The League Against Tedium

Pleasance 

The Stage  12/08/1999 

OLLIE WILSON 

Simon Munnery slips into geeky mode with alarming ease. He seems completely natural in the guise of all-knowing nerd, The League Against Tedium - a character he is taking into new and largely uncharted territory in his show at Edinburgh this year.

Using an electronic bag of tricks called the 'Glove of Power', he controls video and slide images on a screen beside him and the sound effects that accompany them. And employing what might be termed the 'Sword of Vision' - a wooden weapon with a tiny television camera strapped to its end - he films the audience, zooming it on, say, tapping feet. But Munnery never looses sight of the jokes. His send-up of razor advertisements is hilarious - as is the history of pointing.

It is ground-breaking comedy, tilted toward pornography with the penile images that he flashes on to the screen. And even coming from a supernerd, the obsession with breasts and bottoms can be tiresome. With that caveat, if you are willing to watch comedy with a pair of knickers on your head - he supplies them - it is a show you must see.

(Seen in preview at the Lyric, Hammersmith, London)