Comedy review: Ed and Joz's Deleted Scenes, Heroes @ Dragonfly, Edinburgh
Ed and Joz's Deleted Scenes, Heroes @ Dragonfly, Edinburgh * * *
The leftfield comics have lately combined to film sketches. And here they walk and talk you through their cast-offs, those as-yet failed premises that slide on a scale from promising to needing an awful lot of work, remaining on the drawing board to be picked at random by the inquisitive audience. Bookending their show with extended renditions of Frank Sinatra and the promise of a political ventriloquism act, it's ironic showbusiness razzmatazz, dressing for a window into the creative minds of two committed idiots.
Ostensibly set up like a workshop, in which the audience are encouraged to chip in and the pair introduce a sketch with a comment on how it's failed on previous nights, there seems little development or desire to progress. As the duo trap each other in a door, offstage, one's reminded of Samuel Beckett's love of Laurel and Hardy. It's all so futile and yet they persist. The intimate confines of their room and the lack of structure fosters a rare, rather pleasant communal atmosphere.
Shambolic, sure. But appealingly so.
Until 25 August