Horrific hilarity

Inside, it gets spookier. In the basement, there are flying things and spooky business. Upstairs is the Whispering Chair upon which headphones are donned and a voice tells you things about yourself which you don't want to hear, but are secretly thrilled about.

The show starts. It is Halloween, and the people in the graves have been let out early on account of good behaviour. A man called the Great Voltini has something electric up his bottom and is up to no good. Another fellow called Wisbey is summoning up impressions of such folk as Paul McCartney, Peter Snow and Jools Holland. He is funny, and he manages to persuade us that we could be funny, too. Wisbey does not have anything electric up his bottom, but the effect is the same.

The star turn is Simon Drake. It is, after all, his house, and his special cats are on the bed upstairs. When he appears on stage, his teeth have become blue, as if he were in Pink Floyd. David Gilmour is in the audience, so that might not be such a flight of fancy.

Richard O'Brien is also in the audience, and, for his pains, he gets his hand sawn off. Perhaps that should have been Gilmour, but everyone is having so much fun that such a thought is unthinkable.

Someone else, not so famous, has their head cut off. It is all good, clean fun, and the best thing is that no one can work out how it's done.

This secret location in SE1 is the place to be when the nights are drawing in, as they seem to be at the moment. Tommy Cooper would have loved it.