Is it really him? What on earth was comedian Harry Hill doing at rock venue The Half Moon earlier this year?

Probably not dissimilar to what he will be doing next Wednesday when he makes his second appearance at the venue with his band The Caterers which promises to be a treat for both comedy and music lovers alike.

There can be few entertainers who divide an audience as much as Hill. Half the world thinks he's a creative absurdist genius, the other an unfunny jester talking nonsense.

But if you only know him from his patchy Channel 4 shows, you haven't seen him at his best. Live, and especially in the 20-minute sets he still brings to smaller venues to sharpen his act and try out new material, Hill's surreal humour works well.

Harry creates bizarre and ridiculous jokes in his act, such as: "Hitler, now he was a very bad man, and Churchill, he was a very good man. But say you were with them both in a hot air balloon that was rapidly losing height..."

And this means anything could happen when he turns his hand to music, from impersonations of Jarvis Cocker to that musical institution, Sir Cliff Richard.

Harry's first appearance was a bizarre affair with on-going jokes about an incestuous affair with his auntie had the audience in stitches.

He jived his way through Pulp's Disco 2000, and The Beatles Helter Skelter, wore ridiculous wigs and generally had the place in stitches. For many the highlight of the evening was his parody of Sir Cliff Richard.

Cliff got to number one in 1999 by setting The Lord's Prayer to the music of Auld Lang Syne, Harry set the words to Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water.

However when he attempted it with the theme tune to Match Of The Day the results were not quite so spectacular, but equally hilarious.

* Harry Hill and The Caterers are at The Half Moon, Putney on Wednesday, and for details see the listings.

December 11, 2001 13:14