Who the F*cking Hell Haiku Review

A master of word play

The hai of haiku means joke or fun or unusual. Matt Eccles managed to extract the maximum hai from haiku in his very entertaining show Who the F*cking Hell Haiku performed at the Lych Gate Tavern on Sunday afternoon. Matt introduced himself and the show with a sequence of haikus, that explained what a haiku is, gave a brief history of the haiku and smoothly engaged the attention and participation of the audience.

Nice to haiku you, to haiku you nice.

I think it is fair to say that Matt cannot resist a pun and is a master of word play. You need to concentrate but it is worth the effort. His cultural references are wide ranging and take you back to the 70s and 80s. So it helps if, like me, you are old. I particularly enjoyed the haiku by the Doors, the TED talk by the lead singer of Showaddywaddy and You’ve lost that lovin’ feline.

There was a quiz with prizes which brought to mind those great formats of the past hosted by Jim Bowen, Derek Batey, Nicholas Parsons and of course Brucie.

He also made affecting use of those trusty musketeers Pathos and Bathos.

There was a thoughtful poem about gambling addiction and the show ended with a moving piece about his Nan.

Matt thanked us for attending this nonsense on a Sunday afternoon and I would like to thank him. There should be more nonsense like this, making connections, bringing people together. All the best to Matt and long may the fringe continue.

unburnished Lanca-
shire cake inspires the sound of
many hands clapping