Recently formed and making their Edinburgh debut, there’s been a buzz about this sketch trio’s early shows on the circuit and – uneven though this rookie set is – you can see why. They make for a strange, slightly unformed threesome: the standup Phil Wang is by turns rather stiff and unexpressive, but also cheerful and unabashed; Jason Forbes is quiet, bordering on invisible for half the show, then suddenly gets his freak on; and George Fouracres dominates proceedings to a conspicuous degree in all the leading roles. But their oddity plays as an advantage, and extends to some slippery skits that feel fresh and arrive from unexpected directions.
Hack sequences are scarce, and even the familiar skits – a surgeon addressing a bereaved mother inappropriately, say – are played straight and pushed far enough to renew or enrich the joke. In that scene and elsewhere, Fouracres is the standout actor, making a scene from Henry V sing before its inevitable punchline, full of coiled Reece Shearsmith-ish energy, generally hogging the attention. He’s the pirate captain in a sketch depicting the slaughter of Peter Pan (“I took matters into my own ... hook”) and the slave master in a radio play that starts with a joke about African American accents then trades on the racial unease generated, long after the joke has moved on.
The comedy is often of the something-strange-is-happening variety, as when Forbes and Wang play a spider and fly interrupting Fouracres’ palaeontology lecture. Latterly, when Forbes is unleashed, there’s some extreme slapstick, notably involving a clumsy coffee-shop barista. The above is all attended by a jubilant self-consciousness that slaps quote marks around every “pull back and reveal”. Then - just in case you were to dismiss them as clever-clever – they close with a tender singalong, which promises a goofy punchline then disarmingly withholds it. It’s an eye-catching debut.
• At the Pleasance Courtyard until 31 August. Box office: 0131-556 6550.
