Comedy review: The Broken Windows Policy

If you want tips on how to pay gambling debts, Kenny Rogers might not be the best man to seek advice from.

Picture: Toby Williams

The Broken Windows Policy

The Stand, Edinburgh

* * *

At least, not the white-bearded country star who has turned up to perform a duet with Dogsh*t Johnson at the climax of tonight’s revamped Broken Windows Policy show. The trio has now become a quartet and the night is split between one half of sketches and stand-up bits in its second section.

There’s a raw clunkiness to some of the sketches, which suggests the new team needs some bedding-in time.A more effective strategy to make the sketches flow into one another should be dreamed up quickly. Momentum is all-too often lost as the audience is left staring at an empty stage awaiting something else to happen.

New member Wayne Mazadza is still finding his feet as a sketch player, but when he flies solo for his stand-up, he is far more at home. Delicious segments about being equally ill at ease with the elderly as he is with toddlers hits the target.

The sketches have plenty of promise, with an enjoyable recurring routine about the various uses of Hogwarts Sorting Hat, while the strange afflictions scene is inventive and the polygraph test bit platforms some sharp timing. Despite the rough edges being a little too prominent, there’s enough here to suggest that the group’s panto-esque show in December might be a seasonal delight.