The promotional material for Beautiful People Don’t Travel Economy lists a swag of potentially interesting characters that don’t make an appearance in the actual show. I am not sure when character comedian Robert Yule made the decision to make some drastic editing but I was disappointed that I didn’t get to meet Afghani women’s liberationist Fatima ‘Shiskebabs’ Streisand, Edward Johns ‘cross dressing’ over (who only travels spiritually) and Murray Muzza ‘guru-bagwani’ Jones the Cabby with more incense than road sense.
Instead we get to spend most of the evening with Alexis Van Air Bust, a wide-hipped wonder in the first-class cabin of Sleazy-Jet Airways. Alexis’s colleagues are a dowdy Russian and a wise-talking Springer-style soul sister. There is not much I enjoy more than a man in a dress making wise so naturally I really thought I would love this show. However, there just wasn’t enough substance here for Alexis to carry this one off.
Yule is a likeable entertainer; he’s quick-witted and not afraid to make some harsh but funny calls with audience members. But for us to stick with his character from beginning to end we really needed a story and more light and shade. There were definitely a few laughs throughout the show but overall the pace was just way too slow, this character-based comedy needed to be cracking along at a much greater speed,
I’m interested to see what Yule does next but at this stage I think he needs to get a few more flying miles up before Beautiful People gets off the ground.
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