The Last Laugh ★★★★★

Shows at the Fringe focusing on some celebrity name can be an easy win to get a built-in audience to a risk-averse public – but, in The Recs’ experience, they can regularly be disappointing cash-ins. Not so with The Last Laugh which boasts the name of not one, but three British comedy legends!

What does it mean to be really funny? Who better to answer that than a triumvirate of the most legendary and beloved comedians to ever grace the stage! Writer Paul Hendy imagines three icons of comedy – Bob Monkhouse, Eric Morecambe and Tommy Cooper – huddled backstage in a dressing room, ruminating on life, death and the art of being funny.

What strikes you from the off is how uncanny the three performers are inhabiting their respective comedy legends. Simon Cartwright gets the idiosyncratic vocal inflections of Monkhouse to a tee. Bob Golding effortlessly evokes the warmth and likability of Morecambe. And perhaps in the most challenging role, Damian Williams skillfully switches between the chaotic buffoonery of Cooper’s onstage persona and his more complicated, darker self off-stage.

The Last Laugh explores the similarities and the contrasts of the three men. Monkhouse, with his joke book and encyclopedic knowledge of the provenance of any joke, is the ultimate comedy technician. Cooper on the other hand has funny bones; he’s effortlessly funny though that is a double-edged sword. As well as liberally sprinkling the script with familiar, beloved routines from each comic, Hendy’s masterstroke is have all three tell the same joke but in the way that would suit their own personal style. It’s fascinating and funny.

As well as laughter, there are beautifully-performed moments of poignancy which are greeted with pin-drop silence in appreciation. There are unnerving moments where Cooper becomes increasingly aware of his own mortality, one of which the audience are all too well aware.

With a proper set and evocative sound and light design, the production is slicker than Bob Monkhouse’s hair. If you want to wallow in an hour of well-crafted nostalgia, enjoy performances with impeccable comic timing and pay homage to three masters of the gag, then The Last Laugh is the show for you. Guaranteed you’ll leave the theatre grinning from ear to ear – and you can’t say fair than (just like) that!