Bottom Live (The Stage Show)

Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson take their squalid, hyper-violent BBC sitcom characters to the stage, completely free of television censors. It is a pure distillation of their slapstick dynamic, built on a premise where Richie and Eddie are trapped in their flat dealing with an inflatable doll named Monica, superglue, and a £15,000 inheritance. The performance relies on theatrical structure but remains prone to total collapse. A notable ten-minute sequence features Mayall forgetting his lines and devolving into an extended laughing fit while Edmondson mercilessly taunts him.

Filmed in 1993 at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton, this was the first of five live tours the duo would undertake over the next decade. Their sitcom was at the peak of its cult popularity at the time. Moving to a live venue allowed them to heighten the vulgarity and break the fourth wall to directly address hecklers. The plot ultimately ends in accidental marriage and a double electrocution. Mostly, the script serves as a loose framework for the pair to beat each other senseless while navigating their own unscripted mistakes.