Yeti’s: big on enthusiasm, low on laughs

Yeti’s – Demon Dive Bar is a surreal sketch show from double act Jennifer Byrne and Vicky Falconer-Pritchard. It serves up a plethora of bizarre characters engaging in wacky randomness with some dark humour thrown in for good measure. The energy is infectious, but it doesn’t always translate into laughs.

The duo are certainly charismatic, and eke the most out of their material, but, when the humour is so uniformly wacky, you either feel it or you don’t. There are some big laughs, but many of the sketches fall flat. After the weaker moments, the performers put on exaggerated expressions to try to force a laugh, but this only underlines the weakness of the material.

The songs are a highlight; they’re so well produced and well crafted. But, at times, even they feel dragged out. The interactive parts of the show are the most on-point, probably because they were genuinely spontaneous, rather than exercises in stretching a zany gag to its limit.

Christian Butler is a writer based in London.

Yeti’s – Demon Dive Bar is at the Pleasance Courtyard until 29 August.