It’s a great time for double-act comedy. Mitchell & Webb; Armstrong & Miller; Cameron & Clegg. Maybe it’s a kind of retro appeal, evoking nostalgic memories of Laurel & Hardy. Maybe a leaner team of sketch comedians is more appropriate to our fast-moving, budget-conscious times. Whatever the allure, Mullins & Gladwin need all the help they can get.
In the sweltering confines of the Old Boiler Room at the Jam Factory (appropriate, really), the audience was subjected to an hour of two-man sketches. With such a small number of performers, a show has to be inventive and well-paced to keep the laughs coming. A good range of characters, some nice, varied performances, a mix of comic styles, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, Are You Having a Laugh? skips all of these.
These sketches are written under the assumption that two people shouting at each other is intrinsically funny, that a reference to a celebrity (not a joke, just a passing mention) should get a good laugh, and that it’s worth wasting the audience’s time for five minutes to set up a bad pun.
In all fairness, I quite enjoyed the first sketch of the show. In fact, you can see it here. Of course, there it’s performed by Angus Deaton and Rowan Atkinson. Obviously no-one’s told Mullins and Gladwin that Atkinson is an Oxfordshire native. If they venture down any dark alleys in the near future, I fully expect them to encounter Mr. Bean clutching a straight-edged razor in a menacing yet hilarious fashion.
So this show is both good and original. But the part that’s good isn’t original and the part that’s original isn’t good. That line originally comes from Samuel Johnson, by the way.
Quite apart from the questionable nature of performing another comedian’s material unattributed, I think it’s dangerous for any act to invite comparison to one of the genre gods. Neither Mullins nor Gladwin can match Atkinson’s physical comedy, or the comic timing of Deaton. In fact, their performances were pretty weak all round. Characters would begin a sketch with a “funny” accent and drop it after thirty seconds of tedious banter. Jokes were telegraphed, moustaches fell off, scene changes were awkward. Punchlines dropped into place with all the subtly of a piano falling from a second-storey window.
About halfway through, one character commented “This is going quite quickly. It isn’t boring at all.” It felt like a supreme lack of self-awareness. Doubtless Oxfringe has a load of funny, fresh and unpredictable shows to see, but this isn’t one of them. Are You Having a Laugh? No, I’m really not.
In the sweltering confines of the Old Boiler Room at the Jam Factory (appropriate, really), the audience was subjected to an hour of two-man sketches. With such a small number of performers, a show has to be inventive and well-paced to keep the laughs coming. A good range of characters, some nice, varied performances, a mix of comic styles, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, Are You Having a Laugh? skips all of these.
These sketches are written under the assumption that two people shouting at each other is intrinsically funny, that a reference to a celebrity (not a joke, just a passing mention) should get a good laugh, and that it’s worth wasting the audience’s time for five minutes to set up a bad pun.
In all fairness, I quite enjoyed the first sketch of the show. In fact, you can see it here. Of course, there it’s performed by Angus Deaton and Rowan Atkinson. Obviously no-one’s told Mullins and Gladwin that Atkinson is an Oxfordshire native. If they venture down any dark alleys in the near future, I fully expect them to encounter Mr. Bean clutching a straight-edged razor in a menacing yet hilarious fashion.
So this show is both good and original. But the part that’s good isn’t original and the part that’s original isn’t good. That line originally comes from Samuel Johnson, by the way.
Quite apart from the questionable nature of performing another comedian’s material unattributed, I think it’s dangerous for any act to invite comparison to one of the genre gods. Neither Mullins nor Gladwin can match Atkinson’s physical comedy, or the comic timing of Deaton. In fact, their performances were pretty weak all round. Characters would begin a sketch with a “funny” accent and drop it after thirty seconds of tedious banter. Jokes were telegraphed, moustaches fell off, scene changes were awkward. Punchlines dropped into place with all the subtly of a piano falling from a second-storey window.
About halfway through, one character commented “This is going quite quickly. It isn’t boring at all.” It felt like a supreme lack of self-awareness. Doubtless Oxfringe has a load of funny, fresh and unpredictable shows to see, but this isn’t one of them. Are You Having a Laugh? No, I’m really not.