Socks In Space – The SFSPT On Tour
The SFSPT, best known for its Doctor Who spoofs and parody songs, is the brainchild of comedian and comics artist Kev F. Sutherland, whose comic strips have appeared in a huge range of cult magazines, including The Beano, Doctor Who Magazine, Doctor Who Adventures, Red Dwarf Smegazine, and various Marvel comics. As well their YouTube videos and live performances, the SFSPT have also appeared in Doctor Who DVD extras for The War Games, The Horns of Nimon and The Dominators in 2009-10.
Even
seen live, when the top of Kev F.’s head can often be made out just
above his puppet theatre stage, it’s astoundingly easy to forget that
the hapless and hilarious socky pair are played by just one man – so
much so that it was something of a shock when he emerged at the end to
take his final bow. Dubbed “the Abbot and Costello of the sock world”,
the socks follow what is in some ways a very traditional “straight
sock/funny sock” style of humour, and have a deceptively homemade,
amateurish feel, which adds a visual charm vaguely reminiscent of the
famously wobbly sets and goggle-eyed monsters of their favourite TV
series.Throughout the show, gag after gag kept the entire audience in stitches: no mean feat, taking into account the huge age range present. Although their videos are popular amongst younger audiences, the socks have so far played most of their live performances to adult-only crowds, and it proved something of a struggle to keep all the jokes clean. Still, they did almost manage to get through the whole show without using any “sweary words”, and a great deal of extra humour was derived from semi-successful attempts to avoid them.
As ever, the performance was a musical one, including songs about horror movie clichés, country and western music, and even a rendition from a cardboard cut-out David Bowie. It also featured a mini-history of science-fiction, a string of fantastic Avengers gags and a cleaned-up version of their Star Wars routine involving drinking-straw lightsabers.
The SFSPT Socks in Space Tour continues across various UK venues, and is highly recommended to any fan of sci-fi and/or socks. For further information on tour dates and tickets, click here.