Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 08:40:38 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Alan Partridge: Stratagem

Started by Magnum Valentino, April 23, 2022, 12:12:20 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Magnum Valentino

Anyone seen it yet? Belfast was tonight but on account of myriad neuroses I didn't go.

shiftwork2

Sorry to hear that MV.  May 31st for me.  Hang on, that's quite soon!

privatefriend

Think they might have reduced the prices for the Glasgow Hydro shows? still a bit much for me.

Martin Van Buren Stan

Can only imagine the audience being insufferable from stuff I've seen online. If someone shouted "Ah-HAAA!!!" i'd immediately fly out of the arena like Moe in The Homer They Fall. Guess I'll just wait for the DVD.

rude soil

Saw it at Belfast this night. A couple of Belfast specific references (the Titanic being one). Some audience interaction but nothing that Alan didn't invite.

Spoiler alert
Seldom has died.
Edit: Now that I think about it he died in S2 of This Time didn't he? His year of death is listed as 2022 however.
[close]

Overall funny

Magnum Valentino

Saw Dream Theater in the SSE this week and their singer mentioned the Titanic too. And Game of Thrones. He was trying to butter the crowd up but, like, both those things ended in disaster James mate. I felt really sorry for him, he was trying to drop the rock star stage bantzzz entirely and go for something more natural but it backfired.

I imagine Alan handled it better, obviously.

PlanktonSideburns

Quote from: Magnum Valentino on April 23, 2022, 06:39:11 AMSaw Dream Theater in the SSE this week and their singer mentioned the Titanic too. And Game of Thrones. He was trying to butter the crowd up but, like, both those things ended in disaster James mate. I felt really sorry for him, he was trying to drop the rock star stage bantzzz entirely and go for something more natural but it backfired.

I imagine Alan handled it better, obviously.

(In the voice of Paul Stanley from kiss)

You guys remember the TITANIC!?!?!

Is jordan rudeness still in that band? One of my favourite names that

Twit 2


Magnum Valentino


neveragain

Quote from: rude soil on April 23, 2022, 02:43:37 AMSaw it at Belfast this night. A couple of Belfast specific references (the Titanic being one). Some audience interaction but nothing that Alan didn't invite.

Spoiler alert
Seldom has died.
Edit: Now that I think about it he died in S2 of This Time didn't he? His year of death is listed as 2022 however.
[close]

Overall funny

Can you give us (i.e. me and other people who won't see it live) any more info about what happened in the show, please?

Twonty Gostelow

Does Tommy Saxondale do another song and dance bit?

The Lurker

Going to see it Newcastle next month. Ooooo I'm gonna have a good time

chip


rude soil

Quote from: neveragain on April 23, 2022, 10:22:37 AMCan you give us (i.e. me and other people who won't see it live) any more info about what happened in the show, please?

Okay, description of what happens in the show below.

Spoiler alert
Alan comes out with 8 dancers and sings a medley of songs including 'We Built this City (in Belfast)'.

Stratagem! Alan shows some pictures of people who he has helped using Stratagem. A woman who felt she was not given enough responsibility at work is now allowed to sit in at board meetings and write notes. A man who struggled to talk to woman now approaches them all the time.

After describing the sickly state of Britain Alan says he can read faces. He goes into the crowd using his phone camera to bring up pictures of people in the front row. He gets the camera close to their faces and says things like 'you're smiling but you're thinking help me help me help' and 'bad parent'.

He asks and answers the question 'Aren't you worried about your house being burgled while you are on tour?' by showing security camera footage of Lynn house-sitting.  He does a nature documentary impression as she looks through the biscuit tin. He calls her to ask why she's sorting through his record collection when the only two genres she has are 'hymns and not hymns'.

Alan sings an original song called 'Aha haha hahaha'. It's about Alan flirting with a woman and the chorus is laughter. Alan mentions the woman had died and he went to her grave and left a plastic rose which squirts water (she would have loved that). He heard the sound of laughter again, she was laughing in heaven. Chorus.

There's a huge and mental bit that involves time travel that would take 20 paragraphs to explain properly.

During the interval, there's a slide show of Seldom.

Alan dances on stage and does some flips. Only it's not Alan, it's a dancer. Alan reveals he was hiding inside a chair and stands up in his chair costume. He did this because he told some people 'they could be anything they wanted' and one responded 'oh yeah, even a chair?'

Alan explains what Stratagem means. It's an acronym, the A stands for Atonement. He needs to atone for something. He has a zoom call with Martin, the Irish lookalike from This Time. Alan agrees to pay for dinner for Martin's family, which grows from 8 to 20 people. Alan reads a poem to atone. It's interrupted as Martin's band enter the room and play over it.

Emma Sidi plays the 'pulled out of the crowd' character. She is cockney. She says the woman who Alan said had died was not dead. Alan admits they broke up after he buckled trying to do the lift from Dirty Dancing.

Running jokes: 'Heckled' by someone in the front row. Communicating with the lights guy by doing one flash for yes two for no. Eamonn Holmes.

