Here’s another review of our double bill show with the Scarlet Lights in Hull.
Hull’s Edinburgh Heroes: Double Bill
This show contrasted the routinely overstated Scarlet Lights against the routinely understated Ladma; though somehow this worked as evidenced with the show’s finale when all performers shared the stage with a rousing Chicagoesque number.
First up were Ladma, whose calmly confident delivery and squabbling had the majority of the audience in creases. The new Ladma logo and fourth member of the group material sailed very close to the wind though went down well. Ladma routinely addressed pretty much all of the taboos with a set that appealed mostly to the teenagers in the audience, and much less so to those easily offended; the content too strong for one audience member to stomach as they left halfway through.
Despite an array of deranged characters, the live comedy outshone the videos and it is in parodying themselves that could give Ladma future.
Scarlet Light’s Edinburgh show was a no-holds barred story of modern relationships, female insecurity and male indifference. The polished performance was applauded by the many Scarlet Lights fans in the audience and at times shocking for the newcomers to this group.
It seems clear that first and foremost Scarlet Lights are group of actresses, rather than comedians and although their principle characters do play to Hull-lass stereotypes, the energy and timing leads the audience to laugh when they are meant to.
The show’s finale steals the show as we see a new bride self destruct through the medium of a track borrowed from Grease 2 - the perfect closer to compliment the opening orgasmic scene.
In summary, this double bill wasn’t for the fainted hearted, wasn’t ground breaking, but it was pretty darn funny.
Reviewed by Hull Comedy
I’d like to say Hull was the first time someone walked out of our show, but sadly it’s not. A few people did walk out of the show in Edinburgh only to return a couple of minutes later having been to the toilet. Everyone else had the foresight to go to the toilet before the show. Anyway, I later learned that the woman who walked out of the show in Hull was actually a clairvoyant. It makes you wonder why she spent £6 on a ticket when she knew the show was going to be shit? Or maybe she just needed to go to the toilet? Either way she should've seen it coming.
Dan
Monday, 3 November 2008
Saturday, 1 November 2008
Having a Hull of a Time
We’ve just returned from our second Hull Comedy Festival and, like last year, we thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks very much to everyone who came to the show and thanks very much to the wonderful Scarlet Lights who we performed with. They did all the leg work up in Hull and without them there wouldn’t have been a show. Big shout out also to festival director John Gilbert who helped organise our show and got us the venue for free.
It was nice to perform Ladma vs The World for the last time. It’s been great fun doing the show in Brighton, Manchester, Edinburgh and Hull but now we’re looking forward to writing new material and developing new projects. I think we’ve performed the show something like 30 times (not to mention the countless rehearsals!) so the material was becoming a bit stale and it was hard to keep the performance fresh. Anyway, we’ll leave the final words on the show to a review from Chortle, the King Dong of comedy websites. We were initially a bit disappointed with the review (particularly the criticism of some of the films) but, considering Steve Bennett sees loads of professional comics, it’s not bad for our first year of performing live. We can also use the quote “inappropriately hilarious”. I think at least half of that is true.
Dan
Show: Hull’s Edinburgh Heroes
Part of the second Hull Comedy Festival, this double bill gave friends and family the chance to see what local performers got up to during the Edinburgh Fringe – and offers the sketch teams themselves at least some exposure outside the festival hothouse.
Ladma are a confident all-male trio, introducing short films they’ve made for the internet with some traditional stage banter; while Scarlet Lights are a loud five-women troupe for whom the adjective ‘brassy’ could almost have been coined.
The gents went first, in matching black shirts and colour-coded ties: Chris, the obligatory team leader imposing his scant authority on his underlings; Dan, the dumb-but-jolly one; and Pete, the cheeky, eager, woefully naïve foil. If you’ve seen Pappy’s Fun Club, there are shades of the same characters here.
Like many such groups, their interaction is inescapably artificial, but it can lead to some good gags, especially when they flirt, faux-innocently, with hideous bad taste. Their opening skit, introducing some hilariously inappropriate new branding, is especially fine. They can’t maintain the quality, but as live performers, they’re likeable lads with some promise.
They are accomplished film-makers, too, and the bulk of their show comprises screenings of their professional-looking output. However, the content is shakier – taking easy, familiar subjects and doing little with them.
A spoof educational film introducing Southerners to their mysterious Northern cousins is clichéd and slow, only really garnering a laugh with a subtly-executed gag about needing translators. It feels like something Harry Enfield would have done a decade ago, only much better.
The mockumentary about internet porn, on the on the other hand, feels like a reject from People Like Us, complete with droll Chris Langham-style commentary. But the subject is too obvious with the supposed jokes coming simply from mentioning X-rated material.
Their Pet Hates short is much better; parodying the genre of ‘taking heads’ list programmes, it allows for a brisk list of observational one-liners which is hit-and-miss, but pacy and with a fair smattering of unexpected laughs.
