Two gigs in a week for the Next Level Sketch juggernaut, and so I have decided to cut and shunt them into a single blog post.

We last played the Bristol Improv Theatre back in late January 2022, as guests of Up The Antics.

It was very kind of them to welcome us back, and we decided to do an all-new (for Bristol) set of sketches, just in case someone who was there fourteen months ago liked us so much that they came back for more.

Our cast was extremely strong just like last year – no Vic this time, but with Daniel Smith, Flex Toomey and Nadine Bailey returning alongside Shruti Sharma, Paul Creasy and myself.

It was also nice to have a couple of friends in the audience who had never seen me on stage before. I lived in Bristol for a while, and part of my soul is still there. Thank you very much for coming guys, if you’re out there reading this.

Of my own sketches, French Union Clowns went down well, Privates’ School less so. Shruti missed some lines, which put me off a bit, but also I think the sketch is perhaps too crude and just doesn’t fit in with the rest of our set. Which is a shame, because I bloody love how stupid it is while somehow also being somehow slightly political.

Nadine hosted brilliantly, and of the other sketches we did my favourites on the night were probably Dan’s relentless Eulogy sketch, Flex’s excellent use of language and absurdity in This Tall To Ride, and the full crew performances for Ben Fortescue’s Sirens.

Four days later, we were back at The Miller in London Bridge for our own show. I had volunteered to host this one, and I was a bit nervous / out of practice. The sensible thing to do would have been to write some material. I did not do this. But a few hours before we were due on, I saw a news story about medieval minstrels that caught my interest – particularly how we know little about them, as manuscripts were usually the preserve of “high art”.

It reminded me of how so many of our folk traditions have been understood through the prism of late Victorian enthusiasts, who often had their very own agendas in terms of which songs to record and preserve, and which not to (ie the bawdier and more pagan ones).

This is a long intro to explain that I got the audience to tell me whether certain types of art were higher or lower, as a Play Your Cards Right style situation emerged, except with mime, architecture, ooompah music, and Pokémon.

Crowd duly warmed up, I introduced NLS to the stage, our Bristol cast having been added to by Greg Davies and Roderick Millar.

We added some new sketches, including an excellent murder mystery sketch by Peter More (I got to be a butler, and gave it the full Parker out of Thunderbirds), a really fun one-person board game list sketch by Greg Davies, who got laughs just by wiggling his eyebrows, and one by me that I wasn’t really sure about featuring a new character called Mr Pancake, who I don’t blame the audience being a bit confused by.

Ah well. These things are sent to try us.

I didn’t have anything to do with booking any of the guest acts, and I enjoyed them all. Katie Prichard I tried to get for This Machine Kills Wasps but it never quite came off, and she is a brilliant performer, with a great voice and some really stupid concepts, taken to their illogical conclusions.

The Mayor and his Daughter were charming oddballs – very clearly defined character dynamics, lots of chaos and audience participation, and left the stage with us all instructed to bow our heads and close our eyes, requiring Nadine to wander over to me and tell me I needed to get back on stage.

We finished with Grubby Little Mitts, fresh from their performances at the Brighton Fringe and at the Soho Theatre. A very polished sketch duo, with clever ideas, excellent acting, and a brilliant sketch about being on fire. I look forward to seeing them, and everyone mentioned above, again very soon.

(Oh, and before I forget – there was a pretty famous transport YouTuber in the audience, who I enjoyed having a chat with afterwards)