Established as a regular sketch show at the Fringe, there is a certain fear when these six bright young things take to the stage that you might be subject to watching the sort of students who think they’re an awful lot funnier than they are. It’s one thing watching comedians who can’t grab the audience and know it, but it would be quite another if the young comics carried on guffawing at their own jokes regardless of whether any were actually funny.
Fortunately, my early fears were quashed. After a slow start, the likeable six-strong troupe relaxes into routines that are both imaginative and effective. Recurring sketches including an over-zealous Judy Murray trying to seduce Tim Henman into a comeback and a ‘Where’s Wally?’ AA group get better over the course of the show.
While some of the shorter sketches could still do with more work in the sense that they only exist for the one joke that wraps up the action, this can generally be excused by the fact that, on the whole, that end joke is very funny. For example, a couple who can’t work out why there is a loud ticking in the room only to eventually remember their role as bomb disposal experts, was well received by the young audience.
Certainly among all the various sketch shows at the Fringe, this one can hold its head high as it clearly has benefitted from hard graft and a keen desire to build up a scene so that their one-liners come off. Most do, and the group has a good balance of chemistry which helps ensure success.
