Monkey Barrel have struck gold again with the late-night slot in their second venue. From the same room that launched Sam Campbell on a largely unsuspecting populace, comes Joe Kent-Walters with his instantly unforgettable creation Frankie Monroe. A character of almost infinite grotesqueness but just as much charm, Frankie is the right host in the right venue at the right time with the right audience.

Rotherham. Town of two rivers. Bulwark of the Industrial Revolution. Frontline of the culture wars. It’s also home to the Misty Moon, an embattled working men’s club that just happens to be situated on a hellmouth. The reason for this is that the club’s owner and MC Frankie Monroe, ‘Yorkshire’s biggest bastard’, made a Faustian bargain with sinister forces 24 years ago to keep the club open, and tonight is the night they’ve come to collect what is theirs.

A loping, off-kilter ghoul in a frilly shirt and white face paint, Frankie cuts a disturbing figure – Bernard Manning as Richard III. To begin with at least. But there’s a guilelessness and sincerity to Kent-Walters performance that pulls the crowd in from the start. Frankie is a pastiche of the old-school variety show but he’s also something of a wistful tribute to its heyday. It is an uproarious sendup of the format’s limitations – and the frequent amateurishness that came with it – but there’s no ironic detachment or sneering. Indeed, the more macabre elements reach way back beyond the ’70s club circuit, past its origins in Vaudeville and music hall, all the way back to Grand-Guignol. It’s a eulogy for a certain form of working class entertainment that is hacking its death rattle.

Kent-Walters has openly described the show as Phoenix Nights crossed with The Mighty Boosh. Those touchstones are evident. Look even closer and there are clear traces of Vic & Bob, The League of Gentlemen, and countless B-movie horrors among others. But what ‘Frankie Monroe: LIVE!!!’ does so well is acknowledge its influences while being its own gloriously distinct identity.  For every moment like the overtly Boosh-inspired singalong ‘Trowel’ or the Shooting Stars ‘club style’-indebted ‘Brandy’ segment (both, crucially hysterical on their own terms), there are many others that sprout off in weird, singular tangents from their visible roots. Witness what Kent-Walters does with such club staples as ventriloquism, magic, or the ‘back-room-of-a-boozer’ musical tribute act.

More than anything, the hour is an exercise in pure momentum. Kent-Walters has the knack of knowing how long each section should last before moving on. Not that there is ever a lull, but he begins strong – with a genius riff on a standard magic trick – and simply maintains a rolling gale of audience delight. And what a performance. Frankie is such a vivid, fully-realised presence that it’s a shock when the corpse paint comes off and the fresh-faced Kent-Walters emerges likes a butterfly from a grizzled chrysalis. Rarely will you see a performer embody a character so thoroughly.

‘Frankie Monroe: LIVE!!!’ should be purely a cult concern but you get the feeling it’s got something that will cross over to a wider audience. One hesitates to use the word wholesome to describe a show quite this weird, but there’s a warmth and earnestness at work that can’t be denied. Pretty close to genius.

‘Frankie Monroe: LIVE!!!‘ is at Monkey Barrel 2 until Sun 25 Aug 2024 (except Wed 14), 23:25