We can still be friends

“You have to be so, so careful if you're in a relationship with someone who airs their thoughts publicly,” muses Nat Luurtsema. “Ideally, they don't get to broadcast their feelings.” 

Yet that was the scenario when the comedian published Cuckoo In The Nest last year, a memoir of her reluctant move back to the family home aged 28. Also portrayed in the book is ex-boyfriend and fellow comic Tom Craine. But unlike Luurtsema's parents, Craine has a platform to offer his story of the break-up. 

“A few months ago, we realised that if either of us was going to do [an Edinburgh] show, it would be quite heavily influenced by our break-up,” Luurtsema explains. “And then the other probably thought: 'Well stuff that, I want right to reply!'”  

So while Craine reflects on a “good” and “healthy” split in his pathetically-titled show Crying on a Waltzer, Luurtsema is considering the same fond moments in Here She Be. “We're vultures, feeding on the corpse of our love,” she shrugs. 

Of course, over the last three years, there's been another comedian in their relationship, Dan Antopolski. Following strong 2012 Fringe reviews and acclaim for their recent Radio 4 series, the trio are returning as sketch outfit Jigsaw, promising another pacy, 50 or so “get to the gag and fuck off” skits. Except with more “silly musical pieces” this time.

But rather than ignite the lingering sexual tension between his colleagues, the intimacy even proved beneficial. “Every once in a while, they have a little bicker as if they've forgotten that they're not going out together anymore,” Antopolski reveals. “But we all just laugh about it. When we first got together, the fact that they could insult each other without causing grave offence saved lots of time for the three of us getting to know each other.”

Each piece of Jigsaw fits into their quickfire sketches with minimal fuss. But occasionally they must be tempted to write humiliating, painful or awkward scenes for one another?

“This is something we discuss at length,” Antopolski affirms.”It's good for an audience because you get a cumulative effect of us having meta-roles within the show. But you walk a line with creating stereotypes. It's kind of annoying when 'the short one' in a group is always treated a certain way. We've got Nat, so we have to think about gender politics a little bit. You've got to be careful that you're neither sexist, nor scared of having any fun."

Even so, he adds: “It's an advantage if the same member of Jigsaw can occupy the same role more than once. It's like a callback, it gives the show coherence and there's a bigger laugh. Of course, it's a short step then to Tom perpetually getting a custard pie in the face. Which is the epitome of shit.”

Craine chuckles. “Cue plenty of bits now with me getting a pie in the face!”

If Jigsaw's sketches feed upon an intimate shared history, then Craine and Luurtsema's solo shows are looking to the future.

“I don't think we feel any poison towards each other," says Luurtsema. We can have a hundred little bickers a week but we've never had an argument in our lives.”

Becoming platonic friends “and what that actually means” is “something we'll both be talking about in our shows,” Craine adds. “And then, at the end, I will read out extracts from her private diary.”

Waiting for him to confess that he's joking, Luurtsema admits: “We're definitely not double-dating with new partners or anything, we're not quite that super-healthy yet. And in fact, I have a bit in my show where I outline the sort of girl I'd like Tom to meet.

“Honestly, it's really bitchy. It's funny. But probably very unwise psychologically.”