Frisky & Mannish | |
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Background information | |
Origin | London, England |
Genres | Cabaret, Comedy, Parody music, Pastiche, Pop music, Popular culture |
Years active | 2008–present |
Members | Laura Corcoran, Frisky Matthew Floyd Jones, Mannish |
Website | friskyandmannish |
Frisky & Mannish is a British musical comedy double act, created and performed by singer Laura Corcoran and pianist-singer Matthew Floyd Jones. [1] Known for their pop music parodies, the duo have toured the fringe festival and comedy festival circuits in the United Kingdom and Australia, [2] and appeared on a number of British television and radio programmes. [3] [4] [5] [6]
The act's name derives from two incidental characters mentioned in one couplet of Byron's Don Juan : "Lady Fitz-Frisky, and Miss Maevia Mannish, / Both longed extremely to be sung in Spanish" (Canto XI, LIII.) [7]
Jones was born in south-west London and brought up in Surrey, whilst Corcoran hails from Greater Manchester. [8] [9] They first met as undergraduates at Oxford University and began a partnership writing comic songs for the student sketch troupe The Oxford Revue. [10] After graduating, they moved into a shared flat in London. [11]
On 5 March 2008, at a music hall-themed fundraiser on a barge in Battersea, Corcoran and Jones decided to "mess around with a few songs," and performed pastiches of "Papa Don't Preach" (as an operatic aria), "Eye of the Tiger" (in a bluegrass style), "I'd Do Anything for Love" (sung by a young child), and "Come On Eileen" (as a heartfelt ballad.) [9] [10] Their performance led to a "firm booking for an hour-long show," after which the pair developed a fuller concept and "reverse-engineered some sort of coherent act into existence." [12]
Frisky & Mannish have written, produced and performed nine shows to date, all of which have toured internationally, and a Christmas-themed show that has been presented at the West End’s Lyric Theatre and Edinburgh's Hogmanay. [7] [10] [13] They have headlined a number of London venues, including Shepherd's Bush Empire, [14] Noël Coward Theatre, [15] Soho Theatre, [16] Southbank Centre, [17] The Forum, [18] Bloomsbury Theatre, [19] and KOKO. [20] In Australia, they have performed at the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Cabaret Festival, [7] [21] Adelaide Cabaret Festival and Adelaide Fringe, [22] [23] Melbourne International Comedy Festival, [24] and Fringe World in Perth. [25] They have also toured to New Zealand (Auckland and Wellington), [26] [27] Europe (Berlin and Dublin), [16] [28] Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore), [29] [1] and New York City's The Slipper Room. [16]
Their first full-length show, School of Pop (2009), a series of "educational" lessons developed during their monthly residency at Leicester Square Theatre, [7] was described as "the undisputed hit of the Edinburgh Fringe," [30] garnering thirteen five-star reviews from publications such as Chortle , Edinburgh Evening News , The Herald and Time Out . [31] Their send-up of Noël Coward and Lily Allen was particularly praised. [8] [32] [33] Kate Nash, whose song "Foundations" they combined with Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights", attended one of their performances. [34] At the end of the year The Independent featured Frisky & Mannish in a special "Talent 2010" issue as up-and-coming comedians, alongside other rising stars including footballer Jack Wilshere, actress Imogen Poots, politician Nick Boles, musician Eliot Sumner and broadcaster Tulip Mazumdar. [16]
A sequel entitled The College Years (2010), based around a central thesis of "collision theory," [35] premièred at Latitude Festival, [36] and placed second (out of 2453 productions) [37] on Edinburgh Festival Guide's list of top-rated shows. [38] Pop Centre Plus (2011), the final instalment in their "Pop Education" trilogy, was launched at the udderBELLY Festival on South Bank, [34] structured as a careers advice facility. [28] In 2012 they introduced two new shows, Extra-Curricular Activities, [39] and a black comedy called 27 Club, which delved into the eponymous cultural phenomenon. [40] Just Too Much (2014) continued this darker theme, concerning itself with meltdowns in pop. [41] In 2015, inspired by the reaction to their viral short film protesting comments made by Gary Barlow on The X Factor ," [42] [43] they created a variety show, Cabariot, featuring guest acts and original songs tackling a range of social issues. [44] After a short hiatus, the pair returned with a tenth anniversary show, PopLab (2019), comprising a series of scientific experiments, [45] and a post-pandemic live-digital hybrid show, PopCorn (2021), inspired by film scores. [46]
