Review: ‘Bubble Bath’ – Awash with Humour

The St Andrews Revue, Blind Mirth and Comedy Soc walk into a bar… Other than sounding like the start to a good joke, it’s also a perfect description of Bubble Bath, a side-splittingly funny comedy panel show never on the right side of political correctness. With rounds shamelessly ripped from Mock the Week and Nevermind the Buzzcocks, and St Andrean in-jokes littered throughout, the six contestants and host all competed for laughs; and all won.

The contestants moved from round to round, ostensibly being asked questions and taking every opportunity to deliver the next one-liner. Nothing new there. But the comedians never let this strait-jacket them; they took this wearied, formulaic structure and used it to its full, even reinvigorated it. After the third almost-identical round of “make a funny quip about this picture”, the audience barely noticed any more that the show was supposed to be a quiz. Everything was too funny.

And that was the show’s real charm. Almost every joke hit the mark, generating huge laughs and non-stop torrents of clapping. The comic timing was astonishing. Guest appearances from Freddie Fforde, Rory McLion and… random naked guy (it’s best not to ask) helped make the whole night unforgettable.

However, Amanda Litherland took a while to warm up. For much of the show, she was merely laughed at – but when she started making jokes too, she shone, reminding everyone of her considerable comedic talent and experience. Matt Gibson also tended to fade into the background. For Baxter Gaston and Calum Hawley, the opposite was true; the former’s aggressive comedy style often made him visibly irritated with the other contestants, and the latter’s intensity was sometimes just… too much. The host, Leon O’Rourke, would have been even better if he hadn’t spent most of the show hidden behind his computer. None of these performers could be called bad; it is just difficult to compare them to Matthew Knapp and Olly Lennard, who mixed nerdy charm with outrageous wit to ultimately steal the show. The audience in particular fell in love with Knapp, although how he managed to make jokes about his sex dungeon endearing is anyone’s guess.

Bubble Bath was not high-brow comedy. Rude, bawdy, at times teetering on offensive, it presented more penis jokes than one would think possible in only two hours. Gibson was mocked for being Chinese, O’Rourke for being short. Nobody could decide whether Litherland was more laughable because she was a woman or because she was a sabbatical (– whoever they are, anyway). And if you find rape jokes a definite faux pas, be glad you missed this. But the edginess of the comedy was in many ways part of the show’s charm.

Comedy Soc, the St Andrews Revue and Blind Mirth all acquitted themselves brilliantly in Bubble Bath, and here’s hoping future collaboration between the groups will lead to further successes. A new gold standard of student comedy has been set, one which will be hard for any single person or group to meet.

If you saw ‘Bubble Bath’ and have anything to say about it, please drop us a comment below.