Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Just These Please are an outrageously talented sketch group who bear comparison to a chamber quartet; they support each other, have enchanting solo moments and work terrifically as an ensemble.  

Even if you think you can’t stick sketch, these are worth your time for their crisp writing and polished execution. It’s slick without smuggery – even their scene change music contributes by underscoring the preceding sketch without labouring the point.

They have inserted some Edinburgh-specific points. The opening Lothian Bus Drivers’ song is a good bum settler, and this audience needed it – they were already punching the air and bellowing along to the walk-in music; God knows what they thought they were coming to. 

The sketches are a mix of surreal scenarios of inanimate objects voicing their rivalries, hopes and dreams, or cows in a field taking a view on their methane problem. I particularly liked the Irish cow and the Essex-based Aberdeen Angus bull, who reappears later in a china shop. It seems obvious when you think about it, but it took these particular talents to express it. 

They examine the etiquette of football fan behaviour, learned oafishness and the proper intonation of the terrace chant, take a swipe at Yorkshire pride and deliver some wicked vignettes of neolithic man and entrepreneurship.  

Some over-sensitive types might think there’s a bit of punching down going on, but this broad strokes comedy, not a character-based political drama. It’s a hoot. 

The show clips along and there are some startling original ideas – the Statue Of The Year awards a particularly rich area. The only faltering step was a police procedural parody, a scenario that’s been so done to death I’m surprised it made the final cut. But it’s a minor gripe in a fast-paced hour.  

Tom Dickson has the crumpled and bemused look of a born clown, and makes a wonderful dog, Will Sebag Montefiore seems to be the backbone and driver of several scenes, Georgie Jones brings a surprising pathos to one dickish male character and unusually combines grace and humour, and Philippa Carson just lights up the stage every time she appears; you cannot take your eyes off her, whether she’s being a demented bowling ball or the Statue of Liberty. I want to see her in straight drama sometime, she has the energy and luminosity to hold the stage or screen by herself.

It’s a smart show, the third I’ve seen from them, and they continue to be massively entertaining.

• Just These Please: Honestly No Pressure Either Way is on at Gilded Balloon Teviot at 7pm

Review date: 26 Aug 2022
Reviewed by: Julia Chamberlain
Reviewed at: Gilded Balloon Teviot