One of the pleasures of the fringe is checking in with standups as they first emerge, then break through, then revisit as household names. With sketch troupes: not so much. It feels like a long time since the likes of The League of Gentlemen springboarded from Edinburgh glory to TV fame. TV sketch shows are now skeletally thin on the ground. That’s part of the joke when fringe regulars Tarot take to the stage in their late-night slot, sending up their fidelity to sketch comedy (“not funny enough for standup, not boring enough for acting”) even while well into their 30s. “Sketch,” according to their new catchphrase, “will never die!”
Their latest show, Cautionary Tales, is another cracker for fans of the trio’s queasy, horror-infused comedy, which wastes nothing on scene-setting, far less set-dressing, but cuts straight to the oblique, disreputable – and always brilliantly performed – chase. Over and above the ironic apologia for sketch that frames the show, they’ve a terrific device at play this year, which is to ask an audience member to tally every single laugh they receive. As if first-performer-among-equals Ed Easton needed anything else to be highly strung about: he monitors the monitor skittishly for the rest of the show. It can’t be an easy job: by the time Easton appears on stage as the Creature from the Black Lagoon halfway through a preposterous sketch about a Dracula-themed tourist attraction (no spoilers, but his entrance ups the comic ante by some margin), the room is in hysterics. Whoever’s totting up the laughs, their clipboard must be on fire.
