William Cook goes to Skegness and watches Cannon & Ball attract an adoring audience
It’s August and Edinburgh is full of fashionable young comedians, but here in Skegness the Festival Fringe seems a million miles away. With its amusement arcades and fish and chip shops, this unpretentious place feels forgotten by the metropolitan arts establishment. There are no TV producers on the windswept promenade, no theatre critics in the bingo halls. Yet Skegness boasts a theatrical heritage far older than the Edinburgh Festival — traditional seaside entertainment. And this summer it’s playing host to Britain’s most seasoned seaside entertainers, Cannon & Ball.
Throughout the 1980s Cannon & Ball were one of the biggest acts in Britain. Eric Morecambe called them the next Morecambe & Wise. Between 1979 and 1990 they starred in ten series on ITV, playing to audiences of 15 million. But then television lost interest, and Cannon & Ball disappeared. Yet like the Variety circuit that spawned them, they never went away. They still do pantomime every winter, and every summer they tour the seaside towns, honing the act they’ve performed together for nearly 50 years.
Tonight the Embassy Theatre in Skegness is only half full but Cannon & Ball come on to a mighty cheer. As they warm up this draughty room, chatting to their punters like old friends, you can see the big difference between modern comics and old-fashioned acts like these. Modern comics are far smarter, but their humour is often cold and clinical. Cannon & Ball aren’t admired — they’re adored. Bobby Ball is a big kid, Tommy Cannon is his exasperated elder brother. ‘When are you going to grow up?’ he asks Bobby. Oliver Hardy used to ask Stan Laurel the same question.
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