The Adventurers Club - The Great Arctic Caper

Stand-up comedy for children, a relatively new genre, can too easily miss the mark.

Natural rapport with young audiences, spontaneous response to their uninhibited reactions, and basically simple plot, are essentials for success.

The Tim FitzHigham and Tiernan Douieb comedy duo pass these tests with flying colours with their constantly hilarious, Goon-like spoof of polar exploration, aptly staged in an inflatable igloo.

Striking intrepid poses in pith helmet and red Victorian tunic, Adventurers Club president Tim sets off for the North Pole with reluctant co-explorer Tiern, who prefers sand and sea. They must build a plane to get there – children with arms outstretched form wings, an electric fan is a ready propeller, and everyone contributes aircraft noises.

Arriving, Tiern trades their only map (Arctic route via Edinburgh and Brazil) for an Eskimo’s fridge to hold his ice cream.

Tim, keen to find Sir John Franklin who survived the Arctic two centuries earlier by eating his shoes, fails to recognise the bearded character offering boot casserole and jellied heel.

Fleeing a polar bear in a woolly hat and practising Cleese-like silly marches to cope with snowy weather, add to the nonsense amid many surreal ad-lib responses to the children. The soundtrack from Indiana Jones to Benny Hill heightens the zany appeal.