It’s the Royal Variety Performance – or at least, a pre-show rehearsal in the dingy room downstairs. Jazz Emu is prepping for the night of his life, a chance to perform for the King and vie for a knighthood. The prospects are good: Jazz’s services to electro-funk parody cannot be gainsaid. But he has rivals for the honour, and accusations mounting that may deny him the regal recognition he craves.
That’s the premise for Knight Fever, the new show from Archie Henderson’s much-loved alter ego, a slinky synth-pop purveyor in shades with a beanpole frame, delusions of grandeur, and one of those foghorny, self-serious voices that plunge you right back to the new-romantic 1980s. Its predecessor, You Shouldn’t Have, established Jazz Emu as one of the hottest new acts around. Knight Fever is a consolidation, a consistently amusing hour that rearranges rather than develops the elements that first propelled the character up the comedy charts.
