This afternoons show is located at the Canal Cafe, when you approach the room you are welcomed to a stage filled with 6 chairs and a projector screen – this is the stage set up for the Comedy Panel show the Hall of Ridiculous. You are welcomed to the show by a puppet monkey singing made up lyrics to the Muppet show song which sort of enters you into their world of silliness and comedy.

The show works with two panels fighting it out to win the gameshow – each panel is made up a mix of comedians from the London circuit – a mix of men and women. One audience member in the audience is given point panels in the audience to score each of the rounds – in theory this is a good idea but in reality it felt like a lot of the audience were isolated from the actual show and feeling involved. This could be because the audience wasn’t huge thanks due to the fact of the weather but it also questions the fact that there should be more then one audience point scorer to welcome them into their world.

The one thing that this show does well is use the screen and animation to introduce both the players onto the stage and also to the different sections of the show. The show has many rounds including Snatch phrase, which is a ruder version of the well known gameshow Catchphrase, Voice The Clip – where the panelists have to voice over a famous clip with a suggestion of the conversation topic from the audience (so for example a Pulp Fiction scene voiced about Wotsits) and Question It Time – where the panelists answer the audiences questions or problems.

The show has a very good concept to it and like all good gameshows follows a classic and successful layout – however saying this, the show was extremely crude – not really the presenters fault but more a couple of the guests who were specifically turning everything sexual – whilst this may be for some their idea of great comedy, it is not for all and I am not a crude but I did feel at times that it was too much and was not needed. A lot of the best landed jokes were clever and did not rely on something rude or sexual.

One of the best parts of the show was the final round – a panelist has to explain the object that they have been given whilst the other member of the team has to dress them up with as many different items as possible without them falling off. Sort of like Improv mixed with Buckeroo.

The Halls of a Ridiculous has a lot of potential and you can tell a lot of work has gone into producing the concept of the show, I think if the panel was less crude and the audience were welcomed in more it would of been the perfect comedy show, but instead it felt like watching something like a radio recording.

Rating: *** 3 Stars