Addicted to Danger!

100487 original

This show from Fringe first-timers Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon is probably on in the wrong time slot. It’s sketch comedy with a very dark edge and most of the late afternoon audience clearly don’t know what they’ve let themselves in for. Indeed, the performers have to keep jokily apologising: "sorry, we’ll start being cute again now."

This is part of their shtick, a mix of the kind of friendly, whimsical humour beloved of many an Oxbridge sketch troupe and the PC-skirting risk addiction associated with standups like Brendon Burns. One sketch sees a man walking into a computer shop complaining that his mini netbook has become really big – a gently amusing concept that soon takes a turn towards something edgier when it turns out that the computer has changed shape due to being over-filled with hardcore porn.

Straight man McNeil has a butter-wouldn’t-melt grin that helps this stuff to go down better than it might otherwise, while Pamphilon is a wilder presence, his dark suit, long hair and smooth yet unhinged persona bringing to mind the excellent Dutch absurdist Hans Teeuwen. Comedian Rachel Stubbings offers able support in some sketches, creating a nice foil to a duo whose ironic misogyny risks alienating some members of the audience.

Moments of metacomedy, such as when a guitar is whipped out for a "half-arsed deconstruction" of a comedy song, complete a show whose cleverness and genuine sense of risk should ensure this pair a later and higher-profile slot at next year’s Fringe.