Writers: Amy Spinks and Lauren Soley
The most important thing for sketch show performers to do is make it personal but also make it universal, mining their own lives for comedy content but finding those scenarios, frustrations and silly experiences that will resonate with most of their audience. Amy Spinks and Lauren Soley, a.k.a. comedy duo BAB, have done exactly that with their promising collection of sketches, BAB’s Big Show, performed at the Museum of Comedy. Running for 65 minutes with almost 30 individual skits focusing on death, ageing and the mundanity of everyday life, this fast-paced show has plenty of ideas and even greater energy.
Spinks and Soley first establish their separate comedy personas, exaggerated versions of themselves who pop up occasionally throughout BAB’s Big Show to give it shape and direction. Spinks has a recurring existential crisis about being 30 and the change of personality and lifestyle that brings, while Soley is plagued by thoughts of death. This hyper-real presentation of the performers is a classic tool usefully applied here to bring the audience along and link the otherwise unconnected sketch creations.
The sketches themselves are varied and cleverly managed, mixing single-character monologues with situational humour, surrealism and occasional audience interaction to create an eclectic comedy collection but one that has clear themes, drawing often on ordinary life and domestic experiences. A sleep meditation led by Alexa voiced by Soley creates a recognisable panic in Spinks’ character unable to nod off while the soothing tones induce panic about locked doors, her partner’s breathing and burning smells. Later there are skits devoted to an air fryer bore, ‘Talking Dirty in Your Thirties’ about housework and DIY as well as a great recurring sequence featuring ‘Your Mum’s News’ all about neighbours and other mundane gossip.
Most notably, BAB is a multimedia comedy show with several pre-recorded videos such as a tourist information film about Wolverhampton that uses archive footage of run-down city centre locations, fires and demolition to hilarious effect. Another more personal highlight is dedicated to their ‘Flaky Friends’, a photo reel of acquaintances not attending for various poorly-framed reasons – hugely enhanced by the surprised reaction of one of them in the audience. And BAB also sing, a glorious reimagining of Oasis’ Little by Little transformed into a cost-of-living anthem Living by Lidl, the highlight of the night.
Naturally with so much material, not all of the sketches land as well. Some go on too long without a punchline including a renegade lollipop lady which doesn’t quite earn its place in the line-up, or the piece about King Charles turning Buckingham Palace into a bachelor pad that isn’t subversive enough, while some of the surreal pieces including the Swan Lake scene or the fast-food enthusiast need a little more purpose.
But what BAB are particularly good at is characterisation, whether they are playing hazy Californian songstresses, shopping channel sellers carting a blowjob device, angels and police officers, newsreaders, squeaky Essex girls or Peaky Blinders cast members, their impersonations and talent for mimicry are impressive. There is a lot of imagination in BAB’s Big Show and if Spinks and Soley continue to produce work at this rate, BAB will soon be bigger than ever.
Reviewed on 28 July 2023
