Watered down

The Perrier Award is 20 years old this festival. Cameron Robertson wonders, has the champion of alternative comedy lost its bottle? 

The Stage  03/08/2000 

CAMERON ROBERTSON 

Aged 20. But has a lot of experience.

Knows people who are now very successful, including an Oscar winner.

Personality has changed over the years. Very quiet, but enjoys midnight parties and being kissed.

Alright, a lonely hearts column for awards does not exist. But a cute bottle of Babycham, what would she ask the fizzing Perry Er while on a hot date? Would she be suspicious as to how he has changed?

In 1981, a Cambridge Footlights team, including Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson, won the gong; there was no shortlist until three years later. Following this, more sketch and revue capers with Writers Inc, Los Trios Ringbarkus and Brass Band, physical and theatrical-based acts such as Theatre De Complicite and Ben Keaton were triumphant during the mid-eighties.

Brown Blues (stand-up comedian Arnold Brown with musical-based acts Barb Jungr and Michael Parker) took the big inflatable award (now a natty statuette), but it was undoubtedly a transitional year.

Every winner since 1987 has been a comedian, duo, or sketch team - all related very closely to stand-up comedy, such as Sean Hughes, Steve Coogan (with John Thomson) and The League of Gentlemen. No songs, physical theatre or music.

What happened to the cabaret, the revue, the Theatre De Complicites? Do they exist?

Yes. Are they not as funny? Well, that is a matter of opinion. The opinion of the rule makers, the Perrier administrators who insist that the act should - excuse the unfortunate pun - stand alone with narrative if a five minute segment was extracted. And the opinion of the judges, the panel.

Of this year's ten members, selected differently each year, four produce or edit television comedy, three are newspaper arts editors or columnists and competition winners provide the remainder.

They are told to judge an act on material and performance.

One fellow pundit surmised that Simon Munnery (Alan Parker: Urban Warrior, The League Against Tedium) was simply too diversely original with his latter character creation of a nightmarish, psychological dictator to be recognised with the award; only last year, as people became more familiar with it, was he nominated.

Although not hailed by gongs, the same principle could be applied to the imaginative Jon Reed, whose multi-media comedy show I caught last year as part of an audience of about 30.

Only myself, comedian Ben Moor and an old woman laughed out loud, consistently.

Probably about 70 to 80 per cent of the jokes I found amusing, but the guts behind displaying that kind of originality - Nazi clocks playing football - was significant. The rest of the audience did not think so, obviously.

And why was the terrifying and mesmerising Fringe debut of bitter holiday camp drunkard Johnny Vegas totally ignored by the panel in 1997?

The point of my pundit friend was that true originality splits the opinion of groups or panels and, therefore, cannot be agreed upon to be recognised.

The configuration of the panel also suggests that the television producers or deputy controllers may be viewing comedians with a blinkered image of audiences being entertained through a cathode ray tube.

What would happen if the panel was entirely made up of the public? Would they judge the standard of funniness against television's offerings? Probably, because unless they are regular comedy club devotees, they will not know any better. Aside from the genuine hits out of nowhere, such as Vegas, a large section of the public will not take many chances paying £7 or £8 to see a comedian if they have not been on television. Is that a mark of high quality humour or one of mass appeal?

In an ideal world, the Perrier panel should be made up of unbiased people who are well versed in various types of comedy from different eras. But how improbable is that? So, the intermittent criticism of the panel continues.

But television is not the only avenue to stardom the Perrier Award has provided: rubbery Australian comedians the Umbilical Brothers, nominees in 1995, are now enjoying considerable success with an Off-Broadway run; Nick Revell, nominated in 1987, is an author and Radio 4 regular (as are many nominees); and Frank Chickens, nominated in 1984, will have a run at BAC this autumn.

But what happened to the Merry Mac Fun Show (nominees 1985 and 1986), John Sparkes (nominee 1987) and Sue Ingleton (nominee 1985)?

The advent of the Best Newcomer Award in 1992 has proved to be a predication lottery, but very fruitful for winners such as Harry Hill, Tim Vine and Arj Barker.

Talking to comedian Arnold Widdowson last year, I thought Terry Alderton would get the newcomer award if he was not nominated for the main gong.

Alderton made the main list and Arnold - as part of Ben'n'Arn's Big Top - won Best Newcomer.

If Ross Noble and The League Against Tedium do not repeat their feat of last year and make the list of the main award, it will be a huge shock. It is close, but the early money is on the League. Also watch out for Marcus Brigstocke, who has graduated to the larger Assembly Rooms venue and - I hope you are reading this Arnold Widdowson - early indications that Priorite a Gauche, the French rapping creation of Ben'n'Arn, is a genuine hoot.

Other potentials are Dan Antopolski, Noble and Silver, Mackenzie Crook's teacher from hell Mr Bagshaw and Jeff Innocent, whose East End hardman gags might figure in the newcomer category, or even the main list.

So Babycham has discovered that Perry Er's personality has changed, but he still has the same sparkle at heart. Every comic would love to win Perrier.

You get £5,000, appearances on a West End stage and lots of people fighting to be part of your career. What more could one want?

But consider this. If the Olivier Award panel can extend its remit by giving Al Murray a nomination for Best Entertainment, can Perrier relax its rules to break fashion and help evolve British comedy by considering other high quality comedy genres?

Should acts such as The Right Size, cabaret queen Mika, Simply Barbra (a Streisand impersonator), or, dare I say it, a surefire hit of this year - Yllana's 666 - be considered?

The answer rests with the rule makers and the panel's methodology and sense of adventure.