Review by Alex Mason

In a change from our usual programming, this is a female-led sketch group where the token is the guy. The first thing that strikes you about the troupe is their nondescriptness. They're medium-energy, medium-brow, and medium-paced. They don't look anything special at a glance, but there's innovation here and some very funny sketches.

Parodies abound,, and often constitute the strongest sketches. Particular highlights are a fantastic Glasgow Olympic bid, which should have really been the finale, an advert about a bank business loan gone wrong, and a HBO show based on the lives of crime-fighting duo Beethoven and Bach.

There's no running theme, but there's great variety in tone and style. They've even cracked the single person sketch format with a hilarious parody of a psychic involving board game puns, and a twist-in-the-tale monologue of a woman with a parking fine.

The prop work is always stellar, and a clever sketch parodying ritualism with the 'dark arts and crafts' suddenly makes a lot of sense when you see the lengths they go to, especially considering the evidently Blue Peter sized budget.

One baffling feature is a sketch will often start off with what looks like a singular character padding out a few minutes with a talking heads snorefest before ludicrous characters jump out of nowhere – for example, dressed as scuba divers while singing the Macarena.

The writing is skillful. Witticisms come as standard and a punderstorm rained down over whole sketches, with each successive one upping the ante and reducing some of the audience to tears.

And while no sketches fully missed the mark, the recurring routine about inappropriate dictionary definitions was second rate slapstick at best, and felt beneath everyone involved.

There's weak acting in some performances, and the troupe occasionally slip into uni sketch territory – especially with making one character perform a series of 'hilarious' challenges in only ten seconds. But these slips are more than made up for with the clever premises, sensational wordplay, and raft of first rate sketches.

Review date: 11 Aug 2012
Reviewed by: Alex Mason
Reviewed at: Underbelly Cowgate