The Real MacGuffins: Skitsophrenic

Grown men with a penchant for dressing up and making you laugh

★★★★
comedy review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
Published 24 Aug 2011
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It is not easy for an act to wow an audience when their venue resembles a glorified shipping container with less ventilation than a collapsed Chilean mine, but The Real Macguffins somehow manage and manage well. Unfazed by the sweat pouring from their bodies, the London-based sketch group throw all of their energy into an array of well-crafted, hysterically funny skits.

Dan March, Jim Millard and Matt Sheahan are an experienced comic trio who work well together. The theme of their show Skitsophrenic is the relationship between humour and insanity and all three are unafraid of looking unhinged to get a bigger laugh. The result is a series of surreal, utterly inspired sketches, ranging from a risqué retelling of the Greek tale of Oedipus or "Oedipuss", and a curiously altered and darkly comic rendition of a Vanilla Ice classic by one "Jack the Rapper". A word of warning: audience participation is not exactly mandatory, but if you’re sitting on the front row you may find yourself playing a leading role.

The feigned friction within the comic troupe adds another amusing dimension and sees Sheahan putting up with a considerable amount of grief from the other two. At one point they see fit to feed him lard, vinegar and crackers, insisting he wears a somewhat revealing T-shirt; all, they purport, in the name of comedy.