Grow Up
The Big Bad Friendly Wolf Explosion
Gilded Balloon Teviot @ 14:00 6th – 28th £8.50 (£7.50), £9.50 (£8.50)
***
The nationally treasured Footlights luminaries of years passed have a lot to answer for, and perhaps much to regret. For they are followed by a constant stream of others, eager to trade on the success and talent of their forebears. Possessing the academic acumen or social privilege to attend Cambridge University and the inclination to join the comedy/drama club does not make you a member of the UK’s comedy elite. I have an almost vitriolic aversion to Footlights personnel being touted as major talents and my reaction to such things is further fuelled by seeing Grow Up.

The Big Bad Friendly Wolf Explosion have a name that instantly suggests they’re trying to be funny, and good luck to them. They are all key and prominent members of the current Footlights hoard, but for whatever reason are not performing in Niceties, this year’s main show but rather have sprung out by themselves. Pretension? Self-indulgence? Irrevocable differences? Who knows.

It is not that I don’t think they have good ideas, they do. I’m not suggesting they aren’t rather clever and talented, because they are. It just seems to me that this bunch of fledgling skit-artists are somewhat taking things for granted and resting on their (or others) laurels. It also doesn’t help that they open and close their show with some of their weakest creations.

On stage are Anna O’Grady, Alastair Roberts, Tom Sharpe and Tom Williams. While sketch comedy is a brash and frivolous form of entertainment, Anna was the only of the four performers who truly had the required fervour in her eyes at every turn, appropriately immersing herself into each role. The men seemed more to be going through the motions, often lacking the physicality and conviction to pull of the ideas and characters they presented. A silly voiced character without the sincerity and confidence to back up the nicely conceived script is nothing more than a funny voice, and that becomes weak very rapidly. In a nice little scene where sounds accompanied their movements, they lacked the fine tuning and physical precision necessary to truly make the sketch a success. Not unlike many of the comedy Oxbridge talents that have preceded them, it is their suited Joe that they truly perform with naturalistic vigour.

Enough of my picky attitudes, this group have very strong promise and surely do possess an excellent streak of creativity. Time, experience and perhaps a little growing up will reveal the evident barrels of talent that lie within. They’ve arrived at exactly the right time too, as web-comedy is becoming a strong business option and the group, particularly behind the scenes have an obvious multi-media talent. Their combination of audio-visual, stage and screen action is to be admired.

The passion for anthropomorphism displayed throughout their comedy is not uncommon, and while some areas of its application need a little modification, the crayon sketch is an absolute treasure.
With their developing abilities and the guaranteed nepotism that will almost certainly shape their careers; I seriously doubt we’ve seen the last of them.

by Ian Phillips