My Last Two Brain Cells – Underbelly Cowgate

Joe Pike, Tom Hazleden and Hannah Tudge, all graduates of Fourth Monkey Drama School, Finsbury Park, return with My Last Two Brain Cells after their run-away success at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe, where Chortle rated them the seventh highest comedy show of the Festival.

“It’s a whacky, zany, chaotic hour of madness,” to quote Pike. The protagonists are the last two brain cells of a dying man called Gary Kane. In an effort to save him, the pair try all sorts of crazy shenanigans, drawing in the audience to help them.

It is Hysterical.

This is theatre of the absurd for the twenty-first century. And it has sold out for three of its five shows so far.

Inspired by the pressure to develop a scratch play for their finals and the ever-popular humour of Sponge-Bob Square Pants, Pike and Hazleden first developed their ten-minute plot in 2020. Subsequently, they decided to extend it and the pair found work in the same company to allow time to plan rehearsals and create a full-length show. Hannah Tudge, plays the voice of Techtosterone and doubles as a part-time director.

It begins with a wonderful play on words and soon escalates into physical humour, mime, singing and dancing. The French cigarette gag sparked memories of me gagging as I tried to impress some lads by taking a drag of a Gitane on a school exchange trip. I was fourteen. I didn’t smoke. My pretense of not dying (as my lungs collapsed) nearly killed me.

In this show you won’t die laughing but you will fall about in hysterics. It is well worth your time. If you saw it last year, there’s new material so go ahead and treat yourself to a second bite of the cherry. You won’t regret it.

Reviewer: Kathleen Mansfield

Reviewed: 7th August 2024

North West End UK Rating: