Fashion

St Andrews Revue’s new sketch show Fashion is a fun and enjoyable way to spend 50 minutes, but it’s not going to split your sides or radically change your point of view. The four comedians (two male and two female – finally some gender balance!) evidently have good comic timing and funny ideas and insights even if they aren’t entirely original. That being said they are still quite young comedians finding their voice so it’s somewhat to be expected that some sketches are stronger than others.

It’s admirable that the troupe are confident enough to mock themselves; the risk pays off, providing the audience with running jokes and the chance to get to know the players better.

The sketches themselves cover a nice variety of topics and styles from the playfully surreal – in which there’s a good-cop/bad-cop interrogation over who finished the milk – to some predictable political satire. Sadly the revue chose some very easy targets including a bumbling Ed Miliband, Tory posh boys and Germany’s dominance in the EU, peppered with World War 2 jokes of which we’ve already heard in some variation before. No, it’s not particularly insightful, but it is amusing, testament to the revue’s comic timing and comfort in working with each other rather than competing for laughs.

Holding these disparate sketches together is a central, self-referential storyline about the troupe’s private dynamic and the (sometimes surreal) trials and tribulations of bringing a show to the Fringe. It’s admirable that the troupe are confident enough to mock themselves; the risk pays off, providing the audience with running jokes and the chance to get to know the players better.

Ultimately Fashion is enjoyable and the comedians show great potential: they just need a bit more time to find their feet and work out exactly what kind of comedy they want to create rather than the slightly scattergun approach they’ve taken.