★★★★

“The comradery both on and off stage is so wholesome that despite there officially being a winner at the end of the night, it doesn’t really make much odds”

Death Match by name perhaps, but this is one of the nicest comedy nights I’ve ever witnessed.

“You’re not to worry, we won’t pick on anyone”, our compere reassures us as he encourages folk to the front row. This is pretty much the atmosphere throughout the hour-long: no audience participation excepting, of course, the traditional shouting out of subjects for the troupe to improvise, and a general sense that we’re all just lovely people having a lovely time.

The evening consists of gently jostling improv games in which the two teams- red and blue- take turns to win the crowd over, after which we’re to shout ‘red’ or ‘blue’ to determine a winner. These include a ‘Just a minute’ style storytelling, a classic tap-in scene game, and several on-the-spot song performances that are impressively catchy- “Five Green Fingers (and a thumb)” is a genuine banger, and I believe the red team was robbed of their victory on that one.

Improv is always necessarily a fairly safe space, given that it requires the performers to be so completely uninhibited and ready to look like idiots at any given moment. But this feels particularly well meaning.

Without microphones the performers are required to project over the Friday night crowd, making it feel more like a Christmas family gathering than a hardy competition: Everyone yelling out stupid suggestions, shushing each other when someone’s on stage, and the improvisers themselves often shouting encouragement to their opposing team, “That was really good, that”. The comradery both on and off stage is so wholesome that despite there officially being a winner at the end of the night, it doesn’t really make much odds.

After seven years on the go, this is, so we’re told, the longest running Camden Fringe show, and I see no reason why it shouldn’t enjoy an eighth.

NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS at The Queer Comedy Club

★★★★

“This is a strong premiere. With some refinement and more practise, Molly Martian will be a real force to be reckoned with.”

Not Like Other Girls is Molly Martian’s first comedy set and (amusingly) explores her transgender identity, her awkward adolescence, her previous six-year relationship, and the ebbs and flows of her mental health.

Martian bravely debuts with an hour-long set, no mean feat for even seasoned comedians. This is her second solo show ever, the first a poetry recital in 2019 which she is quick to lampoon. She does not seem nervous at all – there are relatively few hiccups in the show, and these are dealt with humorously.

She does not shy away from the nitty gritty and the embarrassing in any of her set’s topics – at times, ending sections without a joke, leaving the weight of what she’s said hang in the room. This is an interesting choice and doesn’t always quite land but with some polish this will provide a powerful juxtaposition to the rest of her material. The set in fact ends on a poem which she wrote a few years ago where she contemplates the possibility that she might be a trans woman. There is great vulnerability here and makes for a memorable conclusion.

A PowerPoint presentation accompanies sections of the show. Of note, a spreadsheet of every UK Number 1 and her score out of ten; clips from the Channel 5 documentary series A Different Life that she featured in as a child due to her Type 1 Diabetes; and pictures of the only four men that our comic is attracted to (topically, Martin Lewis makes the cut). There is perhaps too much of a reliance on clips in the second half of the set though there is some obvious effort to have cut these down to limit time standing silent on stage.

Martian doesn’t shy away from physical humour either. The first half is punctuated by various impressions such as a piece of paper being used to prop up a table leg. These are fun and creative – the best is a trio of impressions that all declare that ‘this is not what I’m for’ with a particularly good third example.

There are a few moments of audience interaction in the form of call and response but no back and forth or off the cuff comments from Martian. This, of course, takes some practise and it will be great to see her develop this skill as her comic career matures.

Looking at the show as a whole, the pacing needs some reconsideration. Types of gags bunch together at certain points – impressions, musical numbers, clips – and some jokes have multiple punchlines in an assumed attempt to workshop which gets the best response from the audience. A stronger structure would benefit the set greatly – the audience could know, for example, to expect an impression after every ten minutes to create a more natural break before the next topic.

There are some reoccurring gags that tie the performance together, but stories jump around a lot and are revisted perhaps more times than they should be. There is a smattering of good callback moments but also plenty of missed opportunities such as the show starting and ending with a joke about getting bodily fluid in a cup, but no link made between them.

This is a strong premiere. With some refinement and more practise, Molly Martian will be a real force to be reckoned with.

IMPROV DEATH MATCH at the Aces and Eights

★★★★

“The comradery both on and off stage is so wholesome that despite there officially being a winner at the end of the night, it doesn’t really make much odds”

IMPROV DEATH MATCH at the Aces and Eights

Reviewed on 18th August 2023

by Miriam Sallon

More Camden Fringe 2023 Reviews:

Improv Death Match

Improv Death Match

NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS at The Queer Comedy Club

★★★★

“This is a strong premiere. With some refinement and more practise, Molly Martian will be a real force to be reckoned with.”

NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS at The Queer Comedy Club

Reviewed on 16th August 2023

by Flora Doble

Recent top rated shows:

Not Like Other Girls

Not Like Other Girls