Fringe Review: Lords of Strut

Assembly Roxy (Venue 139)

Rating: *** (from seven)

This is a late night show trapped in an early evening slot.

Cormac and Cian work incredibly hard at making the most rubbish TV talk show imaginable – and they succeed.

And that’s meant as a compliment.

They play gormless brothers, Sean and Seamus, wannabe telly stars and fame chasers who are trapped in a cheaper than chips TV ‘studio’ broadcasting to ... well, probably no-one other than the audience downstairs at the Assembly Roxy in Edinburgh.

Oh, they can dream big, but their telly is one made of out of a cardboard box with knitting needles for an aerial.

As nothing goes to plan – no promised big names materialise – they have to make it up as they go along while trying to maintain the illusion of a professional telly show.

They introduce a range of characters, throw in some pretty impressive acrobatics and dance routines on a stage barely big enough to accommodate a forward roll in safety, and come up with sketches that are deliberately daft to send up the whole late night telly genre.

It all has an authentically amateurish feel to it, and it is a bit rough round the edges, but it’s meant to be.

There’s actually a heck of a lot of work been put into this show by the two guys.

They also engage with their audience right from the start, creating an element of uncertainty over what to expect over the next hour once the lights go down and the doors are locked!

When you’re welcomed in by a priest and see a man dressed as a rabbit spinning the decks then you’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!

And you just know that some audience participation is pretty much a forgone conclusion – just go with the flow and you’ll enjoy it!

Amid the skits and slapstick, there’s a message about reality telly, and terrorism ... and possibly cats, including some of the Lloyd Webber kind; one of the best sketches of the evening.

The two Lords have boundless energy and actually pull off a daft, funny and entertaining hour of comedy.

But, if this was in a late night slot with an audience perhaps more (ahem) refreshed and up for anything, then it’d really rock.

Run ends August 28.

Allan Crow