Live Review: Textiquette

Textiquette is the newest comedy night to hit London, and boy did it go down well. The concept, the acts and the format, Textiquette is a night that is sure to take off in no time at all.

Textiquette is no ordinary comedy night, it’s a comedy night with a twist. In-keeping with the changing times and social media mayhem of 2012, Textiquette centres around all modern forms of communication. Trust us, it’s not that complex! Textiquette is a live show exploring the new virtual rules of etiquette. A Textiquette evening consists of a unique night of interactive performances exploring everything from money scams, twitter rants, sexting, exposés and internet stalking to how many kisses you put at the end of a text.

Opening the night at the George Tavern in Shadwell, was Luke McQueen with his sketch ‘Get Sarah Back’ which sees the comedian show footage of himself wetting himself outside the Emirates Stadium in a bid to win back his ex-girlfriend, amongst a bevy of other embarrassing situations he put himself in. Need we say more? We were nearly in the same situation!

Textiquette centered around ‘Letters to Anya’ by Geoff Deane (‘Kinky Boots’, ‘Birds of a Feather’), starring Perry Benson (‘This is England’) and Georgia Maguire (‘Pete Versus Life’), directed by Charlie Hanson (Producer ‘Extras’, ‘Cemetery Junction’). Although this performance was pretty hilarious, we couldn’t help but feel it could have been chopped down to hold the audience’s attention. But what must be taken in is that Georgia Maguire’s performance really outshone veteran Perry Benson. She was confident and believable and clearly has a great acting career ahead of her.

Next up was ‘Through the Looking Screen’, a comic opera about a woman seeking love on the internet, written and composed by Anne Chmelewsky (‘The Office, The Opera’), again this performance was brilliant, but suffered from running slightly too long.

The comedian sketches such as ‘Text time with Bev’ (Lady Garden’s Eleanor Thom), Luke McQueen (‘Engaging and smart’, Ricky Gervais), really did the job and sandwiched the evening well. The comedians were genuinely funny, and not at all what you would expect from an opening night in a dingy pub in the depths East London. A highlight of the evening was Sam Swann’s act, which combined the art of poetry and comedy to serve up something completely different. Not only was Swann’s act hilarious, it was genuinely fascinating to witness someone so talented with words and a refreshing comedy act, that we hope to see blow up in the future.

Finishing off the night, before a burlesque dancer spat milk on the crowd (yeah we weren’t too enthused by that) was the brilliant Jeff Leach. He is amazing, truly, truly amazing and if you ever get a chance to go and see him, then you damn well take it. Not only does he interact with the audience, but his stage presence is dominating, in a ‘the next Russell Brand’ kind of way. (But Russell Brand before Hollywood if you know what we mean!)

With a program already including some impressive acts, we don’t think it’ll be long before Textiquette is a main hitter on the comedy nights circuit. So watch this space and we’ll let you know the next time there’s a Textiquette night on!

Make sure you follow @textiquette2012 to keep up with what’s happening.

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