Comedy news: Rough and tumble on the alpine comedy circuit

4 Jan 2012 By Tim

There comes a time when people need to know the limits of their skills - and for one particular Miami-born rapper and his friends that time came at 1am in the Jekyll bar in Chamonix when he decided to take on Abandoman with a rap battle. 

Despite missing the comedy show, which was the first on the tour since we arrived in Geneva on Monday, the gang of inebriated animal-dressed skiers had decided that they had been ordained with the best rapping skills in the world, and needed to share this knowledge with as many people as possible. 

In between rapping their drinks orders and chat-up lines, the bar staff at the Jekyll kindly introduced them to Abandoman, who thought it might be a good time to riff together. 

A friendly rap battle ensued and the boy from Miami was schooled in how to turn a phrase without descending knee-deep into pussy jokes and potentially treat the whole female gender with a little more consideration. 

The comedy tour we are following stops at Chamonix, dips briefly into Verbier, and then on to Meribel for the rest of the week. In between gigs we've been graced with the hospitality of Snostation, whose Chalet in Chamonix was the base for the first two days of the trip and the family home of Richard Lett from Taking The Piste.

With Abandoman taking themselves to the nursery slopes for only their third snowboarding experience ever, Matt Lacey (who plays Gap Yah) chose to partner the MC for the comedy tour Tommy Holgate for the afternoon skiing. Ambitious as ever, the two engaged themselves in a high speed pursuit of off-piste rocky outcrops, descending a closed black run  despite having said how they should 'take it easy' because it's the first day of the tour.

Needless to say there was a fall, a spray of snow, and a camera phone ready to capture the aftermath. What is unique though is how Matt reacted, which on camera at least looks like he took out his wrath on the mountain with laser eyes. Of course it's only a trick of the light, but as Holgate put it, Zap Yah has unveiled his super powers. 

Bravely hobbling on to the stage of the Old Cinema for the gig last night in Verbier, Gap Yah brushed off the fall as 'part of the banter' despite having to convince the crowd that he had actually hurt himself - and wasn't limping for purely comic effect.