Toby: Fuzzbuzz, London
Given the way that British critics endlessly complain about sketch comedy being hit-and-miss or old-hat, it’s unsurprising that so many of our sketch groups have gone all meta. Acts such as Pappy’s and Gein’s Family Giftshop spend as much time making jokes about the very idea of performing sketch comedy as they do on the sketches themselves. Lizzie and Sarah Daykin – AKA ultra-dark duo Toby – take things a stage further, presenting their sketch material as almost incidental to the ongoing exploration of their seemingly twisted relationship as sisters. The set-up here remains the same as in previous shows, with spoiled wannabe Sarah coercing her quieter, kinder sister Lizzie into performing sketches with her, all to advance her deluded dreams of stardom. In Fuzzbuzz things are taken further, with a convalescent Lizzie (victim of an unexplained accident) now almost completely at the mercy of her sister.
Upstairs, Soho Theatre, W1, Mon & Tue
Gary Delaney: Purist, On tour
People can be sniffy about puns. But it takes a phenomenal amount of hard work – plus a flash of genius – to produce a stream of wordplay-based one-liners that get an audience laughing rather than groaning. Gary Delaney is one of the very few people with the chops to pull it off. Unlike fellow punsters Tim Vine or Milton Jones, he doesn’t have an oddball personality with which to charm the crowd. Instead, he’s got a deliberately low-key style – less like an entertainer, more like a bank manager on a day off – which allows his jokes to speak for themselves. And they do, spectacularly. Purist does exactly what it says on the poster: there are no personal anecdotes, no big themes, no tales of the comic’s tortured relationship with his father, just an endless flow of top-quality jokes. He’s also playing two club nights in London this week.
Alun Cochrane: Me Neither, On tour
When many comics look to present themselves with as much pizzazz as possible, Alun Cochrane’s approach is wilfully downbeat. Look at the title of his latest show, openly acknowledging that he isn’t the biggest name in the business and letting the punters know he wouldn’t blame them if they’d never heard of him. It’s of a piece with his general attitude: Cochrane isn’t so much deadpan as gloriously dour, living grumpily up to the stereotypes suggested by his Yorkshire roots. But beneath the taciturn exterior is a comedian who aligns inventive thinking to accessible material. The Me Neither tour – which starts after a pair of club sets – offers glum anecdotes about family life, ruminations on ageing, plus plenty of self-mocking gags, all delivered in Cochrane’s gloriously understated manner.
