Creators: Joe Harrington and Eric Greenbaum
While Joe Harrington and Eric Greenbaum are respectively based in New York and Chicago, their sketch show opens up somewhere closer to Texas as they enter the stage as cowboys from Edinburgh interested in agriculture and castles. It’s only as they don the mirror adorned cowboy hats at the front of the stage that they transform into something else. The something else initially resembles something from a High-NRG nightclub in the 80s, and then more worryingly becomes a fire and brimstone style church as the voice of God fills the hall the next time they put them on.
It’s a strong opener to a set that draws on Chicago style sketch comedy, with shades of the absurd humour that Reeves and Mortimer specialised in when they first broke into the mainstream.
Over an hour the two breeze through a series of sketches that use catchphrases and repetition to ramp up the surreal nature of their creations. At its best, it’s wonderfully silly, with each minor variation adding to the comedy. The Cops who kick down doors approach ever more elaborate sets of doors with the same approach resulting in different outcomes, while two cowboys who promise to see each other in hell continually try and fail to kill each other, are great examples of this. A word association interview is another highlight, as the obvious and logical answers are used to build up the sketch before the random and ridiculous take their place when you least expect it.
Harrington and Greenbaum have great comic timing and clearly enjoy working as a double act, occasionally catching each other off guard with an unexpected line or gesture that threatens to distract their co-performer before they run with it and incorporate it while also trying to get their own back.
Occasionally the sketches fail to land, or even take off in the case of a recurring sketch about a political campaigner and kissing babies, and sometimes the punchlines are an anti-climax compared to the set up, but when that does happen it’s never too long before another, more successful sketch takes its place.
The material translates well from its Chicago roots to its temporary home in Edinburgh and is a great way to round off the evening at the Fringe.
Runs until August 24 (not 18th) | Image: Contributed
Laughing Cowboys
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