A Fucked Up Evening With Trailer Park Boys

A boorish but ultimately touching night that is strictly for hardcore fans only
Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall probably hasn't seen too many 'ball-offs' in its near 30 years, with two grown men yanking at each other's testicles. But Canada's Trailer Park Boys know the crude, visceral humour that their largely male audience enjoys. And they'll have received few more enthusiastic endorsements than the massed standing ovation they got here. With the hugely successful Netflix show currently on hiatus after 12 series and the death of actor John Dunsworth, who played park supervisor Jim Lahey, there was a touching closing tribute and a general sense of retrospective to this latest, clip-heavy live performance.
Hosted by Mike Smith's bottle capped glasses-sporting Bubbles, by turns no-nonsense and sentimental, alongside his petty criminal, trailer park cohorts Ricky (Robb Wells) and Julian (John Paul Tremblay), their thin plot revolves around Ricky's clashes and often literal pissing contest with the topless, beer-bellied Randy (Pat Roach), the solitary main antagonist after Dunsworth's demise.
Inspiring a series of boneheaded macho competitions between the pair, including the aforementioned ball-off and Sunnyvale Feud – essentially Family Fortunes in which Ricky and Randy prove themselves as thick as each other, albeit with surveys based on the hick responses of their Nova Scotia trailer park brethren – what elevates the boorishness is the Boys' appreciation and understanding of their crowd, who they really include in everything, even offering the chance to win a drink with them backstage. Particularly memorable is the 'fat-gut contest' that witnesses four larger gentlemen measuring up against Randy onstage.
Throughout, the show leans hard on footage of the Boys' previous escapades and doesn't make many concessions to those who aren't part of their existing fanbase. Tremblay has little to do beyond nurse his drink and the entire spectacle is over-reliant on Smith's ad-libs, though he keeps the energy up with set-piece signature tunes like 'Liquor and Whores'.
A Fucked Up Evening With Trailer Park Boys is on tour until Monday 24 September. Seen at Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sunday 16 September.