Pappy's: Last Show Ever

Fair play to sketch troupe Pappy's: the trio have done a fantastic job bigging up this year's show as a last chance to indulge in an apparently significant moment in comedy history. Pay your money, folks, and hail for one last time the conquering heroes. But after an hour in their company, one is forced to admit that the self-made hype isn't entirely unjustified. Pappy's cement their position here as the tightest, smartest and most consistently funny sketch troupe on the circuit – indeed, the steady realisation that this might not be curtains for them comes as a pleasant relief.

Ostensibly, Last Show Ever revolves around a neat conceit which sees the three aged performers reliving the fateful last show in an attempt to recall why it proved to be their swan song. There's some fun to be had in playing the old codgers, and in the various misrememberings which cloud their doddery minds (this baguette, it seems, is not just a baguette). But to read too much into the narrative is to miss the point of this deliciously silly hour. It's a neat device to cover costume changes and link the otherwise unlinkable in a show which relies on pace, timing and a high laugh-per-minute rate for its eminent success. Though well-worked recurring jokes ('head, shoulders, knees and toes', for instance, is used inventively throughout), variation of tone and pitch, and judicious deployment of audience participation, the typical constraints of the sketch format are, if not completely overcome, then largely swept under the carpet. Pappy's is dead; long live Pappy's.