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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets Theatre
Verdict: Finger-compered comedy night
London - The Comedy Pub, Oxendon Street - Monday 25 September 06
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets are exactly what they say - sock puppets that speak in a strong Scottish accent, falsetto. They welcome the audience, tell gags about toilets, and sing their song - which shows impressive inspiration in rhymes for sock. They host a night of sketch and stand-up comedy by team and solo performers.
The London Sitcom Trials Team is hastily named to compete with Bristol - as The Unfamiliar Relations. Their short sketches include wine buffs sizing-up women, bearded ladies as Norman soldiers, ending on Inarticulate Review. A great concept - but only so much inarticulate mumbling is funny.
The Socks do possibly the world's longest knock-knock joke, before singing an insulting version of Close To You.
Stand-up Luke Roberts does a few gags based on drawing on himself, before some slightly stronger material on PIN codes. He's guessed the code for anyone who calls out 'Who do we appreciate?!' when they finish typing. After threatening a full hour of PIN code material, he looks confused, then moves onto common phrases most often used sarcastically.
After an interval, the Socks recite William McGonagall's The Tay Bridge Disaster, melodramatically acting out key points.
The Bristol Sitcom Trials Sketch Team are regular performers under the name of The Unrelated Family. Their sketches are fewer, but stronger. A father regales his son with tales of chasing the now adult son's slutty mum. A florist offers the precise flower for any disaster, and a parent at an open evening gets too much honesty.
Evie Anderson is best not called a diva, as she explains it's Italian for 'div'. She has a powerful voice and good comic timing, from picking her nose and scratching her crotch during an aria, to suggesting an 'anal sex loyalty card'. She has ideas for porn versions of daytime TV, getting great laughs for ensuring no one watches Bargain Hunt in the same way again. She finishes on a sing-a-long to Toreador, but with less-polite lyrics.
For Win Some Beer, glamorous assistant Stephanie Goldberg joins the Socks - although one was hoping for that role, complete with feather boa. Audience members Antonia, Miriam, Toby 1 and Toby 2 fight it out in rounds including What's up the Cow's Arse? - which somehow become topical news gags. Antonia follows Miriam out of the competition when she loses Boss or Toss on the subject of world leaders. The Tobys go head to head artistically, doing a caricature of each other's faces. Toby 1 wins decisively, winning a pint of beer.
Men With Bananas do, indeed, have bananas. They also tend to shout, mainly their own name. When they discuss their Edinburgh Show Bigger than Jesus - the search for bananas bigger than Jesus, not knowing Jesus's exact size, and the man from Del Monte's unhelpful response - they are funnier (finding themselves much more amusing too).
Andrew O'Neill stars as an occult fanatic, claiming Cilla Black and Jimmy Saville powers to summon demons. His twisted logic sees him reincorporate lots of strange ideas into yet stranger ones - but needs tightening. He summons a serpent demon, which is very quick and looks surprisingly like him. The audience have three questions. Unfortunately these are banal, and don't give him the scope to be terribly funny - he ends disappointingly.
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets conclude the night by singing This Town Aint Big Enough For the Both of Us - complete with sock-sized instruments.
Overall, the Socks are an entertaining act, and there are some gems among the other performances. But most of the acts could do with an edit to consolidate the laughs, and the performance doesn't quite hang together. It's a bit long, and the variety just means confusion as to what's coming next.
Proceeds from the shows - if there are any - go to the Socks' plan for a show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2007. It'd certainly be interesting to see them perform an hour solo - here's hoping they can afford throat pastilles.
Cast & Company Credits: (people in lists are in alpha order): Hosts: The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets - aided and abetted by Kev F Sutherland. The Unrelated Family: Cast: Angie Belcher. Jem Roberts. Simon Williams. Director / Writer - Jem Roberts (of today's selection of sketches; for more, see www.myspace.com/unrelatedfamily). The Unfamiliar Relations: Cast: Daniel Dresner. Nick Ewans. Jess Fostekew. Clive Greenwood. Jacky Wood. Director - Nick Ewans. Producer - Kev F Sutherland. Writers - Frank Burton, Peter More, Vince Stadon, Kev F Sutherland. Men with Bananas: Cast / Writers / Directors - Mark Logan, Dave Nicholds. Solo Performers - Evie Anderson, Andrew O'Neill, Luke Roberts. Overall technician for the whole event - Stephanie Goldberg.
END
(c) Gill Smith 2006
reviewed Monday 25 September 06 / The Comedy Pub
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
