Unexpected Items Are On It, In The Zone, Off The Hook And Down With The Kids
Live Review

This is a very successful sketch show with a young, good looking and talented cast. They started with a great musical number that some sketch groups would be content to end on, a flashmob parody, setting the standard high, which they easily maintained over the hour.

There’s great ensemble work among the five especially during the group sessions with a recurring theme of discovering a person’s superhero identity, while the showstopping – and possibly slanderous – song and dance about a visit to Nando’s is damned impressive on this tiny stage.

There are no weak links in this and nobody showboating, which I find refreshing in a sketch group. The beastly Gap Yah student of internet fame makes a welcome appearance, judging by the delighted audience reaction, but he is only one among a bunch of characters that all seem to have a bit of a back story, or even part of literary tradition (you don’t often see Puritans in sketch). The only bit of shameless overacting featured ‘noted character actor Alan Rickman’ so it was in context, if not remotely like him.

I don’t want to list every single sketch and spoil the fun, but suffice it to say this is bouncy and enjoyable and avoids some of the clichés of the genre - men dressing up as grotesque women, or exaggerated campness.

Because of the early time slot and the mention of ‘kids’ in the title, there were some very early teens in with parents, who maybe wouldn’t have been too keen on some of the sexual content or swearing, which was minimal, but it’s definitely not a children’s show.

Very slick and very funny, this is a bunch of great young comic actors strutting their stuff. Catch them before they get sucked into television.