the m0vie blog

I love Gift Grub. I really do. Due to traveling arrangements to work, I seldom get to hear it on the radio any more, so I jumped at the chance to see it live in Drogheda. For those unfamiliar with the concept, they’re a series of softly satirical sketches which run on the commercial radio station Today FM, gently mocking all manner of high profile Irish figures – begining with former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and gradually ballooning out to cover Ronan Keating, Roy Keane and even international celebrities like Jose Mourinho. The series of sketches have enjoyed all manner of successes, even releasing singles ‘Jose and his Technicolour Overcoat’ and Keane’s ‘I Think I’d Better Leave Right Now’. The audience last night was treated to fantastic renditions over both songs, including an encore of Technicolour Overcoat (with karaoke ‘woah-oh’ thrown in). It was a good night.

Infacta...

I’ve always known that Gift Grub was pretty much driven by the talents of impersonator extraordinare Mario Rosenstock, and the involvement of Ian Dempsey behind the scenes, but I wasn’t aware of quite how much of it he was. All of it, in fact. The show is essentially a one-man show, with Rosenstock appearing on stage as a selection of his characters, including Irish chatshow sensation (sorry, “sen-sat-ion”) Gay Byrne, favourite of grannies everywhere crooner Daniel O’Donnell (and his mammy) and – in my personal favourite live impression of the night – Joe Duffy, complete with that wonderful Liveline theme music.

Rosenstock is a master of verbal impersonation – he sounds uncanny – but not so much physical transformation. Throughout the nights he swapped and changed outfits, just to drop hints as to his character (wearing Bertie’s infamous yellow suit from that G8 meeting), but it was really his voice which did the work. I can’t imagine performing a two-hour one-man show like that (particularly with several musical interludes) could have been easy, but there was never really a moment where he seemed drained or exhausted. The show has been touring the country for a while now.

In order to allow him two minutes to recharge (and change) between sketches, the show is punctuated with two minute videos of Rosenstock doing things that would be impossible in the live show – again one of my favourite sequences saw Rosenstock as both Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams commenting on how these breaks are necessary to allow the performer time to get changed, because doing two people at once… “that would be incredible, if he could do that”. Some of these are pure fluff (and feel like it), but there are some great moments in here.

Not least of which is Rosenstock as Keith Duffy, former Boyzone singer and Corrie star. His version of Duffy has been a personal favourite of mine for years, with his wonderful style of explaining big words. My favourite moment of the night saw Duffy explain, “aphrodisiac – as in an object which promotes sexual arousal, and not an individual of Carribean descent who has lost their balance”. It’s a shame that Duffy couldn’t put in a live appearance, but there were a rake of other individuals who didn’t appear in live or video form (with Ben Dunne relegated to providing the safety announcements), so I guess I can’t complain.

All in all, it was a great night, with charm abound. I did notice a slightly rougher edge to the portrayal of Ahern, who was generally presented on the show as a relatively street-wise everymen. Still, with things the way they are, I suppose that such a change in tone might be called for. It was pretty much exactly what any fan of the segment could expect. Bonus points for Michael O’Leary offering a ‘short-haul’ comedian, and in particular his take on Friends – “I know what you’re thinking, ‘he doesn’t have any friends’. Well, if I needed them, I’d buy them cheaply… and in bulk.” Cue O’Leary offering his two minute reenactment of Friends, which could be performed more economically with only friend.

Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: bertie, bertie ahern, drogheda, gift grub, gift grub live, keith duffy, liveline, mario rosenstock |