No March show for us at Hoopla, as Steve and the lads were overburdened with end of course shows, turning us into travelling sketch comedy rōnin, willing to perform on any stage in exchange for a bowl of rice.
Mercifully for our hungry bellies Noises From The Attic, an improv troupe featuring our own Alex Lubetkin, invited us to perform at The Glitch in Waterloo as part of their night. This had previously been improv-only but was now branching out into other non-stand up comedy forms, despite still being called “Improv at the Glitch”.
The Glitch has expended its space recently, and is now a rather fetching underground studio where once was a slightly dank bolthole. After rehearsing outside on Lower Marsh and my forced into the terrible position of lying to a child about being an Arsenal fan, we were ready for the show.
First half was improv with our hosts. The audience were a bit shy with their suggestions, which meant the entire first show was based around my fear of standing on the third rail. This was a well performed piece, with some delightful deadpan ticket inspectors, though I felt terrible for misleading both the cast and audience into thinking that electrification ever made it to Nottingham.
After more improv from Alchemist, this time featuring another member of the Next Level Sketch Extended Universe (Hari), it was time for the sketch half.
First up were two members of Noises From The Attic, who are perfect as a comedy double act as one of them is quite short and the other one is enormously tall. Rightly they embraced this gift from God, doing a very well received and clearly from-truth sketch about how annoying it is to be reminded that you’re really tall all the time.
Finally, it was us! We headlined the show! We are famous!
The material went well, and I think the audience particularly enjoyed the grunting sauna sketch, Paul’s increasingly abusive and rattled Sir Kier Starmer, and the sketch where I am repeatedly called a dickhead (Corporate Training).
There was a notable drop-off in reaction towards the end tho, in part I think because the audience had seen enough comedy for one evening thank you very much, but also because of our perennial problem of needing to do faster transitions. Funny bits between the sketches would also be useful, and much easier if we had a “set” set list.
Much to ponder. But we’re good, and the night was good, and I’m happy. Thanks to Alex and his crew for having us on (not in the April Fool way. You know what I mean).
jamesofwalsh 