"A good natured swipe at shock comedy." Nione Meakin reviews the 'edgy' new show from all-girl sketch trio Vinegar Knickers.
Just when you thought Ladygarden had cornered the ‘ickily-named all-female sketch group’ market, along come new contenders Vinegar Knickers, a trio of women determined to be the edgiest act on the Fringe.
The group (Samantha Baines, Katie Burnetts and Harriet Fisher) have got skits about webcam suicides, jolly jokes about conjoined twins and an extended sketch about Hitler – this sh*t’s so edgy it’s bleeding. Or it would be if only Harriet would get on board and Katie were a little more controversial (being Jewish isn’t enough).
As you’ll have guessed, Vinegar Knickers don’t have their fingers on the pulse so much as their tongues in their cheeks in this deceptively smart show, which takes a good-natured swipe at shock-comedy and sketch convention with varying degrees of success.
A gag exposing the TV conspiracy of improvised Danish is fresh and surprising, a sentiment that also applies to the bewildering Oxbridge interview sketch, the pay-off of which is deliciously unforeseen. The three have the performance skills to keep a hillbilly female Jesus on the right side of off-beat and the confidence to turn one character’s increasingly uncomfortable Jamaican patois sharply on its head at the very last minute. Even their take on The Apprentice – a hackneyed comedy staple – offers something out of the ordinary.
What the group haven’t quite nailed is the links between the sketches. The habit of stepping out of “character” and showing the supposed behind-the-scenes workings of a sketch group has become a popular comedic device but it doesn’t add a lot here.
Cautious to ensure they always undermine their “controversial material”, the trio underestimate the audience’s intelligence and the quality of their writing, and the self-consciously shambolic silliness contrasts unfavourably with the neat sketches.
Vinegar Knickers might not be fully there yet but they’re an indisputably talented and joyously odd addition to the sketch scene.
Nione Meakin
Vinegar Knickers: On The Edge is at Just the Tonic at the Caves at 2:40pm until 26th August
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