LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL Clockwise from top: Late Night Gimp Fight!; McNeil and Pamphilon; Christmas for Two; The Three Englishmen.
Sketch shows {COMEDY}
place. It’s marked Do No Touch. There’s no point in just throwing something out there that you’re not 100 per cent behind just because it seems edgy. We have a big bunch of stuff that no one is ever going to see; we’re ashamed that they’re even there. It’s like phlegm: it had to come out but I’m not going to show it to anyone.’ The pair have the comedy equivalent of a safe word for each piece of material they’re working up. ‘The stock phrase is, “I’m not sure that this is OK,”’ says McNeil. ‘We had a thing called Hustlebusters, a sort of Crimewatch, the idea being that these programmes fearmonger about ethnic minorities and cause trouble with the media spreading fear about “other people”. We tried to make a comment on that and deconstruct it but we never found a way to do it that didn’t make you feel a little bit awkward. We did it at one gig but, like at an Al Murray show, we were never quite sure whether they were laughing with us or if they’ve taken the joke in an entirely literal way.’
When it comes to The Three Englishmen (of whom there are four), no such worries about offending the audience arise, with Nick Hall recalling how they were seen last year by everyone from ‘7 to 70’ and welcomed the crowd into their space (last year a dank, dripping cellar, this year a bigger, less damp arena) with a Pappy’s-esque joie de vivre. Still, if any macho Brazilians with a samba obsession had been in attendance, they may have walked (or sashayed) out at the vibrant opening scene as the machismo culture peeled away to reveal a vista of femininity. After that came some mild ribbing of the Bonham-Carter/Burton/Depp triptych and a blustering student continually messing up his French oral exam. Little wonder that they later appeared on Dick and Dom’s Funny Business, performing their ‘human basketball’ sketch, an increasing avenue for new acts to display their wares. ‘Dick and Dom are like the Peel Sessions for young comics,’ is how Ben Cottam puts it. If appearing on kids TV seemed an intriguing after-effect of their Fringe success last year, things got even stranger when an exotic fan stayed behind to meet the quartet.
As Hall recalls: ‘When an East European with a massive moustache is waiting for you at the back of a dank cellar in Edinburgh and says, [feigns Polish accent] “Meet me in a bar, I have a proposition for you,” you start to wonder.’ Turns out that the mystery gent ran an English- speaking theatre project in Poland, and The Three Englishmen played a week out there. While they are a group who like to play with words and ideas, the fact that there is more in their locker helped the trip go smoothly. ‘The only rule we have is to make it as broad and varied a show as it can,’ insists Cottam. ‘So we have physical things and visual jokes and long dialogue character things. Ours is a fun, cheery show. There are targets being caricatured and stereotyped but it’s warm, not a snide show.’
The Three Englishmen: Optimists, The Caves, 556 5375, 6–28 Aug (not 17), 4pm, £8–£9 (£7–£8). Previews 4 & 5 Aug, £5; Christmas for Two: Friends with You, The Caves, 556 5375, 6–28 Aug (not 17), 4.55pm, £6.50. Previews 4 & 5 Aug, £5; McNeil and Pamphilon: Which One Are You?, Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, 6–28 Aug (not 17), 5.40pm, £8.50–£9.50 (£7–£8). Previews until 5 Aug, £5; Late Night Gimp Fight!, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 6–29 Aug (not 20), 10.30pm, £9.50–£12 (£8–£10.50). Previews until 5 Aug, £5. 4–11 Aug 2011 THE LIST 31
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