2011 Edinburgh Fringe
Sammy J & Randy review
Sammy J and Randy: Ricketts Lane (not to be confused with the shows Sammy J: Potentially or Randy is Sober) is a wild, silly, slickly performed romp that will delight anyone who has ever watched children's TV, liked Avenue Q, or committed tax fraud.
Simply exploring the musical minutiae of the two best friends' lives is delightful enough; the sleep song, job-hating song or cooking with Barack Obama are all fantastic, and the game of cheggle (Scrabble, Chess and Mornington Crescent's hyperactive lovechild) is an invention of genius. However when Randy is implicated in a crime that Sammy J has to solve the adventure really begins.
This is one of the most entertaining, exciting performances you'll find on the Fringe. The writing is witty, surreal and warm, the music is wonderful and both human and puppet glow with charisma and charm.
It's a sign of how comfortable they are on stage and with each other that the two can play with tense silences, mess around with pronunciation and puns and go off-script for significant lengths of time without the energy lapsing at all. With this kind of delivery the merest slip of a pun grows into roar from the crowd, and a flick of the eyebrows can leave the audience in hysterics. Glorious.
Sammy J and Randy: Ricketts Lane listing