Sketchole @ The Lowry, 6 Apr

Review by John Stansfield | 11 Apr 2014

Sketchole sets its stall out pretty early on when Gein’s Family Giftshop’s Ed Easton faced the audience sans clothes in a great sketch about sketching. Though this proves to be the only sighting of full frontal nudity we see tonight, it immediately marks Sketchole apart from your average sketch show.

A collection of the Northwest’s finest comics assembles for the first time to deliver something different, and though uneven at times, this supergroup certainly showed us they are more Traveling Wilburys than Audioslave. Like any sketch show it has its hits and its misses, but those that work make good use of their sparse set dressing and the talents of the comics on stage.

Highlights include the aforementioned naked opener, Peter Slater’s absurd and spot on Christopher Walken, Phil Ellis’s racist pub quiz, a series of filmed sketches from Gein’s that anthropomorphized various household items (even if a faulty Windows Media Player ruined the playback somewhat) and pretty much everything featuring Danny Sutcliffe.

An ambitious endeavor that offers up over 30 sketches, the high rate of success only suffers from the exceive length of some bits. A little trimming could have seen the show reach great heights of live sketch comedy. Set for a sophomore effort in September, Sketchole had enough to entice the audience into another round of skits that could eventually rival the Not Ready for Primetime Players of Saturday Night Live.