In another on-line guise I am a reviewer for DARKCHAT an Edinburgh festival review site. Two years ago we were first entranced by the " Idiots of Ants" a sketch-based four man group.Last year's show " This Is War" was a big DARKCHAT favourite and earned them a deserved if.com nomination. Unfortunately, I was not so keen on this year's Edinburgh offering "The Red Button", which although it contained good sketches I felt the idea of a member of the audience in charge of a remote control was rather contrived.
However, they are always worth watching so I couldn't resist seeing them in the Weston studio in the Millenium Centre. They are known for constantly re-writing their material and so it proved. Rather than just merely touring their Edinburgh show they dropped their " Red Button" concept and concentrated on entertaining their audience with finely honed sketches
and a great one from a previous show ( trainee Dads).
Sadly, there was only a small audience but it just encouraged them to perform at the top of their game and enjoy the intimacy of the gig. You would think that having just 4 men of similar age ( if not size) would limit their range but fortunately they are good enough actors to play youths, adults and women!
For a group set up to get a coveted television slot they are completely at ease on stage and you can clearly see how much they relish live performance. Even though they have done this material countless times ( over 40 as they mentioned) they impressively make it seem it is new to them. And if they are enjoying themselves the audience can relax they are in safe hands.
The success of any show ultimately rests on the quality of the sketches. Again, their diversity is impressive ranging from the laddish anti-woman " they can't throw" to the more sophisticated subtitling of a German spy film. They are brillant in engaging with the audience through eye contact, references to the less than perfect lighting and music cues and inviting 2 members to appear on stage as well as their climactic song where an unsuspecting lady ( nisa tonight) became
theirs ( and the audiences) previous lover.
Too many touring shows ( Frisky & Mannish and Pappys's to name two) fall into the trap of adding half an hour onto their Edinburgh show which usually means padding with lesser material. This didn't happen tonight as the " Idiots" realised that as long as they provide sixty minutes of top-quality entertainment the audience are more than happy. Which is what happened tonight when they also proved that good shows do not need a theme.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment