Comedy review: The Midnight Beast, Academy, Glasgow

Internet “phenomena” are ten a double-click these days, but the Midnight Beast appear to have staying power.

The Midnight Beast

Academy, Glasgow

Star rating: * * *

Since their parody of Ke$ha’s Tik Tok went viral on You Tube in December 2009, the hip-hop comedy boyband have published a book, released an album and starred in their own E4 sitcom.

Now Stefan Abingdon, Dru Wakely and Ashley Horne are touring venues many established comedians can only dream of and seem, on this evidence, completely at home. Having their cake and smearing it round their faces, they mocked all the clichés of boyband, hip-hop and yoof culture in the broadest of strokes tonight. Yet they’re genuine teen idols, with tight choreography, impressive backing visuals, a solid backing band and a screaming following. That’s an uneasy balancing act for comedy. The question of whether a track like Lez Be Friends, with its protagonist boorishly surmising a girl’s sexuality after she rejects him, is successfully ironic or just dumbly juvenile was rather lost in the boisterous, bouncing atmosphere they commanded. TMB’s chief attributes are redoubtable energy and explicitness. Neither the asexual mannequins of a typical boyband or of the unaware celebrants of hip-hop materialism, they swear like guttersnipes, endlessly grind their groins and are wheeled around on golden thrones. Tracks like Nerds and Quirky are a little too knowing, but it’s hard to suppress a smirk for Strategy Wanking, while the likes of Ninjas and I Kicked a Shark in the Face are similarly big, daft, enjoyable crowdpleasers.