Little Howard and the Magic Pencil of Life and Death

Published Monday 13 August 2007 at 11:20 by Nick Awde

The big screen at the back of the stage is the first star to appear to this winning show. Caricatures, a la Rolf Harris doodles, are quickly drawn on it, followed by bursts of laughter as people recognise themselves. And then on bounds Big Howard (aka Howard Read) to introduce the show’s real star, Little Howard.

The six-year-old cartoon boy leaps from the big screen to Big Howard’s laptop depending on his mood, all the while upstaging the show’s carefully planned jokes, meaning that the hapless Big Howard has to start all over again and again. And that makes it all the funnier.

After Little Howard has been enticed to the laptop for a quick nap, Big Howard embarks on a series of inventive games with the audience, with the younger members providing some wonderfully unexpected moments of interaction. We then discover the Magic Pencil which can rub out characters in Little Howard’s virtual world just as easily it can draw them. Things get a little sinister here but never fear, the audience is there to help him out. There’s even an action-packed 3-D segment, complete with coloured glasses for all the audience.

Thanks to his laptop, Read takes interactivity to a level where it seems like real life as he gets the children to line up to play with Little Howard onscreen. This has to be one of the most magical double acts on the circuit, as entertaining and educational for adults as for little ones.