Review by Steve Bennett

Initially, the thing that sets Minor Delays apart as a sketch trio is their unique performance style – always facing forward, never each other, even when they’re conversing. It’s like a split-screen movie effect.

But the main thing that sets them apart is that they are damn funny, with proper jokes, tightly packed.

Some skits are quick reveals, virtual one-liners in sketch form, but I’d be surprised if the longest broke two minutes. They don’t hang around much between scenes, either, a terse ‘ping’ of a hotel reception-style bell moves us forward quicker than any blackout, all adding to the sense of urgency.

Many sketches thrive on Middle English embarrassment and passive-aggressive communication, including the shame of taking compliments or the ingratiating grin of enforced tolerance – anything to adhere to social norms.

Silliness is their main tool, a scene involving a arithmetic test is pure brilliance, even before it slays with a killer punchline; the ‘therapy llama’ is a wonderful maguffin for a scene about sign language, and the smugly precocious seven-year-old school pupil is a delight.

There are some recurring scenarios, including this one, but they are always for a reason, to add to the gag, not just an excuse to do the same joke again. And the trio sometimes tip a toe into bleaker waters – witness the two old biddies sharing a lonely Christmas – or sometimes offer a flick of wider comment, such as the clueless student protester. They’ll mix it up if it means more laughs, and in a full-throttle hour, you could probably count the missteps on the fingers of one hand.

Of the performers, Harry Mitchell has something of a Marek Larwood vibe in being able to pull exaggerated faces for effects, while Abi Tedder calls to mind Katy Brand and Joe Barnes tends to play the nominal alpha characters. But together they are a tightly functioning unit, a lean, punchline machine

Minor Delays are facing forward to great things, and if they’ve not got their own radio series by this time next year, the system is broken.

Review date: 17 Aug 2015
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Gilded Balloon Teviot