It’s pin-sharp comedy from hit radio duo
The Pin: Backstage (Pleasance Courtyard) Experimental and clever
WhAT a comforting and convenient – although possibly slightly wearing – security blanket it must be to know that any promotional blurb for your latest show will always contain the caveat ‘the next Mitchell & Webb’.
A critic once saw fit to knight The Pin with this description and it will inevitably drag in any swithering passersby at the Fringe looking for a quick comedy fix.
Not that the pair are short of fans, with David Walliams and Ben Stiller two of the most notable admirers of their award-winning sketch shows for BBC Radio 4.
Which brings us to Backstage. Or, rather, brings us backstage. Which is where most of the trademark, meta-comedy hoopla is being played out.
Former Footlights alumni Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen flip between backstage and onstage as two warm-up performers.
Equal parts reconstruction and deconstruction of a series of skits they are working on in rehearsals behind the curtain, (albeit popping back out front from time to time, with the distinction between the two blurring), it makes for an inventive hour.
‘harmless mix-ups’ are at the root of the show’s opening gambits – from a misspelt ad for a roof weeder that draws a proofreader with a grim backstory, to why Alex spent £30,000 on a whistling course.
While backstage, various attempts to perfect the most incredible twist of all time in a sketch are proving a little bit difficult to get down pat (it’s all in the emphasis), a sideline in Scandi Noir proves challenging, and the reason why a high Court Judge is living in the theatre’s broom cupboard is never fully explained.
Interwoven into all this is the duo’s interaction with the main act (who look uncannily similar). Through a series of misfortunes, including a perfect bit of slapstick, this leads to some boundaryblurring showbiz sabotage – and really bad hypnotism – that could prove their shot at the big time. Experimental without being too surreal, the pair’s chemistry never wavers. Ben is the slightly bossier of the two; Alex more hapless. What The Pin deliver, whether picking and unpicking at lines, set-ups, denouements, or each other, is some well-honed, wellthought-out, very funny and very clever comedy. Not unlike Mitchell and Webb, really.
Pleasance Courtyard, until Aug 27