Tab guide to the Fringe: Sketch shows

Guy balancing ladder on chin not included

| UPDATED ADC theatre cambridge Cambridge cambridge footlights Edinburgh Fringe student theatre Students University of Cambridge

The academic year might have long ended but Cambridge funny people won’t settle for a cosy internship or holiday on the Med. With over thirty shows heading to the Fringe, the Tab gives you the guide of what not to miss should you be north of the border this August.

The Cambridge Footlights International Tour Show 2016: Lagoon

Time: 18:55

Dates: Wed 3rd August – Mon 29th August (excluding Mon 15th and Mon 22nd August)

Venue: Assembly Roxy Central

*note- most of the show on shore

The Cambridge Footlights International Tour Show is their biggest show of the year. Join the most renowned sketch troupe of them all as they hit Edinburgh on on their worldwide tour. Don’t miss your chance to see the latest on offer from the group that launched many of the greatest names in comedy, including Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie,  and Mitchell and Webb.

Missed the May week run? be sure not to miss this Fringe highlight

Switch: A Sketch Show

Time: 14:55
Venue: Underbelly’s Buttercup venue in Underbelly Med Quad
Dates: Previews – 3rd-5th August, Performances 6th-14th and 16th-29th August

In Switch, every sketch starts in the same position as the previous one ended. Hospitals turn into nurseries and parliament turns into an aerobics class. Performers may switch places, props may switch hands, but the flow of bodily geography will continue – uninterrupted. So go along to Underbelly Med Quad this August to see a show written and performed by current members of the Cambridge Footlights and  you won’t be disappointed.

Mavericks: A Sketch Show (Of Sorts)

Time: 21:30

Dates: 5th – 27th August (excluding Sundays)

Venue: theSpace @ Jury’s Inn Studio

50 mins of surreal comedy from Footlights Ruby Keane (1994 – ?) and Luisa Callander (? – 2016). A reviewer recently commented that ‘surreal is taken to new heights’, so we can only assume we’ve broken the world record of 6 meters. Please note that coming to see ‘Mavericks’ is an excellent way to pay off any friendship debt.

Guaranteed* to squeeze a laugh from your diaphragm. (*Likely)

Babushka

Time: 12:20

Dates: 4th – 28th (not 15th)

Venue: Just the Tonic at the Mash House

Putin approved

Babushka is a fast paced sketch show brought to you by some of the Cambridge Footlights. The premise of each sketch will be nestled inside the previous sketch, just like Russian dolls. Prepare for an hour of sketches, inside sketches, inside sketches.

★★★★★ ‘All hits, no misses: the litany of wit that was Babushka.’- The Tab

23, Please: The Sketch Show That Never Was

Time: 20:30

Dates: 3-29 August

Venue:C Nova

The number 23 has always been an elusive one. It’s prime. It’s not quite the number of hours in a day, but for most undergraduates, it’s just past the age of graduation. Set in a student’s bedroom, the show comprises a whirlwind tour of things that you might remember fondly, such as those empty dominoes boxes you never got around to throwing out or that empty plastic bottle of vodka from that night you ended up face down in that park.

Settle back and enjoy the ride as 23 Please! teaches you to look at the everyday as you never have before!

Walnut Sanchez and the Macaroni Saga 

Time: 15:55

Dates: 4-28 August

Venue: Just the Fancy Room @ Just the Tonic Caves

Haunted by past encounters with the drug baron Walnut Sanchez, Detective James Macaroni returns to the force to investigate a spate of missing persons. But as the witnesses pile up, it seems all is not as it seems. Or so it seems… Sanchez is always one step ahead. Slowly, Macaroni meanders to redemption, but not before meeting a whole host of offbeat characters including a couple of country club toffs; a mad old lady hellbent on wasting police time and a charity worker with the unfortunate voice of an evil genius.

“I’m sure you make a mean minestrone. And by mean, I mean average.”

Farewell Tim

Time: 23:00

Dates: 8th-22nd   August

Venue: Pleasance This.

What is it that makes Tim so different from you and I? Apart from being dead, nothing really. And apart from having his life celebrated in an hour of sketches? Whatever, we’ve all been there. What made Tim tick? Did he even tick? Did he have a tick? All these questions will be answered by Cambridge comedy duo The Good News in their new fast-paced narrative sketch show, Farewell Tim.

Done to death with work? Tired of the internship your parents tell you is vital to your future survival? Resembling a scorched tomato in CambodiYA? Stop what you’re doing and head north this August to see Cambridge’s finest thesps and comedians do their thing.