All the films are well-shot and expertly edited; the Ladmas just need to bring their writing skills up to match their directorial ones.
Scarlet Lights storm on to the stage in an explosion of noise and energy, and don’t let up for an hour, from the opening fake orgasm scene that makes When Harry Met Sally look demure to the gruesome prison musical number at the end.
But a bit of light and shade wouldn’t go amiss: the relentless high volume, aggressive delivery and extravagant overacting does become wearing. To a woman, they all bring a forceful physicality to the stage, which can be impressive, but often it’s papering over some very ordinary writing.
Unlike some all-girl groups, who aim to be deliberately asexual, Scarlet Lights ensure that all their sketches are about being female. The result can be mixed – banging on, even tongue-in-cheek, about their vaginas is as cheap as blokes obsessed with their knobs, but they are also very good at capturing the insecurities and bitchiness some women fall victim to..
Their better sketches step back a bit from the brashness, and nudge towards the realisitic: the drunk girl slagging off her ‘friends’ around the table or the singleton fretting after receiving an unexpected text from an ex. This partisan audience do go for the bigger performances, but the team might be best to remember the adage that sometimes less is more.
Reviewed by Steve Bennett, Chortle
It was nice to perform Ladma vs The World for the last time. It’s been great fun doing the show in Brighton, Manchester, Edinburgh and Hull but now we’re looking forward to writing new material and developing new projects. I think we’ve performed the show something like 30 times (not to mention the countless rehearsals!) so the material was becoming a bit stale and it was hard to keep the performance fresh. Anyway, we’ll leave the final words on the show to a review from Chortle, the King Dong of comedy websites. We were initially a bit disappointed with the review (particularly the criticism of some of the films) but, considering Steve Bennett sees loads of professional comics, it’s not bad for our first year of performing live. We can also use the quote “inappropriately hilarious”. I think at least half of that is true.
Dan
Show: Hull’s Edinburgh Heroes
Part of the second Hull Comedy Festival, this double bill gave friends and family the chance to see what local performers got up to during the Edinburgh Fringe – and offers the sketch teams themselves at least some exposure outside the festival hothouse.
Ladma are a confident all-male trio, introducing short films they’ve made for the internet with some traditional stage banter; while Scarlet Lights are a loud five-women troupe for whom the adjective ‘brassy’ could almost have been coined.
The gents went first, in matching black shirts and colour-coded ties: Chris, the obligatory team leader imposing his scant authority on his underlings; Dan, the dumb-but-jolly one; and Pete, the cheeky, eager, woefully naïve foil. If you’ve seen Pappy’s Fun Club, there are shades of the same characters here.
Like many such groups, their interaction is inescapably artificial, but it can lead to some good gags, especially when they flirt, faux-innocently, with hideous bad taste. Their opening skit, introducing some hilariously inappropriate new branding, is especially fine. They can’t maintain the quality, but as live performers, they’re likeable lads with some promise.
They are accomplished film-makers, too, and the bulk of their show comprises screenings of their professional-looking output. However, the content is shakier – taking easy, familiar subjects and doing little with them.
A spoof educational film introducing Southerners to their mysterious Northern cousins is clichéd and slow, only really garnering a laugh with a subtly-executed gag about needing translators. It feels like something Harry Enfield would have done a decade ago, only much better.
The mockumentary about internet porn, on the on the other hand, feels like a reject from People Like Us, complete with droll Chris Langham-style commentary. But the subject is too obvious with the supposed jokes coming simply from mentioning X-rated material.
Their Pet Hates short is much better; parodying the genre of ‘taking heads’ list programmes, it allows for a brisk list of observational one-liners which is hit-and-miss, but pacy and with a fair smattering of unexpected laughs.
All the films are well-shot and expertly edited; the Ladmas just need to bring their writing skills up to match their directorial ones.
Scarlet Lights storm on to the stage in an explosion of noise and energy, and don’t let up for an hour, from the opening fake orgasm scene that makes When Harry Met Sally look demure to the gruesome prison musical number at the end.
But a bit of light and shade wouldn’t go amiss: the relentless high volume, aggressive delivery and extravagant overacting does become wearing. To a woman, they all bring a forceful physicality to the stage, which can be impressive, but often it’s papering over some very ordinary writing.
Unlike some all-girl groups, who aim to be deliberately asexual, Scarlet Lights ensure that all their sketches are about being female. The result can be mixed – banging on, even tongue-in-cheek, about their vaginas is as cheap as blokes obsessed with their knobs, but they are also very good at capturing the insecurities and bitchiness some women fall victim to..
Their better sketches step back a bit from the brashness, and nudge towards the realisitic: the drunk girl slagging off her ‘friends’ around the table or the singleton fretting after receiving an unexpected text from an ex. This partisan audience do go for the bigger performances, but the team might be best to remember the adage that sometimes less is more.
Reviewed by Steve Bennett, Chortle
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