Rachel Parris and Marcus Brigstocke's Tuesday Night Club review - daft and good-hearted

Lockdown has been mostly pants for live performers, comics included. There was that brief foray into open-air performances last summer, made even more fun by some lovely weather (although not always) – and I sincerely hope that promoters and comics will venture outdoors again this spring and summer.

But it was social media that created some breakout stars – whether on TikTok, Twitter, YouTube or elsewhere. Comedy couple Rachel Parris (The Mash Report) and actor-comic Marcus Brigstocke, an Edinburgh Fringe stalwart, were hardly unknown before Covid hit but they have become an internet sensation and gained a following well beyond the UK.

What started as a way of entertaining themselves during the first lockdown, when they posted videos of themselves lip-synching to songs, quickly went viral. Parris started the ball rolling with Iggy Azalea and Jennifer Hudson’s “Trouble”, followed by her husband's DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's “Boom! Shake the Room”. They used whatever props they had to hand at home and their costumes and make-up quickly became more elaborate.

Always Be Comedy now hosts what has morphed into an expanded weekly show, Tuesday Night Club. It's still a bit rough at the edges and has the feel of a show put together for fun (which it is, of course) but it's so full of joy and silliness that it would be churlish to complain.

The couple interact a lot with their audience, many of whom tune in every week, via the Chat option. Parris and Brigstocke talk about their home life, and play silly games with the audience, including one where they have to guess which television themes Parris is playing on her Melodica, and which show they are describing as they sing clues to the tune of a pop song.

Last night Parris and Brigstocke also offered some behind-the-scenes showbiz gossip – what really happens on celebrity cooking shows, and stories from their recent appearances on a TV quiz programme – and they gave another rendition of their radio phone-in show characters. Brigstocke does a spot-on impression of Jeremy Vine's convoluted delivery, while Parris is “Margaret from Cornwall” – every dense phone-in show caller rolled into one.

Then the finale, their Lip-Synch Challenge, in which Brigstocke (complete with blonde wig) went big with Tammy Wynette/KLF's “Justified and Ancient”. But Parris topped it with Celine Dion's “It's All Coming Back to Me Now”, and rightly won the audience vote by a mile.

The show, daft and good-hearted, has got many a comedy fan through a lean year – and I suspect may have a life beyond lockdown.

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