Naughty Billy’s nod to old days

8:31am Thursday 1st November 2007

Billy Pearce, St George's Hall

When Billy Pearce returns to Bradford to star in Peter Pan at the Alhambra in December one thing's for sure - none of this material will be in the panto.

His adult comedy show was just that - a raunchy affair full of innuendo reminiscent of music hall comedians from days gone by.

Much of it was about sex and bodily functions, starting with some quickfire humour and ending with a lengthy sketch containing simulated sounds and actions.

The audience loved it and no-one seemed offended by what he came up with in around two-and-a-half hours on stage.

Those who had seen Billy's adult show before would have been familiar with a good deal of the material, but the way he put it over, bounced around and used some amusing facial expressions brought almost non-stop laughter.

He demonstrated his musical and powerful vocal talent, too, with Fureys-style banjo playing when he closed the first half with When You Were Sweet Sixteen, a touch of the late Gene Pitney and Frankie Laine on I'm Gonna Be Strong and the closing It's Only Make Believe.

Billy's one-man shows wouldn't be complete either without his exploding amplifier episode in which he ends up flat on the floor after pretending to try to get his guitar to work by messing about with the lead.

Gordon Sampson

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