New York sketch group Simple Town have made their Edinburgh Fringe debut at the Pleasance Courtyard, bringing a brand of comedy that could revitalise the form. The foursome, described as 'four teens in their 30s', deliver sketches with the energy of improv and a freewheeling logic that keeps audiences laughing without always knowing why.
Their first sketch transports viewers back in time to a NASA scene where a woman is recruited because 'she can do multiplication in her head!'. The sketch evolves through several movements, with comic points constantly shifting. Another memorable skit pairs two cagoule-clad spare thumbs left alone at a partners' reunion, creating a dotty choreography of social awkwardness extrapolated to absurdity.
A firing squad sketch serves as a brilliant riff on polarised America, while also being Pythonesque nonsense about dopey executioners. Simpler routines include a solipsistic inner monologue of an audience member whose suggestion is accepted for an improv scene, and a closer that burlesques middle-class American reverence for old Europe, morphing into a four Yorkshiremen-style race to the bottom of US education.
Performed with artless slacker panache by Will Niedmann, Caroline Yost, Felipe Di Poi Tamargo, and Sam Lanier, Simple Town's debut is a welcome reminder of how exciting team comedy can still be.
