If you thought sketch comedy is not what it used to be, then you haven’t experienced BriTANicK.
BriTANicK is a sketch comedy duo made up of Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher, veteran comedy writers for SNL who decided six years ago to go from the page to the stage, where their show has performed to rave reviews and included a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
To put it succinctly, after catching their show at Theatre St. Catherine as part of the OFF-JFL series, this show is a laugh riot. Period.
Brian and Nick take the sketch comedy genre and bring it to an insane level. They constantly break down that fourth wall with reckless abandon and use a lot of running jokes that fit in so well, and are not used for the sake of cheap laughs. And when they go off the rails — especially with the fart museum sketch that closed the show — which happens not once, but about four times (in which this reviewer unexpectedly gets dragged into the madness) it’s greeted with louder and more uproarious laughter. There is not a weak sketch throughout the show, with the New York City restaurant recommendations and the poor memory clinic (which is a fine tribute to Monty Python) as personal favourites.
So in conclusion, there are two more things I have to say about the BriTANicK sketch show: GO SEE IT!; and get ready to experience the classic case of laughing until your sides ache.
For more information, or to purchase tickets, to BriTANicK or any other Just For Laughs show, go to hahaha.com.
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