Frisky & Mannish

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Frisky & Mannish
OriginLondon, England
Genres Cabaret, Comedy, Parody music, Pastiche, Pop music, Popular culture
Years active2008–present
MembersLaura Corcoran, Frisky
Matthew Floyd Jones, Mannish
Website friskyandmannish.co.uk

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]

Contents

Background

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]

Career

Stage

Corcoran and Jones have written and produced eight Frisky & Mannish shows to date, all of which have toured internationally, and a Christmas-themed show that has been performed at the West End’s Lyric Theatre and Edinburgh's Hogmanay. [7] [10] [13] They have played many 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 presented shows at 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 Wellington and Auckland, [26] [27] Dublin, [28] Berlin, [16] Singapore, [1] Hong Kong, [29] 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] 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]

Radio

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] [46] They also wrote and recorded "Perfect Christmas Single" (with Mills and co-host Chris Stark) for a Radio 1 Stories documentary in December 2012; the track was made available on the channel's website and downloaded over 170,000 times. [47] [48] [ non-primary source needed ] Other radio appearances have included BBC Radio 2 (Jo Whiley), [6] BBC Radio 3 (The Verb), [49] BBC Radio 4 ( Sketchorama ), [50] BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC 6 Music (Lauren Laverne), [51] and BBC Radio Scotland (MacAulay and Co). [52]

Television

In August 2011, Corcoran and Jones were featured on BBC Two's The Culture Show , performing a comic song about the art of making comic songs. [3] They have also appeared on children's programme Dick and Dom's Funny Business (BBC Two) and variety show Live at the Fringe (BBC3). [4] [53]

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". [54] [55]

Reception

Corcoran and Jones have been positively reviewed in a number of British publications such as The Daily Telegraph , [8] The Evening Standard , [56] The Guardian , [32] The Independent , [57] Metro , [58] The Observer , [33] although several reviewers have confessed to finding Frisky & Mannish difficult to describe. [8] [59] [60] 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] [61] [62] [63] whereas negative criticism of their act has tended to focus upon a perceived lack of depth to their material. [64] [65] [66] The Guardian identified them as a rare example of a successful mixed-gender comedy duo. [67] Their act has been praised by Ed Byrne, [68] [ non-primary source needed ] Susan Calman, [69] [ non-primary source needed ] Shappi Khorsandi, [70] Sarah Millican, [71] Dara Ó Briain, [68] and Ruby Wax. [72]

Awards

Corcoran and Jones won an Editor's Choice Award at Brighton Fringe, a Best Comedy Award at Adelaide Fringe, and an Entertainmentwise Award at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. [73] [74] [75] They were runners-up in the final of Hackney Empire New Act of the Year, [76] finalists in the Musical Comedy Awards, [77] and nominees for a Chortle Award (Best Music or Variety Act), [78] Loaded LAFTA Award (Best Newcomer), [79] two Fringe World Awards, and four London Cabaret Awards.

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