As a rule, double acts are often made up of disparate characters – Little and Large, Morecombe and Wise, etc – and it’s fair to say that you probably couldn’t get more polar opposites than Andrew O’Neill and James Sherwood. One is a self-described vegan/transvestite/anarchist, while the other looks like an ineffectual Tory councillor/family counsellor – a sort of good (well, well meaning at least) versus evil combination. And this is how they play the act.
After a rather dry opening dialogue, the likes of which Newman and Badiell perfected in the 90s, the duo split up and take alternate turns at attempting to woo the audience with opposing sketches and, to be fair, they are fairly successful.
While there aren’t a huge number of deep belly laughs, the show scores high on the chuckle-ometer and this seems to please the crowd. The payoffs are generally quite small but the dysfunctional duo occasionally pluck out a hint of genius and this is enough to have the audience eating out of the palm of their hand.
O’Neill and Sherwood are obviously competent performers yet there is something missing. It might be a slight lack of polish on their gags or a slight jitteriness that is degrading their set but there is definitely something that is making them a good comic duo rather than a great one.
3/5
Richard Biggs
