McNeil and Pamphilon

• Brian Donaldson
• 7 August 2012

This article is from 2012.

An intriguing sci-fi twist distracts from their true gift

With a show entitled Addicted to Danger!, Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon made a real splash at the 2010 Fringe with a series of dark and inventive sketches, interspersed with some snappy banter. Last year the pair were in consolidation mode but this time around, things are getting pretty serious.

Pamphilon jokingly (we think) declares this to be their third and final trip to Edinburgh as they contemplate settling back down into their ordinary lives working in a bar (Pamphilon) or in project management (McNeil). His partner is unaware of this unilateral decision and thus the hour’s tension is ignited.

Each sketch, song or exchange is couched in their predicament with ‘Why Are We Here?’ their opening tune but the double-act-not-getting-on concept is cranked up to extreme levels as they switch bodies c/o Pamphilon’s sci-fi mechanism, ‘The Machine’. It’s an intriguing but not altogether successful twist as we are distracted on too many separate occasions into trying to work out just who’s who as the plot becomes ever more entangled. If they do return, let’s hope it’s with more of the self-contained blackly hilarious sketches that they delivered with their debut.

Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 27 Aug (not 14), 4.30pm, £10--£11 (£8--£9).