Review - Jimmy Tarbuck at The Place, Oakengates

Jimmy Tarbuck

The Place, Oakengates

Review by Jon Pritchard

Evergreen Liverpudlian Jimmy Tarbuck still knows how to tell jokes. Granted, they may be old, but they do say it's the way you tell them.

The night, Jimmy Tarbuck – This Is My Life, is billed as Jimmy talking you through his life and telling tales about the major players of the entertainment game he had met and befriended along the way.

But as a true comedian, he just can't help cracking jokes. Many of the jokes, derived from the questions he welcomes at regular intervals from the crowd, sound like tales from his past –before a punchline makes you feel a little bit silly for falling for such an obvious joke in the first place.

The 72-year-old did a sterling job onstage for a full two hours, starting at 7.30pm sharp, with a mixture of jokes, anecdotes and stories, not always meant to be funny, about his early days as a classmate of John Lennon, right through to his later days of playing golf with many of the comedians of his era.

When asked about his idols and people he had met, Jimmy had enough material to fill the two hours itself, and his insights into backstage jokes and the lives of the greatest comedians kept the crowd entertained and interested at the same time.

His name isn't thrown up when speaking about great comedians, but he's been alongside all of them most of the way.

It was a fascinating night, a mixture of comedy, nostalgia, singalongs, and the occasional cheeky Scouse grin, and that's all you ever expect for 'Tarby.'