Lazy Susan: Crazy Sexy Fool

A good barometer for sketch comedy acts is whether or not they can nail the seemingly obligatory 'film-noir parody skit' (you know, the ones where they do monologues in 1940s voices. Every damn time). Just on this evidence alone, Lazy Susan have an excellent show on their hands. 

The reason their version works is why Crazy Sexy Fool is so good in general; it's underpinned by both subtext and substance. Comedy duo Celeste Dring and Freya Parker present an hour that's well-acted, astutely written, and makes some of their peers look positively uninspired. It's a genre that has its obvious limits, in form and style, yet Dring and Parker still manage to take it to new, interesting places; it's not quite game-changing but it's certainly a breath of fresh comic air.

They're efficient in their use of costume, with sometimes as little as a hairband being enough to set the pace for a new character. Some of the personas are crudely drawn, but they find the joy at the heart of even the least sympathetic ones. They're not out to make victims of anyone, they're just particularly adept at bringing out the humanity in people. There's a recurrent narrative thread that glues it all together and helps it rise above loose, disjointed sketch shows. The payoff is incremental, and it all builds to a satisfying finale.

Subtle and OTT by turn, there's scarcely a note in the sketch comedy scale they don't hit. It's clear within the first five minutes that the investment in ticket price will pay dividends in laughs.