'A Load of Old Squit – The Best of the Nimmo Twins'
Playhouse Theatre
The Nimmo Twins are back! Karl Minns and Owen Evans are neither twins, nor related to the late Derek Nimmo. They are two friends who, round these parts, have over the last two and a half decades become local comedy legends. They are, until January 23rd, celebrating their twenty-five years of tickling Norfolk's collective funny bone with a run of shows at Norwich Theatre Playhouse.
'A Load of Old Squit – The Best of the Nimmo Twins' is a non-stop (apart from the interval) two hour barrage of comedy sketches and wicked fun-poking that mercilessly seeks out targets and scores bullseyes almost every time for their predominently Norfolk audience. In fact, the local references come so thick and fast that those from outside of the county could find it hard keeping up.
Favourite characters make their return, and the usual suspects are the recurring butt of their jokes. North Norfolk second-homers, local television presenters, the state of local public transport, the performance of our football team - they all get the familiar battering. But the lovely thing about the Nmmo Twins is that they can turn the tables and find the funny side of our own, unique, character – they can be ruthlessly self-deprecating as they explore the aspects of our own rurality, our awe of coming in to 'the city', our extensive family networks, and our in-bred suspicion of strangers. And we are a rich seam of gold from which to mine the laughs.
Classic moments for me included the return of track-suited She Go and her homespun philosophies on life and sex (but mostly sex); Suffolk hating Billy 'Boy' Bollocks; 'Get Up The Stairs' – a guide to sexual relations in Norfolk; Beeston Regis and Berney Arms' guide to Norfolk Life - 'Dew You Be A Cummin Hair?'; and the lazily slow jazz-infused rhythm of the 'Sugar Beet Poets'.
Some of the Nimmo Twins' material (well, quite a lot actually) contains sexual swearing and profanity – they are probably the closest thing Norfolk has to Roy 'Chubby' Brown, but when delivered in our local dialect it all seems much more disarming, yet still gusset-wrenchingly funny. It is so long since I have heard an audience laugh so spontaneously and so generously at a comedy night.
Some sketches seemed a little too long – a section about Prince of Wales Road tended to dwell on what was essentially just one joke, and therefore failed to hold my attention fully, and an 'Attitude Forecast' about rising smug levels, and with jokes about UKIP fell slightly short of the mark. An older piece about Eye-phones now seemed a little weak and dated. Others though, like Owen Evans skit as Anne and her Evening News haiku poetry was an all-too brief delight, and a piece about Norfolk emojis was also bang on the mark.
Mixed in with the classic sketches is a generous taster of new material – Professor Newton Flotman's lecture on Norfolk Phraseology is a future classic, his translations of contemporary Norfolk sayings as demonstrated by She Go had the audience in absolute stitches, with even Karl Minns struggling to remain in character at times.
The Nimmo Twins return to Norwich Theatre Playhouse in August with a brand new show, 'Holt, who goes there?', which would appear to be boldly going in pretty much the same direction. But that's the nice thing about Norfolk. We know what we like, and we love to laugh at the urine extraction from that we don't.
After being thanked by Minns for our generous support, and for laughing for the entire length of the journey, we were treated to a couple of the songs that have really highlighted what is so cuttingly funny about The Nimmo Twins' material. We did not get my personal favourite, their wonderfully funny parody of Eminem's 'Stan' (written some time ago in honour of BBC presenter 'Stew' Stewart White), but we did get to hear again their glorious anthem to middle-class aspiration, 'Newmarket Road Blues', and the wickedly funny ode to Kings Lynn's bin-collecting lottery winner Michael 'Fucking' Carroll. It was a great way to end the evening.
Karl and Owen – I love you, I salute you, and it is so good to have you both back.
