I am, I am

• Claire Sawers
• 8 August 2014

This article is from 2014.

Slighty patchy musical comedy but never too long to wait for next laugh

Apt that this one’s happening in a late night corner of the Student Union, as what’s happening in this show is exactly what you’d expect to be going on after midnight in a bar normally for students. Two twentysomethings are spilling pints down themselves, clumsily chatting up girls, and riffing on job interviews, career paths, parent woes and Tinder. They just happen to do it all to music. Mostly expertly scripted, occasionally very slickly improvised, and all played on acoustic guitars by Harry Michell and Lowell Belfield, two Cambridge Footlights graduates.

There are flashes of Tim Key’s deadpan magnetism, or Flight of the Conchords’ strange symbiosis from the pair, who will appeal to fans of the previously niche categories of the child-faced beanpole and the ginger, child-scaring charmer.

Songs from the precociously sharp-tongued boys (nauseatingly, both have brought several solo shows to the Fringe already) range from the ironically macho (‘Animals’) to the disturbing and utterly non-relaxing (‘Lullaby’), and at one point involve a very shy 40-piece African choir, who apparently prefer to remain backstage for their singing parts. It’s silly, and not all the gags work, but the talent is real, and the wait is never long until the next laugh.

Gilded Balloon Teviot 622 6552, until 25 Aug (not 11, 18), 11.30pm, £10 (£8).