Brazen Hodgepodge: A Sketch Comedy Show – Canal Café Theatre, Paddington

Reviewer: Christine Stanton

Writers: Sam Gibbons, Dylan Allcock, Sebastian Senior, Liv Hackland, Dan Thorn, Jamie Myles & Eden Tredwell 

Director: Dylan Allcock

“Short, Snappy Sketches”

3 / 5

‘Brazen Hodgepodge: A Sketch Comedy Show’ is an hour of silly sketches and bizarre bits by a group of 5 comedians and performers. Each sketch is short, snappy and to the point, often only 30-45 seconds in length before they briefly depart the stage before coming back to begin the next scene.

The briefness of each scene is what sets Brazen Hodgepodge apart from other sketch comedy groups. While sketch comedy often has an ongoing theme or multiple recurring punchlines, most of the sketches in this show are standalone, unique and fast-paced, quickly jumping from a view into Boris Johnson’s home-life to a song about HP sauce. Although there are some recurring jokes within the sketches (such as the hard 5pm finish), they are still packaged differently enough to remain fresh and funny for the audience.

Another great technique that the team uses is filling the ‘off-stage’ time with some additional brilliant comedic moments from the onstage musical director and radio DJ – Jamie Myles. Rather than having the generic stop-start / on-off stage emptiness when the characters finish each scene, the audience are instead treated to a series of ridiculous commercials, silly songs and obscure outbursts from Myles. These additional bits keep the audience engaged and the comedy flowing, allowing the atmosphere to remain at it’s peak throughout the whole 50 minute show.

Some sketches could benefit from being a bit more original – there are a few that have been done before with a little more polish – the millennial news report and the bill being split at a restaurant being two that come to mind. However, although not completely unique, the sketches are so fleeting that it’s forgivable to throw in a few easy, familiar laughs for the audience. The group of five are a likeable bunch of performers, each with a similar style of humour, but with their own individual delivery that combine and work well together.

Brazen Hodgepodge is the epitome of social media style sketch comedy. Quick, entertaining, engaging and easy to understand – these succinct sketches have been collected together and performed on stage, but would equally work just as well as standalone videos on TikTok/Instagram.

Runs Until 17 September 2023