DeadBadger comprises of Jimbo Dryden and Mathew Lloyd who aim to entertain with a series of sketches, with mixed success. The opening didn’t set a good precedent for the rest of the show; taking over 10 minutes to welcome the audience and garner the necessary amount of applause before they deemed it appropriate to begin the sketches themselves.
The sketch we repeatedly return to is that of two superheroes, Power Man and Rent Boy, and their crime fighting adventures. Other scenes that featured were a doctor’s surgery with a patient that followed instructions very literally. Amusing at first but rapidly descending to raised voices and little new material. The other scene aside from the superheroes was a ‘battle’ between two gentlemen conducted entirely in rhyme. This was enjoyable as it demonstrated some intelligence and planning, but unfortunately also began to drag on, thus losing its initial appeal and becoming overly laboured.
While costume changes were taking place, video clips were projected onto the backdrop in order to keep the audience’s attention. This was a clever touch and their intentions were admirable, however the clips appeared to be filmed in a very amateur way, featuring personalised cards which became both a repetitive motif and were not even that funny.
Don’t get me wrong, the audience didn’t sit in dead silence for the entirety of the 45 minute show, but the noises were never those of rapturous enjoyment. Alcohol certainly helped to loosen the laughter of some of the audience, and unfortunately I suspect this is rather a necessary measure to stick with the DeadBadgers to the very end.
