2 – 3 September 2007: Jeremy O'Donnell, George Egg and Brian Higgins
Bottoms, bowling balls and belly laughs were on the menu when CH-uckles came back to town after the summer break. All three comedians were Swiss veterans (one from TV, one from working for a bank and another from Nordic skiing...) and put their local knowledge to good use, mercilessly taking the mickey out of such pillars of the Helvetic community as bankers and IT employees...Jeremy O'Donnell compered the evenings to perfection, proving that you don't have to be fat to be funny. Aussies and Kiwis got a good natured ribbing ("You guys love your country, don't you? You just don't want to live there...") as of course did the Swiss, though patriotically Jeremy was seen swigging from a bottle of a certain local soft drink whenever he was on stage, showing precisely what colour his thirst was (blimey, we should've got sponsorship there...)
Next up was George Egg, whose brand of surreal and highly visual humour went down an absolute treat, particularly in the intimate setting of the Burgbachkeller in Zug. How he got a bowling ball into a briefcase we'll never know (mainly because we forgot to ask him after the show), and how he managed to undress on stage (all but his socks) and neatly arrange his clobber on a coat-hanger without anyone getting so much as a glimpse of anything remotely PG-rated (unless you count his backside) will remain a mystery – though the fact that the coat-hanger was hooked through his ear probably helped. Ouch.
Time for a break, and of course the ever-popular joke competition. Zurich saw Ants become CH-uckles' first ever repeat winner (so his girlfriend got the t-shirt – though Ants must surely be rethinking his career. We'll try to give you a five-minute slot in the November shows, mate...) He decided that the difference between Britney Spears and a keyboard was that you'd happily give your keyboard a good servicing (the runners-up also ingeniously managed to get colons in there, but this website may have a family audience so I'll leave it at that). In Zug, it was the difference between the rain and Princess Diana, but once Mercedes windscreens were mentioned, CH-uckles' lawyers did a quick
The second half saw a rare breed up on the Maier's and Burgbach stages – a Glasgow-born comedian who didn't need subtitles. Brian Higgins had the punters guffawing at his encyclopaedic knowledge of every stage of fatherhood, right from practising on your own in your bedroom as a teenager via conception and childbirth through to the joys of parenting. He also had an in-depth discussion with a Swiss lawyer based on his former legal career ("I used to be a thief...") and proved to be a raconteur in the best Billy Connolly tradition.
A good time was had by all, particularly as one of the after-show parties featured a male stripper (and not George Egg this time!) See you at the next shows, on Monday 19 November in the Burgbachkeller, Zug and Wednesday 21 November at Maier's in Zurich – yes, Zurich on a Wednesday night! Too many of you have been complaining of hangovers prior to the Sunday shows, so we've gone for a nice midweek slot. Give yourselves that weekend feeling from the Wednesday night onwards...
