The Very Best of Tommy Cooper – Just Like That! ⭐⭐⭐

“One-man show recaptures the mayhem and misfiring magic of one of Britain’s best-loved entertainers. It's been over 30 years since the comedian’s untimely demise; this hilarious show was written and produced by Daniel Taylor. Danny steps into Tommy’s gigantic shoes and does an amazing job of bringing this comic genius back to life – recapturing his trademark mayhem and misfiring magic for anyone who missed the original or for those who were left wanting more.”

Few comedians have a stage presence quite like Tommy Cooper. The enormous fez, the booming voice, the ridiculous props and, most importantly, the carefully controlled chaos made him unmistakable. So recreating Tommy Cooper is a rather terrifying task. The Very Best of Tommy Cooper – Just Like That! sets out to do exactly that, bringing together a huge selection of Cooper’s best-known routines, visual gags and magic tricks in a one-person tribute written and produced by Daniel Taylor. And there is certainly plenty here for Cooper fans.

The direction is great and clear. More importantly, it understands the essence of Tommy Cooper’s performance style: controlled mayhem. The show doesn’t simply present a collection of tricks one after another. The chaos has a rhythm, and the production lets the audience settle into the well-known Cooper world before throwing another ridiculous gag at them.

The lighting is nice and appropriately simple. It does exactly what it needs to do, keeping the focus firmly on the performer and the props. I would have liked slightly more umph in some of the bigger moments, particularly when a particularly well-known routine reaches its payoff. But overall, it is a clean, effective design that doesn’t get in the way.

The sound is very nicely balanced. Everything was clear and audible throughout, which is particularly important for a show so dependent on comic timing and verbal delivery. There is nothing worse than a perfectly timed Cooper punchline disappearing into the acoustics of a room. Thankfully, that isn’t an issue here.

The set is wonderfully simple. A table covered in a lovely, traditional theatre-style cloth sits at the centre, surrounded by the collection of props that are essential to Cooper’s routines. There are objects scattered around the stage, creating the feeling that we have walked into the dressing room of a magician who has perhaps become slightly too excited about ordering things from a novelty shop. And that is exactly the right aesthetic. The props are part of the show. They are not decoration; they are waiting patiently to go spectacularly wrong.

The costume does what it needs to do, holding the instantly recognisable silhouette associated with Tommy Cooper. Striking the right balance is difficult. You need the audience to immediately recognise the character without turning the costume into a fancy-dress approximation. Thankfully, the overall look firmly puts us in Cooper territory.

Daniel Taylor's book is a greatest-hits collection of Tommy Cooper. And when your source material includes some of the greatest visual gags and magic routines in British comedy history, that is not a bad place to start. There is a wonderful variety of tricks and jokes spanning Cooper’s career, all sewn together in that distinctive Tommy Cooper style.

You get the visual gags, the verbal jokes, the deliberately failed magic and the routines that rely on the audience knowing exactly what should happen, and then watching it go gloriously wrong. For Cooper fans, there is plenty here to enjoy. The real strength is the variety. The show doesn’t simply repeat one type of gag for an hour; it keeps moving through different routines, giving us a broad flavour of what made Cooper so beloved.

Daniel Taylor gives an alright performance, at times coming remarkably close to capturing Cooper’s sound and mannerisms. At times, the voice is very convincing. At others, it feels more like Danny performing a version of Tommy Cooper rather than disappearing completely into him. That distinction becomes especially noticeable in the timing. Cooper’s comedy often depended on incredibly precise pauses, hesitations and underplayed reactions. Taylor occasionally tries to reproduce the gags exactly as Cooper did them, but the timing isn’t always quite there.

What did affect it slightly was the tendency to overplay the performance. Cooper’s greatest trick was often making ridiculousness look effortless. Taylor occasionally adds too much to the aftermath of a gag, licking his finger, waving his hands over the audience or exaggerating reactions after punchlines. The more he does this, the more the illusion of Tommy Cooper begins to disappear. Less would sometimes be more. When Taylor relaxes and lets the gag do the work, the performance becomes considerably stronger.

There is a lot to like. The show clearly has enormous affection for its subject, and the selection of material is excellent. If you are a Tommy Cooper fan, you will recognise plenty of routines, props and jokes that made him a household name. The production captures the general spirit of Cooper’s controlled chaos, while the simple set and technical design keep the focus where it belongs: on the performer and his props. This is still a fun celebration of a genuine comedy legend. And perhaps the biggest compliment I can give it is that, even when a trick goes wrong, you find yourself thinking: “Well… Tommy would probably have loved that.”

The Very Best of Tommy Cooper – Just Like That! is performed by Daniel Taylor Productions at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. At the Gilded Balloon Patter House at 12:00.

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