, Munnery spends the hour being himself—or at least a version of himself infinitesimally obsessed with the mechanics of stand-up. The show begins with him trying out six different openings he considered for the performance, letting the audience in on the sheer artifice of the whole endeavor.

Filmed at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre in November 2015 as part of the Go Faster Festival and released on DVD by indie comedy label Go Faster Stripe in June 2016, the special runs a tight 57 minutes. Munnery delivers a loose, travelogue-style set detailing his touring misadventures from Enniskillen to Canada, pausing to analyze the internal rhyme of the word “Bono” and the design flaws of seaplanes. Between bits about his local homeless man, Munnery introduces a delightfully lo-fi homemade contraption designed to demonstrate the “New Can-Can,” defined simply as a high kick and a brief glimpse of his underwear.

Reviewing his own performance mid-set, Munnery describes the hour as a “scattergun” where “some of it works, some of it doesn’t, but nobody’s getting hurt”. It is a characteristically dry self-assessment of a pedantic, language-focused set that bypasses conventional joke structures for quick, dadaist observations on everything from capitalism to the architectural absurdity of houses.

The set list

6 bits

  1. The New Can-Can

    Demonstrated using a home-made, lo-fi contraption allowing the performer to execute a high kick and flash a glimpse of underwear

  2. Testing alternative show openings

    Explores the mechanics of comedy by testing out multiple potential opening sequences he had considered, including being dragged on stage by 'wild horses' for a pound

  3. The Absurdity of Houses

    Philosophical and absurd pontifications inspired by his tour stop in Castle Cary

  4. Taxi ride with Susie Orbach

    A short travelogue anecdote recounting a journey with the feminist author and examining perceived hypocrisy

  5. Language and pedantry

    Deconstructs linguistic quirks, highlighting the internal rhyme in 'Bono', the phrase 'new and improved', and railing against using 'like' as punctuation

  6. A romantic comedy play in Yorkshire accents

    A mini-play routine performed towards the end of the show

How it plays

Tone
Surreal, whimsical, satirical, and eccentric
On stage
Eccentric absurdist, conversational language pedant, self-referential, and whimsical
Pace
Conversational to the point of appearing improvised, loose, tangential, and unpredictable
About
Life on the road and touring travelogue, The absurdity of houses, Language pedantry and wordplay, The 'Neo-Con Con' and political commentary, Feminism and perceived hypocrisy, The joy of washing-up

What the critics said

Described by Munnery himself and critics as a 'scattergun' approach where not every joke lands, but celebrated as delightfully inventive, unpredictable, and finely crafted chaos from a master of the absurd

In the room: Warmly appreciative audiences receptive to surreal tangents, with Munnery casually handling rowdy or confused hecklers with experienced calm

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: gofasterstripe.com, themoviedb.org, nuxt-movies.nuxt.dev, tobaccofactorytheatres.com, chortle.co.uk, theweereview.com, squirrelcomedy.com, threeweeksedinburgh.com, thecitizen.org.au, theargus.co.uk.

Backstory

Known for avant-garde character creations such as Alan Parker: Urban Warrior and The League Against Tedium, as well as experimental DIY projects like his Fylm apparatus, Munnery structured this show around being himself on stage with minimal props

Details

Released
Runtime
57 min
Where
Go Faster Stripe
Director
Chris Evans
Topics

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