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The Intimate Strangers: Mister Bond

 
M Johnson Review by M Johnson 2 Published: 16 Aug 2017 theSpace @ Jury's Inn Show Dates: 4 Aug 2017-26 Aug 2017

The Intimate Strangers: Mister Bond is one of those shows made up from two guys (most of the time), a collection of wigs, cloaks, scarves and, guns that are mixed together with a whole host of seemingly normal scenarios that rapidly get wildly out of hand. The performing pair work admirably to bring together their series of sketches, and will make you chuckle. The show is a safe collection of entertaining sketches – which you will enjoy at the time, but generally is a little too bland to be truly memorable.

Sufficiently enjoyable, but easy to forget in the slew of Fringe comedy shows

The scenes meander from bad dates, elderly women and guns (lots of guns) to quick-fire rounds of bad puns. Mostly the skits stay very safe, with a bit of drag here, and a camp figure there – men being feminine is funny is hardly radical new ground. It’s a shame because the slightly more surreal and weird ones were the sketches that really worked. The arcing narrative is that one of the performers has been cast in (not as) James Bond. The resulting finale with a collection of sketches was one of the great points of the show – I am very ready for the Bond villain Alan Bennett – but it too needed a bit of work on tightening it up, polishing the performance and the writing.

The double act work well as a balanced twosome. One mostly plays the idiots, the other plays the smarmy ones – so frequently, I wished they would shake it up a bit. The sketches were initially performed shyly, but once they got into their stride they came into their own.

The Intimate Strangers: Mister Bond was a sufficiently enjoyable show to watch, but easy to forget in the slew of Fringe comedy shows.

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The Blurb:

Hot eggs! The Intimate Strangers bring you dark, absurd and hilarious sketch comedy with a grand James Bond finale. Splurging up characters like a woman obsessed with dogs and a minimum of one dead child. Some have described it as life-affirming. They are wrong. Material heard on BBC Radio 4. ‘A thing of beauty, smart, funny and original’ **** (Remotegoat.com). **** (EdFringeReview.com). **** (ThreeWeeks).