There are some great female comedy duos out there, a couple of which are appearing on this year’s Fringe, but McCloud & Black aren’t one of them.
After being welcomed in by the music from Tony Hart’s Gallery, the older members of the audience might feel that they’re in for a healthy dose of nostalgic observational comedy, but they’re going to be sadly disappointed.
McCloud & Black open with a needlessly high-tech, yet shoddy, version of the Muppet Show’s grumbling old men and, sadly, it’s downhill from there. While the initial sketches do raise a titter, they are labouriously long and immediately reminiscent of Smack The Pony, but not as good.
Any hope that they are going to stop flogging these weak characters are soon dashed, as it quickly becomes clear that their over competitive and unbalanced mothers are the mainstay of the show. The concept in itself is sound, but McCloud & Black rely too heavily on their predecessors work, and any originality they do exhibit is uncomfortable at best and soon descends into plain tastelessness.
There are some laughs to be had from this over eager duo, but frankly they don’t make up for the dross. They might have been highly praised last year, but McCloud & Black are going to have to do better than The Hook if they want to come back next year.
1/5
Richard Biggs
