The Two Mikes (Mike Parry & Mike Graham)
The Two Mikes (Mike Parry & Mike Graham)
They are the undisputed success story of 2015 comedy around the country.
Having played to sell-out crowds from Portsmouth to Glasgow, The Two Mikes were named as Alternative Men of the Year by the Daily Telegraph.
Mike Graham and Mike Parry have come to the comedy stage late in their careers having spent decades at the heart of old-time Fleet Street and on radio.
Taking their cult listening TalkSPORT show on the road was a natural progression for the pair - who have known each other ever since they met in a New York bar in 1983.
In 2016 the odd couple are widening their target area. Having already conquered Birmingham, Manchester, London, Newcastle and Glasgow they're heading for The Edinburgh Festival and in September they're returning to the North East with a show in Whitley Bay.
Here's what the reviews say: "Subtlety definitely isn't on the menu and the language is definitely post-watershed. But when they can attract a full audience who lap up every word it's obviously a winner."
That was after a sold out performance at The Lowry, Manchester's famous theatre where they played to more than 450 people last June.
Their style is unique, irreverent and X rated - and they've just released a live DVD recorded at one of their shows in London which is selling thousands of copies.
If you haven't heard the radio show or the podcasts you can get a taste of what they do on TheTwoMikes.co.uk and on You Tube on TwoMikesTV.
Here's what Bill Borrows said in the Daily Telegraph about their radio show, which is one of the fastest downloaded and most popular podcasts in the business: "The chemistry is beyond the grasp of a Nobel scientist. What could possibly go right giving two grizzled hacks from the dying embers of Fleet Street a radio show? Almost everything."
Both Parry and Graham spent the best part of 25 years in Fleet Street in the days of rock and roll journalism working between them for almost every newspaper out there. They both cut their teeth in the provincial papers before climbing the greasy pole of one of the most cut throat professions around.
You'll hear drunken tales of the old Fleet Street before it was neutered by the Leveson Inquiry, lurid exposes of some of the excesses of the media world and several quite hilarious personal stories of two lives intertwined over decades.
Graham will tell tales of running the national newspapers in the days when there were no holds barred. Porky Parry will confess to using his rat like cunning to get the last interviews with celebrities on their death beds.
Described as watching two old mates arguing in a pub, it's a no holds barred conversation that takes in the pair's adventures chasing celebrities, politicians and assorted crooks.
But the highlights, more often than not, are the personal barbs The Two Mikes fire at each other.
"We don't hold back. We basically just lay into each other for about 90 minutes the way you would like to do with your best mate in a pub," said Parry.
Graham added: "The show isn't scripted so there's always a chance we'll give something away we're not supposed to."
The live show tour has already taken in the Birmingham Rep, The Lowry and the DanceHouse in Manchester, St. James Theatre, London, The Tyne Opera House in Newcastle, Cardiff's Tramshed and the Portsmouth Guildhall.
Now it's your chance to see what all the fuss is about. The drink will be flowing, secrets will be revealed and there will almost certainly be a row...
www.thetwomikes.co.uk
@TheTwoMikes
@mikeparry8
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