With sketches ranging from speed dating to a prostitute on Dragons Den and women talking at the toilet mirrors, At Wit's End is a sketch comedy that covers lots of bases but fails to find the humour in any of them.
Considering they describe themselves as a group that has 'extensive experience of the London stand-up scene', their sketches often feel clichéd and lacking in insight. The targets of their ridicule felt familiar and all a little easy. A proud mother who is more stupid than her child, sport commentators who deal in idioms and a disenchanted children’s entertainer. One of the few good things I can say about this show is that they just kept coming with the sketches. However, this does give the show a feeling of a shotgun: blasting lots of sketches in the vague direction of the audience, hoping that some hit their target.
Furthermore whilst there were a few sketches that were funny they were often in the region of the right punchline but either never found it or simply dragged the sketches on too long. A skit about Smeagol/Gollum being an expert in a ring shop springs to mind. Excellent in premise but awful in delivery. The show ends with a rap that might have been the most original thing about the whole but even this felt a little ham fisted.
Ultimately the main issue with this show is that it is just boring (a cardinal sin for a comedy show) as the laughs are few and far between with the sketches feeling unpolished and poorly executed. They say that they create 'wonderful people we all encounter every day'. If that were the case I think I would move.