Despite originating and developing the act in cabaret, circus and variety shows, Frisky & Mannish have managed to establish themselves in stand-up comedy, regularly featured as the musical act on lineups of comedians such as Katherine Ryan, [47] Simon Brodkin, [48] Joel Dommett, [48] Josh Widdicombe, [48] Hannibal Buress, [49] Josie Long, [49] Tom Allen, [50] Margaret Cho, [50] Tim Minchin, [51] Seann Walsh, [51] Richard Herring, [52] Stewart Lee, [52] Aisling Bea, [53] Sara Pascoe, [53] Russell Howard, [6] Rose Matafeo, [6] and Frank Skinner. [6]
In March 2011, Scott Mills featured a number of Frisky & Mannish songs on BBC Radio 1, which led to several live interviews and performances on the programme, [5] [54] and to the writing and recording of "Perfect Christmas Single" (with Mills and co-host Chris Stark) for a Radio 1 Stories documentary in December 2012. [55] They also performed a set during the BBC New Comedy Awards Final 2012 at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool, hosted by Patrick Kielty and broadcast on BBC Radio 2. [56]
Their other radio appearances have included BBC Radio 1 (Matt Edmondson), [57] BBC Radio 2 (Jo Whiley), [6] BBC Radio 3 (The Verb), [58] BBC Radio 4 ( Sketchorama ), [59] BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC 6 Music (Lauren Laverne), [60] and BBC Radio Scotland (MacAulay and Co). [61]
In August 2011, Frisky & Mannish were featured on BBC Two's The Culture Show , performing a comic song about the art of making comic songs with contributions from Adam Kay and Isy Suttie. [3] They also appeared on children's comedy programme Dick and Dom's Funny Business (BBC Two) with Warwick Davis, [62] and variety show Comedy at the Fringe (BBC3) alongside Joe Lycett and Elis James. [63]
On the fifth series of Britain's Got Talent in 2011, contestant Edward Reid's performance of nursery rhymes to the tune of Leona Lewis's "Run" was accused of plagiarising Frisky & Mannish's "Wheels on the Bus," a nursery rhyme medley set to Girls Aloud's "Sound of the Underground". [64] [65]
Frisky & Mannish have been called "the mad scientists of pop," [66] performing "shrewdly crafted, expertly delivered and rapturously received observations" with "the tenacity of a Rottweiler and the charm of a Disney prince." [67] They have been positively reviewed in a number of publications such as The Daily Telegraph , [8] The Evening Standard , [68] The Guardian , [32] The Independent , [69] Metro , [70] The Observer , [33] and The West Australian , [71] although several reviewers have confessed to finding the act difficult to describe. [8] [72] [73] One publication referred to them as the "King and Queen of the Fringe Festival." [39] They have been acclaimed for the skill with which they perform and the cleverness of their observations, [16] [74] [75] [76] whereas negative criticism of their act has tended to focus upon a perceived lack of depth to their material. [77] [78] [79]
In 2011 The Guardian identified Frisky & Mannish as a rare example of a successful mixed-gender comedy duo. [80] Other comedians who have expressed admiration for the act include Shaparak Khorsandi, [81] Ruby Wax, [82] Ed Byrne, [83] Dara Ó Briain, [83] Susan Calman, [84] and Sarah Millican. [85]
Frisky & Mannish won an Editor's Choice Award at Brighton Fringe, a Best Comedy Award at Adelaide Fringe, and an Entertainmentwise Award at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. [86] [87] [88] They were runners-up in the final of Hackney Empire New Act of the Year, [89] finalists in the Musical Comedy Awards, [90] and nominees for a Chortle Award (Best Music or Variety Act), [91] Loaded LAFTA Award (Best Newcomer), [92] two Fringe World Awards, and four London Cabaret Awards.
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