Press

London Lite review of Tedstock

Tedstock ****
The UCL Bloomsbury Theatre
Gordon Street, WC1H 0AH

Celebration of offbeat laughs
Sharon Lougher, London Lite 07.02.07

Surreal Midlands comic Ted Chippington earned a cult following in the Eighties for his deliberately awful jokes and songs before heading across the pond to obscurity.

So it fell to celebrated fan Stewart Lee to put together last night's show to raise funds to put some of Chippington's old work on CD.

In forcing some of his peers to re-live their earlier work, Lee took us back to times when there was little fame and fortune in comedy.

Highlights were plentiful: Lee in older-brotherly role as he and former TV foil Richard Herring did their double-act for the first time in 17 years; Simon Munnery's brutally funny stereotypes (Alan Parker: Urban Warrior), and Phill Jupitus reliving his Porky The Poet days.

Even Chippington himself rocked up with a few jokes and a butchering of D-I-S-C-O.

This wasn't just a night for Chippington, but a night that celebrated offbeat comedy.