A-ha! Alan blasts back – to tell you how to live your life!
ALAN PARTRIDGE: STRATAGEM MOTORPOINT ARENA
IT was supposed to be a “life-changing” selfhelp presentation, according to its chaotic creator Alan Partridge – but all it really helped anyone to do was burst out laughing.
For almost two hours, for two nights running, Steve Coogan’s alter ego Partridge darted around the stage at the Motorpoint Arena, showing off his video screens and stage set, which he said he’d designed himself (“I’ve always loved Meccano – as a boy I wanted to design a women’s prison”), sharing his “wisdom” and urging us to “transform”.
But, of course, it wasn’t as simple as that. Whatever size pool he inhabits, Partridge is always the smallest man in it and his inability to see this drives the comedy.
Stratagem didn’t have much to say about the self-help business. It was more preoccupied with being daft, which was fine by me.
So we had backing dancers joining Alan in a series of frequently hilarious songs and illadvised covers of 80s hits.
We had the magnificent Felicity Montagu as his hapless assistant Lynn, appearing on video babysitting Alan’s house, taking full advantage of his biscuits and foot spa – and dishing out her trademark mean-spirited advice whenever he phones.
Actress Emma Sidi cameoed as both one of Alan’s Stratagem success stories – who quickly takes over the show and starts to contradict him – and as a worse-for-wear audience member insanely invited onstage, where she causes utter bedlam.
Then there was a time travel section, with Alan zooming back through the years to advise his bullied 11-year-old self about his future life and then shooting forward to 2065 to chat to himself – digitised into a kind of hi-tech avatar – at the age of 103,
There were FAQS, daft anagrams, graphics and a bizarre closing medley of 80s power ballads, hijacked at its passionate climax by Partridge’s maniacally detailed explanation of the pros and cons of the system of proportional representation voting favoured by the Liberal Democrats.
Best of all was the video appearance of Irish singer and Partridge lookalike Martin Brennan (Coogan again), who caused a furore by belting out republican songs on Alan’s chat show.
The detail in this completely believable conversation between two Coogans playing totally different characters was truly astonishing, with Brennan exploiting his host’s largesse to the max while Partridge attempted to make peace with a poem and a penny whistle.
The show’s programme said: “Love him or loathe him, we all love Alan Partridge”. A joke maybe, but one with the virtue of being true.