Rob Gilroy: Making A Stand #4
Hello, I am eating a sandwich while writing this. Would you care for some? Suit yourself.
Last week I did a sketch show. Not on my own, that would be utterly ridiculous. Can you imagine me having to entertain a room full of people for over two hours? You can? You don’t happen to be an agent do you? But I digress. As unbelievably insane as taking on the challenge of doing a one-man sketch show would be, the idea of doing a two-manned/two-womanned sketch show is just as insane. And no amount of Pro Plus or sequined masques can alter that fact.
The sketch show I am referring to is Jolly Mixtures. A new night I have created along with the supremely talented Amy Gledhill, Graham Oakes and Nicola Redman. The show is a collection of sketches, characters, songs and anything else that can possible nudge the running time closer to what would appear to be a full evening of entertainment. The show takes place at the Caroline Street Social Club in Saltaire, West Yorkshire giving the whole event more class and glamour than it deserves. Last week wasn’t the first show we have done; we also performed the month before. The first show was a wonderful and shambolic attempt to find our feet. A bit like that scene early on in Bambi – y’know, before his mum’s slaughtered – we were like little woodland dear, stumbling around the forests of un-tapped comic potential. I won’t lie; we fell down. A lot. I even dislocated my knee before going on; but that’s a story for a different blog post – and if things work out; an episode of Holby City. But I digress.
The show was initially of my own concoction – I knew that having concentrated on stand up for a while I wanted to get back to my first love; sketch comedy. Actually my first love was a girl called Anneka Deluge, who I was at primary school with. I gave her a Haribo jelly ring one break time but she turned it down because of dietary restrictions and hasn’t spoken to me since. Yeah, well; look who’s got a sketch show now, Anneka! LOOK WHO’S GOT A SKETCH SHOW NOW! But I knew, in order to get this thing off the ground and to teach that cold-hearted vegetarian a lesson; I would need team mates. Although, I have since learnt that the term; ‘accomplices’ better fits our relationship. I pieced together a crack team of writer/performers like some sort of bastard child of a one-eyed, leather jacket-clad Samuel L Jackson off of The Avengers and the Man from Del Monte. Although, it must be stress; I never took a bite out of any of the others.
As with any good group activity; it’s always best to go into it with no idea of what the outcome will be. I know this was an ethic Bob Geldoff had with Live Aid, and it seemed to be the modus operandi for the primetime Saturday night BBC One show Britain’s Brightest – how on earth is being able to guess a person’s age a skill? It’s pot luck. But I digress. We had no clue what this comedy homunculus would be. Would it be edgy? Would it be silly? Would it take on a life of its own and require us to kill it off it an ultimately epic and ironic twist of fate? As it turns out it was mainly silly. The night was deliberately created without any real sense of purpose other than it being a chance to really exercise our sketch writing and performing chops. The hope would be that in trying different things out we would be providing the audience with a variety of things they may laugh at. May laugh at. We were very quick to stipulate that.
As I mentioned; the first show went down incredibly well despite the four of us having never worked in this capacity before. The audience that assembled seemed to enjoy it enough to suggest they may like more. So we put on a second night. That was last week – you see how this all ties in? The show went well and I have to say, despite being biased, it was better than the first one. Whether that was because the standard of the second night was higher or that the first one was so low that even Lance Armstrong, while on one of his downers, could clear it; is unknown. But it was clear to see everyone – performers and audience alike – had enjoyed it. Plans are currently underway for a third night.
The show has proved to be a fantastic chance to experiment with what we all find funny and also the ways we can present that to audiences, and while it is nowhere near perfect, I do hope it offers enough variety and laughs to keep people coming back. As well as this it has been a great chance for the four of us to bond – not in a freak accident-type way. It has been like the ultimate work retreat without any need for circles of truth, orienteering exercises or catching people in a controlled environment. It’s still early days but things feel positive and the four of us are enjoying it so much that who knows; maybe one day we will hear the patter of more Jolly Mixture feet. I don’t know what that means.
I will, no doubt, carry on talking about the sketch night in this column as my pool of inspiration continues to dry, so look forward to that in the future. And so now I leave you, to finish breaking down this sandwich in my large intestine. But I digest.
Jolly Mixtures will return in… On Her Majesty’s Secret Sketch Show.
