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.
