Jiggle & Hyde Present: Sketchy Mother Pluckers

There are some curious venues at this year's Fringe—a shed, a truck, a hairdressing salon—but few odder experiences than awaiting a show at Jury’s Inn. Unsuspecting ticket holders find themselves lurking on a stairwell outside a toilet between two upper floors of the hotel, often in eerie silence, as is the British way. Which possibly isn’t the sort of audience warmup Jiggle & Hyde would prefer.

Then again, they’re better equipped than most to magic up some energy. This youthful duo—aka Jen Wakefield and Vicki Sargent—are making their Fringe debut with Sketchy Mother Pluckers, and bringing fresh attitude to the comedy section. They’re actually billed as ‘comedy/dance’, which sounds about right, as there are some fierce moves and beats between the sketches. Sadly the subsequent material frequently lets them down.

In a sense, this is quite a classic comedy pairing, the type where you wonder how they ever met. Sargent is a regular middle-class aspiring actor; Wakefield a streetdance blogger and Vibe FM host. That tension seems ripe with comic potential.    

As the title suggests, though, the show is seriously sketchy, particularly when they veer away from fresher subject matter. There’s a recurring pastiche of Supernanny, a show that stopped being newsworthy years ago, and one bizarre bit about a horrible Northern date that is just that: horrible.

Jiggle & Hyde have a decent half hour of material, and with stronger writing you could imagine a supposedly youth-oriented channel like BBC Three taking a punt on some authentic beats and bants. Or would the Beeb cramp their style?