Revan and Fennell: Fan Club

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The constituent members of Revan and Fennell (Rosie and Alice, respectively) have created a show that manages to exceed the somewhat simplistic ideas on which it's built. They're talented enough as comedians that the delivery of the lines makes up for some of the lines themselves. 

The award-winning sketch comedy duo are hardly a rare commodity in terms of format at the Fringe (a fact they acknowledge themselves early on) so as any outfit does, they fight to distinguish themselves from the pack. They pull this off for the most part, fashioning for themselves a disctinctive brand of low-fi chalk and cheese character comedy. Here the emphasis is on how the two play off one another, eschewing the straight-woman-funny-woman routine for a competition to see who can out-weird the other. 

The skits are surprisingly consistent given the inherent hit-and-miss nature of the genre, and their dedicated acting usually sells the weaker segments anyway. It's fair to say they're better performers than they are writers; on the occasions that the sketches don't work it's generally because they haven't been developed enough beyond their initial premise.

Despite a few too many 'Brent-isms' (the now infamous art of doing a Ricky Gervais impression when portraying a cringe moment, regardless of ironic filter) the eponymous pair have a great knack for socially-conscious character comedy, including a fantastic Brexit skit. It feels underwritten a lot of the time, but it remains a playful and fun hour.