Shirley & Shirley sure are one hell of a team. Moving from sketch to sketch via blackouts with a pre-recorded dialogue playing, the girls become various characters, each startlingly different from the others, slipping in and out of the roles slickly. They bounce off each other throughout the whole of their self-devised sketch show easily and with a talent for delivering comic material that is enviable. However, sometimes the material was a little lacking in the 'comic' area.This is quintessential college humour; students will absolutely love the juxtaposition of patently middle class white women playing at being South London rude girls and booty-shaking hoochies, but for the most part, the more mature audience that I was part of were embarrassingly silent. It's only really during the audience participation that they got going and, because they weren't connected from the start, even that was under duress.There are some genuinely funny moments here. I defy you not to giggle at the Nosy Nigerian sketch or the hysterical closing act of the Sugar Plum Fairies. I was also fully appreciating the wonderful French Lady monologue until it was ruined by a truly nauseating punchline that screamed 'cheap gag'. Gag being the operative word. I'll say no more.Shirley & Shirley are genuinely talented. Blonde Shirley is simply fantastic at her impressions and accents and Brunette Shirley has a formidable, androgynous stage presence and a scathing, dry wit. It's the material that lets them down. They could be making huge crowds roar with laughter but instead they are being met by titters for cheap laughs. If they were to inject intelligence into their act, I'm sure they'd get a massive response. For now, however, they might be better off pitching themselves solely at students and hen parties.
