Now that’s a callback! Could old jokes become the new trend for comedy?

Surprise is a key ingredient of standup but Jack Rooke and Joseph Morpurgo explore the potential of dusting down their hit 2015 shows for rare revivals

Bands tour classic albums in their entirety. Movies are re-released to mark big anniversaries. Great plays get put on over and over again. But in live comedy, revival isn’t such a big thing. It’s an artform predicated on surprise, the startlement of the new. Recycling old material is not the done thing. But might that be about to change? I saw two shows at Soho theatre revived to celebrate their 10th birthdays, two comic performers who clearly saw value – and a new audience – in bringing decade-old sets back to the stage. Both are restaged by production company Berk’s Nest – who don’t rule out more of the same if these two go with a swing.

Both shows could be classified as “theatrical comedy”, arguably more susceptible to this treatment than straight standup would be. But the timing is a coincidence – and the two shows are (re-)presented in quite different ways. Joseph Morpurgo has been working with Berk’s Nest on a brand new show, his first since 2017’s Hammerhead. The idea to restage Hammerhead’s predecessor Soothing Sounds for Baby, nominated in 2015 for the Edinburgh comedy award, was a byproduct of that process, presumably with a view to reminding audiences of Morpurgo’s solo pedigree (away from Austentatious, for which he may be best known) before the release of new material.