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The Canal Café Theatre presents The Three Englishmen
Sketch comedy performed and written by
The Canal Café Theatre
Upcoming shows: January 26, February 23,
A review by Chad Armitstead for EXTRA! EXTRA!
The Three Englishmen are a flying trapeze of sketch comedy. They grab their audience with their first sketch; then there are a few moments of suspense-filled darkness before they grip you with the next. And, of course, it all depends on metronomic momentum. The Canal Café Theatre barely contains this quartet of comedy sketchsters, whose appeal has outgrown their intimate digs. At the very least, the Canal’s bursting seams would suggest it might be time to expand the run of their one-night-a-month sell-out stints. Judging by the material, their popularity seems set only to grow, whether or not their residency at the Canal persists. Though I was an American lost adrift a sea of Crystal Maze in-jokes during the opening sketch, I accepted its appeal on faith until I caught on, as the British Maze-savvy in the room guffawed from the get-go around me. From there, the evening zig-zagged through U2 gigs, Old Street roundabout, eventually taking to the skies in a festive and fiendishly funny send-up of The Snowman where the boy of animated fame is dragged into the sky, terrified, by a disoriented, surly snowman so full of liquor he’s essentially whisky-flavoured ice. From scandalised Irish housewives with member-hungry Hoovers to a mad, singing sublimation of breakfast, they are a formidable comic force that leaves rivals huddled in corners clutching their tired bits. The curse of any sketch troupe is the seemingly inevitable ‘dud’ sketch, which is perversely anticipated by their audiences. Established TV sketch shows and bar troupes alike have faltered and succumbed when the dud/hit ratio has begun to tip. In their December show, the Englishmen laugh in the face of the curse of the dud like Harry with the last horcrux. The troupe doesn’t lazily rely on the familiarity of pop references and icons. There’s a rigor in the writing that parades a party of unfortunately real characters who feel like they just piled out of the car after a raucous night of bingo. Special guest and impressionist Nick Mohammed upped the brilliantly ridiculous character ante, conjuring a loud-and-proud group of Technicolor idiots for our viewing pleasure. The indecently talented Mohammed shifted the show’s gear from side-splitting to riotous. There is always that one comically challenged guy in every sketch troupe, though. The one who, every time he comes on stage, you think: “Oh, that must be someone’s brother who nobody has the courage to kick out.” I couldn’t find that guy. Intensity and commitment drive the Englishmen’s wickedly wry writing home. Behind their timing and presence is that cockeyed perception of the world that fuels great comedy and sometimes might even make you, gasp, think. It’s a quality as unquantifiable as it is inestimable in comedy. Keeping shows to one a month may be the key to keeping the four (tee-hee, lads) Englishmen’s material uncompromising in quality. If so, then don’t get greedy, boys. Keep the few-and-far-between gigs coming. But if you’ve got more than that, then feed our greed a bit and come out to play a little more often.
Tickets: £6/£5 concessions Box office: 0207 289 6054
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ary Couzens