The Demon Barber
Max Cresswell is a distinguished senior colleague of mine and an old friend. He is also a sucker for amateur opera and—if the following (that he recited to me years ago, from some mercifully forgotten lost operetta) is anything to go by—is cursed (as am i) with the ability to remember doggerel:

           I'm | evil as | evil as | evil can | be

(You can tell by the bar lines that it's in triple time)

           I | don't think there's | anyone as | evil as | me!

is a patter song. The barber (for it is he) also has the recitative

           I'm Sweeney Todd the Barber
           and Evil Thoughts I harbour

I'm not making this up, and i don't think Max made it up either.

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