End of the show: Alan duets 80s love ballads. He ends with Time of my Life and lifts the singer above his head. He gets heckled again and leaves the singer spinning on her string. Alan is told his ex is in the audience. She's with the lights guy. Flashes once when asked if they are close. They finish the song.
[close]

neveragain

Many thanks, a brilliant summary! Now, even if there's not a DVD release, I will remain satisfied. Sounds like a fun and worthwhile show too.

Thosworth

Quote from: rude soil on April 23, 2022, 01:39:47 PM
Spoiler alert
There's a huge and mental bit that involves time travel that would take 20 paragraphs to explain properly.
[close]

If anyone who sees the show has the time or inclination to do this, that would be amazing.

Can you share the Belfast-specific part? I don't consider it spoilery if it's just for that date, but maybe hide your reply anyway, if it ties in with a show segment that's likely to recur. 

Malcy

How long is it? I'm going to see it but travelling for a better venue and dunno wether it's worth me just getting a hotel rather than rushing around for trains etc.

rude soil

It was 2 hours long including the 15 minute interval.

The Belfast references were
Spoiler alert
Singing We Built This City (In Belfast) but changing the lyrics as he went on to We Built the Titanic adding that it sinking wasn't our fault but you could have had more lifeboats.
The other one was telling us to think back to the past which would be easy for us as this is Belfast.
The usual comedian comes to Belfast patter tbh.
[close]

Malcy

Quote from: rude soil on April 23, 2022, 05:47:43 PMIt was 2 hours long including the 15 minute interval.

Great, thanks.

Liberosis

Went to it in Dublin Saturday night and had a great time, very well put together show and lots of very funny pieces.
Also not one single a-ha was uttered by the audience!

poodlefaker

Need more details on the funny overall

checkoutgirl

Quote from: rude soil on April 23, 2022, 01:39:47 PMEmma Sidi plays the 'pulled out of the crowd' character. She is cockney.

This was the only bit that didn't work that well I thought. It got old after about 20 seconds. I stupidly thought a non Partridge character might make an appearance but the show title doesn't mention less successful characters. It's a pity because if Duncan Thickett or Pauline Calf popped up nobody would have minded.

popcorn

Got tickets to see it next week. Last night I had an anxiety dream that I watched it and it was bollocks.

thugler

Saw it last night in brum. It was fine but the enormity of the venue meant there was little room for subtlety. Feel like it would have been a lot better in a theater. Like, why would alan be playing an enormo dome?

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: thugler on April 30, 2022, 08:50:12 AMSaw it last night in brum. It was fine but the enormity of the venue meant there was little room for subtlety. Feel like it would have been a lot better in a theater. Like, why would alan be playing an enormo dome?

I think you have to suspend your disbelief with these things. Why would the BBC ever employ Alan Partridge again after The Day Today, let alone KMKY?

peteprodge

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on April 30, 2022, 04:12:30 PMI think you have to suspend your disbelief with these things. Why would the BBC ever employ Alan Partridge again after The Day Today, let alone KMKY?

Noel Edmonds went on to collect more BBC paycheques after Saturday Roadshow's dodgy stock car crashes and the Michael Lush tragedy.

peteprodge

Saw this last night in Sheffield.

Seems that the location-specific opener is:

Spoiler alert
having the city name in big 3D text on the screen, Alan comes on to welcome us in [city name], exclaims a well-known rock band from it, then does We Built This City.

Which for us, Alan shouts "Sheffield! Def Leppard!", going into a bit of Starship's signature song, which has you thinking "well, that's not Def L...oh, that's the joke, duh!".
"We built this city on... [feigned ad-lib] STEEL! We built this city on...[feigned ad-lib] SEAN BEAN'S ACTING!"

And there'll be digs at the city being in the past, which I reckon were identical to that Belfast description.
[close]

It was a lot better than I expected. My gripe at the end though...

Spoiler alert
In storyline, Emma Sidi's plucked-from-the-crowd character was given an obvious shunting out of the venue. Fine with that, but... there's a curtain bow at the end, with Alan and the dancers. Emma's character is also there, bowing. Which is strange, because the woman helped out by Strategem in the first part doesn't return and she faced a similar fate, Alan really didn't want her back on stage. Ah well.
[close]

There were a handful of fans giving it the dreaded "DAN! DAN! DAN!" shouting, but thankfully they let off that steam during the interval and not the actual show.

Still, hats off to the two fans in the pub across the road who turned up with the suitable funeral attire...


iamcoop

I'm going tonight and I'm concerned that a rowdy Newcastle audience is going to be full of "DAN" and "A-Ha!" dickheads.

amputeeporn

Saw it in Birmingham and had a great time - a genuinely funny and well put together show. Only saw one guy being 'hilarious' and doing the Dan thing on the way in, but he was just excited and I didn't hear anything during the show.

Once again, so glad that Coogan's worked through his issues with Alan. He's a wonderful character, and it's great to see a comedian actually trying to be funny.