Not surprisingly, Jeremy Corbett and Paul Ego have produced the perfect night out for people who love commercial radio. Slightly too ‘in house’in its current form to reach a broad audience, these two experienced giants of the airwaves, telly and stand up comedy circuit have the undeniable talent and craft to build this entertaining yet under-rehearsed two-hander into an extremely funny play.

As it is, over-reliance on technical wizardry, and a somewhat dishevelled game-plan, thwart Ego & Corbett’s & attempt to turn Radio into the best sum of their very capable parts.

While the premise and set design (a replica of a radio station’s DJ booth) are great, and while there is no denying the very radio-friendly opening night audience was thoroughly entertained, in general, to simply run an hour long theatre show as a radio show, with a lot of ad libs and a loose structure, doesn’t quite give the audience complete comedy pay-off on all levels.

But they are close – very close!! Perhaps Corbett & Ego saw this venture as simply stand up comedy rather than situation comedy, i.e. just a comedy gig in a DJ booth, rather than sketch comedy. But the set up demands more preparation as it is essentially, from the audience’s perspective, a play – a comedy status play with two characters jockeying for position.

Therefore, given how funny these two are (perfect casting), if they put this show in the hands of an experienced director of comedy, these two have an absolute hit on their hands. This all-important outside eye should bring a tighter structure and a more theatrical approach to the production, in particular lighting, audio, Megan’s role as the ‘promo-chick’ and the treatment of the special guest each night.

Poor Dai Henwood – it was just wrong to ask him to sit facing the DJs… with his back to the audience. Thankfully, he’s a pro, rolled with the punches, took full advantage of the situation and funny stuff happened.  

On saying that, there is still much to enjoy within this rough diamond. Ego fancies himself as a bit of a singer (he’s good), Corbett a bit of a guitarist (he’s good too), and while the old maxim “less is more” could be applied to their musical interludes, there are fabulous highlights, such as the Telecom-Ego-Gaga song.

Other highlights include: their hilarious pre-recorded AV introduction; not so subtle advertorial plugs; Corbetts’ instructions about how we can enter a competition; bickering over a voice-over recording; digs at advertising agencies and the regular damming of Nickelback.

One technical note, with all their boys’ toys, cables, wires, headphones, mics, computers and gadgets… they both forgot one simple rule of amplification in a theatre: when two people talk on mic at the same time – which happened regularly on opening night, given how much ad libbing went down – the audience cannot hear either.

Radio is absolutely worth seeing – for a start, like any good radio show, the prizes and giveaways are fab. But more than that, these guys are extremely smart and very funny. So like the married radio couple that they are, they will talk it all through, sort out the gremlins and get into this new groove: they know how to fine-tune this marriage and perfect it. 
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