It’s A Funny New Game
Over the Moan
It’s A Funny New Game
by Mark Keegan and John Random
Barry Mousetrap the Canal Café Theatre, Paddington until 12th June
Review by Lottie Walker
The World Cup has just started, so the timing for this short run at the Canal Café Theatre of It’s A Funny New Gameis perfect; and what a fun hour it is!
Writer and actor Mark Keegan has devised a suitably silly sketch show to counteract any opportunity the beautiful game might have to take itself too seriously. (Heaven forbid!) The premise of Barry Moustrap, unreconstructed football manager and author (there is a real book to purchase online) hosting an evening about his life and times give ample opportunity for a sideways look at some of the superstars of the game, memorable moments of yesteryear and, of course, divine intervention as provided by David Hicks’ St. Atto – Patron Saint of Statisticians.
Keegan himself is Mousetrap, all sheepskin coat, gold medallions and dodgy one liners. He also plays a variety of other characters who you might think you recognise – including Ronald Bigego and Kurt Kliche. His Jordan Pickford on Mastermind sketch is comedy gold.
The merry band of footie fans on stage is completed by John Random who, amongst others gives us a brand new take on the very amusing VAR (the Victorian Ascetic Referee) and director Victoria Waddington stepping in as various journalists and minders, as well as appearing on screen in a Jane Austen pastiche – all tastes really are catered for …
The piece is not high art and it is not perfect – some sketches land better than others and Barry’s underwear needs sorting out – but it’s a refreshingly fun and feel-good piece that is, in places, hysterically funny and moves so fast that the audience’s attention is never lost. It is exactly what Fringe comedy should be.
And what could be better than the truly meta moment of a full house singing along that “football’s coming home” as they filed into the pub downstairs – where everyone was watching the football on the TV!
I’d like to see the return of this show post-tournament (from which there will no doubt be rich comedy pickings to be had) but if you don’t get the chance to see it you can always get a flavour from Mousetrap’s memoir * – It’s a Funny New Game; the Changing Farce of Football.
Lottie Walker, June 2026
Photography by Keegan and Random
* It’s a Funny New Game; the Changing Farce of Football ISBN-13: 979-8198621190
Mark Aspen 