‘A Sketchy Kind of Show’ Brings Video to the Stage and Puts the “Sketch” in Sketch Comedy
Taking the “sketch” in sketch comedy perhaps a little too literally, A Sketchy Kind of Show is a performance by Collected Novellas, who are self-described as focusing on “subversion, quirkiness and social commentary.” Unfortunately, I found the show itself a little lukewarm on all three counts.
The performance held potential with its interesting start—it begins with a framing device of God flipping through Netflix on the seventh day of rest to find something to watch, and settling on A Sketchy Kind of Show. This segment consists entirely of video footage on a screen. Intermittently throughout the remainder of the performance, video segments are played on the screen, allowing the performers (Victor Borges, Vernon-Elmo Paul, Cat Ratusny, Melissa Giacomini, Jarena Lee, Tim Welke, Alex McLarry) to discreetly change the sets or costumes for the in-person skits totally distinct from the videos. This device is both handy from a practical point of view, and hearkened to the Collected Novellas’ origins as a Zoom group during the pandemic.
After this video introduction, the first in-person, onstage sketch is about two long-distance truck drivers on a fourteen-hour drive together struggling to find things to talk about. No doubt this premise was intended to be a bit slow and monotone for comedic effect, but unfortunately it rather set the tone for most of the show. The hits were few and far between and things didn’t land more often than not. Performers seemed to aim for deadpan humour but the result tended to be just drab delivery.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given that the troupe got its start over video during the pandemic, these segments are some of the strongest moments, although even then the timing doesn’t always hit the right beats. Many of the skits have quite clever and fun premises, but they don’t deliver the punch. One video consists of a Zoom call between Satan and his manager, who was tasked with breaking the unfortunate news that Hell was going under (bought by Jeff Bezos, actually), because in the contemporary world, people find it quite appealing as a destination (no economy, stable climate, everyone is equal, etc.). Very relatable, this segment is one of their strongest and shows that they have the writing chops.
Other witty segments are a couple of video advertisements that get the (awkward, sales-y) timing right. One of them is an ad for a review service for robbers—is your customer service experience on point as a criminal? Notably, the advert ended with a bonus promotion to receive a book on how to become a white collar criminal, ending with, “a message from Doug Ford.” This was actually hilarious and an example of some of the more politically-charged moments, which were indeed funny when they appeared, but often weren’t as punchy as they could have been, and perhaps with this only exception they fell short of the promised bite. They seemed to be strongest when following the rather formulaic and “scripted” timing of a cheesy advertisement than running on their own beat.
As described, there is “nothing off limits!” in the show, and it felt a bit tame in comparison. However, on the other hand, I wouldn’t actually want anything to be off limits (for example, bigotry and cruelty), but perhaps that’s taking it too literally. In any case, the show has mostly quite clever writing, but seemed to be too off-time in-person, and to pull the punches a little too much (and it wasn’t punching down, thankfully, so it could have really landed the punch!).
‘A Sketchy Kind of Show’ played at Confederation Place Hotel in TK Fringe as part of the 2024 Kick & Push Festival. For more information, click here.
