Having seen three pre-Edinburgh review shows in Cardiff yesterday I then moved Capital cities to see a couple of events in the Olympics. Amazingly, en route to a relative I discovered there was a Free Edinburgh festival at The Bedford, a large pub in Balham.
I headed straight to see "Short and Curly", a sketch comedy duo. I believe comedy succeeds because of good material, good performers and the ability to connect with an audience. One out of three is sufficient to make you laugh but "Short and Curly" impressively ticked all three boxes.
Rebecca Shorrocks and Paul Taylor are both charismatic in their own right and combine well together. As usual with sketch comedy some sketches work better than others but all of them have funny moments. Refreshingly, there is no theme linking them all, though the better characters do reappear throughout the show.
Anyone attending a show in Edinburgh runs the risk of getting involved but I thought I was safe sitting in the middle of the third row. I was wrong and soon became involved in a line-up before being found guilty of an unnamed crime. Calling a reviewer a criminal is normally a bad idea but I enjoyed them so much I will not be contacting my lawyer.
There are a lot of complicated costume and prop changes and being a preview things do not go smoothly including a completely mis-timed set of music cues but this only helped to add to their natural charm as they ad-libbed their wat through the mishaps.
The Edinburgh fringe is increasingly turning into a comedy festival and you could now spend a week only seeing Free shows. The down-side is that there is no quailty control. Well, there is here. Go and see "Short and Curly". If you find a better free show you will be lucky. You won't be disappointed!!
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