They make very engaging company, so it seems a pity that Si King and Dave Myers spend much of the second half in the bathroom, metaphorically speaking. Toilet anecdotes came so thick and fast that you couldn’t help feeling sorry for the two members of the audience who were expected to eat a meal at the side of the stage while listening to endless tales of piles and toilet paper.
For those who haven’t seen their TV cookery series, I should explain that the rotund pair are an unassuming northern double-act who have pulled off the difficult trick of winning over the Two Fat Ladies demographic while courting the Top Gear crowd. Take a few ounces of The Likely Lads, spice with Ant & Dec, add a soupçon of demented Cheech & Chong, and you have a fair idea of their appeal.
King (the wild one with a grey-blond beard) and Myers (dark beard, glasses and puppyish smile) actually have a media background — they met while working on the production staff of a Catherine Cookson drama series. For all that, their personalities are thoroughly down-to-earth. Both warm-hearted lads, they seem bemused to find that their domestic pursuits have turned into lucrative careers.
They may look as if they spend every waking hour in a Wimpy Bar, yet their tastes in food are anything but predictable. Opening with a swift sequence of childhood photographs, their show mixes biographical detail with knockabout humour, a few film clips and a couple of brisk demonstrations of kitchen skills.
King’s parody of Nigella Lawson’s gastroporn technique may not be subtle, but it is very funny, while the Kerala prawn curry that he and Myers threw together smelt extremely tempting from the back of the stalls.
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Myers plays the straight man by and large, while King is the randy schoolboy. It is a winning combination, even if the evening begins to run short of ideas after the interval. Compared with Hardeep Singh Kohli’s culinary show — which was also on the road earlier this month — it also skimped on the basic cookery tips. But then it is not supposed to be an evening class.
Tour dates at www.hairybikers.com