Pappy's Fun Club shot from nowhere to prominence with an if.comedy nomination at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. But, judging by this showing, little distinguishes these four youngsters from countless other all-male sketch troupes. Certainly, they supply the promised fun, notably for themselves, with a boisterous hour-long gang-show punctuated by corpsing and mutual mockery. Nothing wrong with that, save the dearth of strong material to hold all the smiley silliness together.
The evening follows the fashion for deconstructed sketch shows, in which scenes fold into one another and characters stray into other characters' territory. The set is given a loose unity by a subplot involving the quartet's unpaid taxes, and by updates from the hospital where their supposed benefactor Pappy is at death's door. Meanwhile, we get a reading from Abraham Lincoln's diary ("Emancipated the slaves today. Well done me!"), and are entertained by a musical outfit that counts Julius Caesar among its members - much to the annoyance of its frontman, who demands to know, "What do you bring to this folk band?" "Aqueducts," answers Caesar.
As that implies, we are dealing with sub-Vic Reeves senior-common-room nonsense here: a world where few things are funnier than a taxman in pants. The four performers (Tom Parry, Matthew Crosby, Ben Clark and Brendan Dodds) are loveable enough to carry off the low-level idiocy, and there is the occasional diverting skit: such as the scene in which all public-service jobs seem to be taken by undercover journalists.
Here, the job of comedian might have been taken by four cheerful but slapdash chums, who possess the talents to create a sketch show, without the discipline to do so like the professionals.
· At The Old Coffee House, London (020-7437 2197), on November 21. Then touring.
