Sheeps: A Sketch Show

The Sheeps trio have hit the ground running as their comedy freight train ploughed through 55 minutes of sketches, skits and songs. As three former Cambridge Footlights members, their show was as slick and well-rehearsed as you’d expect. Beautifully timed gags, confident character performances and off-the-wall scenarios peppered their act.

Stand-out pieces were the mutant friend created for a lonely young boy by his well-meaning but slightly creepy father and the elderly woman responsible for providing hit tunes for ABBA by singing them songs about the ghost upstairs. In both of these sketches, and indeed for most of the others, Alastair Roberts manages to steal the show. His grasp of comic timing and self-assured performance of both grotesque and understated characters is brilliant.

The boys all have charisma and charm in spades but yet more promising is the material. The devil is in the detail and this show is brimming with wicked specifics, such as the name chosen for the man-made mutant (Splay), or the elderly woman calling ABBA’s Björn by his surname, Ulvaeus. These weird observations add a delicious hint of the surreal to the traditional sketch show format. Clever, sharp and fresh, you can expect to see much more from Sheeps.

Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 28 Aug (not 16), 4.45pm, £8.50–£9.50 (£7–£8).