Mike McCabe is one of the few survivors of The Comedians TV series from the 1970s which made household names out of the likes of Frank Carson, Mick Miller, Charlie Williams, Bernard Manning, Ken Goodwin, Mike Reid and Jim Bowen.
Mike came on Fringe Radio to talk about his tribute show to one of the Comedians, Frank Carson, and it is clear that, while he’s not in the best of health at the moment, his mind is as sharp as ever and he has a wonderful sense of fun about him – exactly how you want any comedian to be! He is as funny off stage as he is on stage and he was a most entertaining guest on the show.
In this show he has brought to the Fringe, he plays the part of the late great Irish comedian, going through his life story and painting a picture of a man who never stopped laughing, even in sad times, because his motto was always “if I can’t laugh I’d cry” and that was a theme throughout this one man play.
The old jokes were trotted out constantly but the fact you’ve heard most of them hundreds of times before (there are some great new gags in there too by the way!) you can’t help but not laugh and get involved. Mike does a great job at telling the story with the aid of old clips and as well as doing a good Carson impression he also tackles some of his former colleagues on “The Comedians” show much to the delight of the, admittedly, older audience, who lapped up every minute of it.
OK this play is not going to attract the youngsters – it is squarely aimed at the older generation who remembered Frank Carson as a brilliant funny man, but there are plenty of people in their 50s, 60s and older who will really appreciate this show, and while the venue was half full when I saw it I can imagine the atmosphere of a packed house would make this show even better. Mike does so well to interact with the audience at every opportunity, and his late friend would have been so proud of this show.
