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Material: Delivery: Laughs: Room:

The Scribbling Ape are attempting a world record. In fact they’ve smashed it on both levels, for it really is a fantastic feast of top quality sketchsmithery. The original Apes, Troy Hewitt & Ziggy Ross, have completed their comedy quartet with Libby Rodliffe and Talullah Bond; all young, all stylish, & all damn on it! Clad in matching uniforms of black t-shirts & jeans – with one leg a fetching blue tartan – they take us upon a ride of epic proportions. I was worried before I went to the Caves; wondering if such an intense barrage of humour would do my nut in, but I came through it all most unscathed & extremely happy for supping – well downing in one really – such a positive libation to Thalia herself.

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With a smattering of accents & props, our performers shuffle about like poker hands, varying in combinations. Each Ape is as polished as the other – there is lack of individuality perhaps, but a manifestly symbiotic organism that was completely on point. Of the 101 sketches in 50 minutes that their record entails, I recall laughing heartily at the Tintinitus gag (with a leg-shagging Snowy), the vegan grime, the sex haiku & Dizzy Rascal in a washing machine. But there are more, 97 more, with only a wee whiff of theme repetition.

One of the things we have found difficult in the past is keeping our sketches short. It was important that we maintained a balance between quality and brevity, and we think we’ve achieved that Ziggy Ross (read the full interview)

There was a smidge of a sag for me personally about two thirds through, like when I have to leave the room after watching too many of my daughters’ vines – but a second wind soon came which led like a train to an artistic & gorgeous finale. This is extremely sophisticated comedy from a perfectly yin-yanged troupe – they ooze harmony – & it would be interesting to see them try something meatier, for they have the potential to be a Comic Strip for the 2020s.

Damian Beeson Bullen