Review: Whose Line Is It Anyway @ InterContinental Abu Dhabi (June 16)

Steve Steen. CREDIT: Courtesy Steve Steen

Rosemary Behan discovers international laughs in Whose Line Is It Anyway at InterContinental Abu Dhabi.

The person whose job it is to paint the white lines round dead bodies.

Or put the little holes in the sides of ballpoint pens. Or, in the case of our audience, “the person whose job it is to paint the double sixes on dominoes using a dirty sock dipped in squid ink - on behalf of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

It took Irish comedian Ian Coppinger about 10 minutes to figure out the obscure job title chosen by the international audience in the gloriously incongrous Liwa Majlis at InterContinental Abu Dhabi on Sunday night - just one part of Whose Line is it Anyway’s thoroughly entertaining two-hour show. Coppinger, usually the sharpest tool in the box, garbles the last line to “Teenage Nutant Minja Turtles,” though this only draws more laughs from a satisfied audience.

The WLIIA team, currently comprising Coppinger, Steve Steen, Carl Kennedy and old hands Stephen Frost and Andy Smart, come to the UAE once a year. Before Abu Dhabi the group had done several shows in Dubai, but, as each show is different, you could go to each one and still come away happy. Amazingly, the team, which no longer features on TV, have been coming to the UAE for some 15 years and have never felt the need to dilute their irreverence.

This was evident in the frequent profanities and sheer exuberance on display. Thankfully, theirs isn’t the sort of excruciating “audience participation” type of show feared by comedy-goers. Rather, the audience are asked to volunteer suggestions for household objects, emotions, film and theatre styles and the like, to be used for improvisation. “Anger, fear and schizophrenia - just a normal night in Abu Dhabi!” quips one of the five when he puts together the first words shouted out from the audience.

Sherlock Holmes goes on the trail of rubber gloves, the five take part in a belly dancing lesson and a camel beauty contest, and, somewhere along the way, there’s a car boot sale (cue: where are the car boots? I want to buy a car boot!”). After a finale involving the death of an evil alien queen, they were off: “You’re the best audience we’ve had tonight.” Until next year, then.