Last Friday went to see a live sketch show thing called The Works. I had a sketch in it, so by-way-of-payment, I got to get in free. It’s the second event there’s been – I had a sketch in the first show but it got cut for time.
The performers were – hang on, I’ve got to look this up – David Armand, who many years ago was in some sketches of mine in Swinging, Isabel Fay, who co-organised the event with him, Matt Baynton, Katherine Jakeways, Renton Skinner (who has a knack of stealing every sketch, he’s exceptional and will go far, though you wouldn’t know it from his appearances on Shooting Stars), Isy Suttie and Rosalyn Wright.
My sketch went down okay. It got laughs. The performers had rewritten it quite a bit, which on the one hand I’m entirely okay with – they’re the ones who have to stand up on stage, after all, and I’m all for actors loosening up and naturalizing my dialogue – but on the other hand, I would’ve preferred it to have been left as written, because I am an egomaniac.
It wasn’t the funniest thing I’ve ever written, I don’t think it was the funniest thing I even submitted to the show (but in my experience, what the writer thinks is their funniest thing and what the producer thinks is their funniest thing very rarely coincide) and it was by no means the funniest sketch in the show – the standard was very high, far too high for my liking, terrific writing, excellent performances, and even the ‘mis-fires’ were still more original and interesting than a lot of stuff that gets through to radio and TV.
Richard Herrings also reviewed the show on his blog. I agree with him about the TV types in the audience.
