REVIEW: Strange Bedfellows

What is satire, really? Strange Bedfellows, a sketch show starring duo Sam Knights and Jack Needham, sets out to answer just that.

Although various theories are purported throughout the show, from some kind of weird goat-creature to a mockery of the news, as with any voyage of discovery, the joy was in the journey.

The sketch show was true to its title, and the drama between the two comedians was as integral to the show as the satirical sketches that they had made together. This was refreshing to see, as so many sketch comics seem to completely forget that they had decided to give their show a theme by about the twenty minute mark. Indeed, this show finished as neatly as it had begun, with a small exposition of their relationship, and it stayed committed to its digressions through the newspaper throughout.

And those digressions were funny. A look inside the Sun’s offices was ingenious, as was a sketch about Isaac Newton’s “invention” of gravity. Some of the sketches did suffer however, from an attempt to wrap them up too cleanly. In particular, the ending to a couple of sketches felt a bit forced, with puns or ideas that didn’t mesh well enough with the rest of the sketch, although these were firmly in the minority.

High praise indeed

Sam Knights was sublime, with his stage presence, acting, and variety of accents, in particular a Scottish biology teacher, simply exuding funny. Jack Needham acted as a perfect counterpart, the straight man responding to Sam’s quirky antics. Credit must also go to whoever was in the tech box, because the PowerPoint, lighting and music were executed perfectly, which can be no easy task.

Should you go see the show? Yes. If only for one of the funniest sketches I’ve seen all year, in which a pocket call becomes incredibly deep. Be careful if you’re not a social butterfly though; I hear they try to interact with people in the front row.

4/5 stars