At 5pm, four young men take on a daily mission of fitting a record number of sketches into one hour of comedy. The Leeds Tealights exude an undeniable energy as they jump from scene to scene, exploring every comedic device at their disposal. Starting the show, the Tealights act out a Q&A with their own cast, imagining themselves as celebrity versions of themselves, intermittently breaking the fourth wall with their audience to comic effect. Though there is undeniable talent within the ranks, one can’t help but be reminded of a similar trope within The Mitchell and Webb Look. The only other recurring scene was a BBC Think Tank sketch, where a young executive pitches controversial titles for new programming to his despairing boss. This scene is the Tealights only real stab at tackling a current issue, though there is no suggestion of affiliation.
There are many funny scenes that keep the audience laughing along and some that make the entire venue wince in their seats. Barnaby Callabys ‘Little John’ scene where a conjoined twin gets his brother to tenderly tongue the sock puppet that protrudes from his shirt is reminiscent of another Leeds-borne sketch troupe, The League of Gentleman. Another favourite scene centres around a hopeless and aggressive motivational speaker who delivers a talk on what he calls the 3 Ps: ‘Perseverance, Persistence and Pacific’. The bellicose brute gives his message of success in a dictatorial style, soon realising that his thoughts make very little sense. The motivational speaker scene, though funny represents a consistent issue within the show that many sketches don’t tend to have definitive endings or punch lines, but just seem to fizzle out - albeit into fast, well-rehearsed scene changes.
