The Horne Section

There are plenty of late-night Fringe shows where comedians can
exploit a hidden talent, but

few can be more enjoyable than The Horne
Section. Compered by affable host Alex Horne and

held in the glorious setting of the Spiegeltent, the show features
several guest acts each

night, to be accompanied in their endeavours by the house band
(the eponymous ‘Section’).

The night of this review, those guests were Canadian comic Phil
Nichol, ‘funniest man in

France’ Marcel Lucont, and pub landlord Al Murray.

Nichol fared well; he made good use of the band, challenging them
to play metal and

Norwegian trip-hop, and elicited an enthusiastic crowd singalong
of “The Only Gay Eskimo”.

Lucont’s low-key French arrogance seemed to miss the mark somehow,
though he did succeed in

crowdsurfing his way out of the Spiegeltent. Al Murray took us on
a typically xenophobic

trip around the world, with the aid of an inflatable globe and
some extraordinary

off-the-cuff musical backing by the band.

The real stars of the show, however, are The Horne Section
themselves. Joe Stilgoe (piano),

Ben Reynolds (drums), Will Collier (bass), Mark Brown (saxophone)
and Joe Auckland (trumpet)

show astonishing musical dexterity, working their way from samba
tunes to the sounds of a

Swiss cuckoo clock via the French national anthem. Their own,
guest act-free song confessing

their true musical ambition is probably the highlight of the
evening.

The Horne Section have already graced The Lyric on Shaftesbury
Avenue; on current form, it

won’t be too long before they return to the West End.

– Emma Watkins