Grubby Little Mitts
Published: Friday 16th May 2025
It was the first of times, it was the worst of times.
This time we're meeting Grubby Little Mitts - Rosie Nicholls and Sullivan Beau Brown - who are taking their latest show to London's Soho Theatre next week (the original theatre, not the new 1000-seater - although they've made a mess in big rooms before).
The title? Eyes Closed, Mouths Open. Is there anything particularly grubby that this nice arts theatre should be worried about?
"This is our third show in three years and promises the usual Grubbs vibe of bodily fluids, awkward pauses, 'are they together'/'are they related'," says Rosie. "But this time we've woven in a little narrative, inspired by the best song in the world, It's Raining Men by The Weather Girls. If you're ok with dead people, there's nothing to worry about!"
Sullivan adds some extra detail. "Our third show is full of blood, owls and dog piss; the three key ingredients for sketch comedy. If you like your comedy messy, stupid and most importantly, harrowing, then you'll love the show! And if you don't? Well you'll probably repress the memory so hard that it only re-emerges at the most inopportune moment."
Push it down; push it real good. And after this Soho run? "We're going to be doing bi-monthly Sketch Books", says Sullivan - a night for sketch and character acts to try out new material - while Rosie is work-in-progressing "a little show at the Brighton Fringe, Ragged Prose, which is my first foray into solo stuff."
Speaking of ragged prose, let's delve back into their murky pasts.
First gig?
Rosie: Our first ever official comedy show was a ticketed performance of Nicholls & Brown: Grubby Little Mitts at Brighton Fringe - not even a WIP I might add, I was insistent we knew the lines - in the attic of an illusions museum in Brighton (now closed - our fault I think).
That was the first time we ever performed any Grubby Little Mitts material, and we had Reviews Hub in, and they gave us four stars. We had absolutely no right to become comedians in this way and you are right to be vomiting into your hands as you read this.
Sullivan: I was extremely nervous for our first show. Performed on the world's smallest stage at the Brighton Fringe, to a tiny (in number, not in size) audience and a reviewer. How we got a four star review from someone seeing our very first show I will never know but that propelled us to take the show up to Edinburgh and the rest is history!
Favourite show, ever?
Rosie: Blackfriars Pub in Glasgow 2023 as part of our first UK tour which we quickly threw together after winning Amused Moose; a sold-out 100-strong audience of hammered Glaswegians in a basement, people who'd seen us in Edinburgh, new grubbs and fans of [YouTube channel] No Rolls Barred.
We could barely fit inside, we showed them our legs, we gave them coffee for their mouths and we pelted them with eyeballs, it was raucous and they loved it, we loved it. My favourite show ever!!
Sullivan: For me it's the Leicester Comedy Festival opening gala, remarkably, performing in front of 1,500 people actually calmed me, which probably says something about my inner psyche and my craving of attention as a child, and to simulate pissing oneself on stage in front of 1,500 people is every comedian's dream.
Worst gig?
Rosie: That same Glasgow evening in 2023, we missed our headline slot at Stamptown because the comedian on before us at Blackfriars overran by 25 minutes. We ran three red lights try to get to Oran Mor and ran inside just as Viggo Venn said "Thanks very much goodnight" - the only time Stamptown has not overrun. I had a small mental breakdown on the drive back to London because of this and I've never been quite the same.
Sullivan: It was probably one of the compilation show spots where we were booked for a gig mainly aimed at older people and children, which are not really our audience especially given how avant garde some of our sketches can be. But sometimes gasps can be better than laughs, and where we were left wanting for gasps, disappointed confusion and silence will also suffice!
Which one person influenced your comedy life most significantly?
Rosie: At drama school we had a wonderful clown teacher who I completely worshipped and thought was a genius. He didn't find me very funny, but I absolutely loved working with him. That dynamic really imprinted on me, which explains me and Sullivan very well.
Sullivan: I would say, along with the aforementioned clown teacher Toby Hulse, Julian Barratt from Mighty Boosh fame was a huge influence. His grounded performances in the sea of madness that was Boosh made the whole thing the iconic show it became in my book.
And who's the most disagreeable person you've come across in the business?
Rosie: The worst people in the business without a doubt are the so-called sketch comedy act The Mayor And His Daughter. Talentless and rude, their comedy revolts me and frankly I'm ashamed to be producing their Edinburgh show at Assembly Roxy 2.10pm every day (not 12th).
Sullivan: Definitely The Mayor And His Daughter. Those bastards are talented and regularly show us up when they come to our Sketch Book shows. Inventive, hilarious, kind, they have all the hallmarks of the worst people you could meet in comedy and I would recommend watching their show up at Fringe just to hate them! And laugh at how much you hate them!
Also the same goes for that Lil Wenker, she's an absolute delight every time you see her, and then she gets up on stage and she's much funnier than me! How dare she.
Is there one sketch/gag you loved, that audiences inexplicably didn't?
Rosie: We had a sketch in our first show about seeing an ex you broke up with and getting annoyed because they have moved on. This made us howl with laughter but I think it's a level of hypocrisy that perhaps only exists between us two narcissists. Also we had a sketch about our bums finally touching after slowly coming together from a great distance away. Again, perhaps narcissism.
Sullivan: We had a sketch where I would give love advice to the audience and then go into how horrible my love life was. The only problem? No one wanted to hear my love advice and so no one asked me questions, so I just told them my own love stories apropos of nothing and no one laughed.
What's the grubbiest thing you've ever done on stage?
Rosie: Eyes Closed, Mouths Open features a bit of fake blood which gets into our eyes a bit, and I enthusiastically made the first batch of this with ketchup. I forgot that ketchup has vinegar in. I almost blinded us for sketch comedy and had a sinus infection for the whole of Edinburgh 2024.
Sullivan: I would say our sketch at the end of our second show where Rosie and I pissed ourselves on stage, danced in the piss, got the piss on the audience, all to the tune of Singing in the Rain.
Any reviews, heckles or post-gig reactions stick in the mind?
Rosie: One of our old sketches, Baby Chat, is centred around a woman having a two-way conversation about her insecurities about motherhood with her friend's newborn baby. One Edinburgh performance, we had an actual baby in, and it gurgled in all the right places in the script. It was amazing and quite moving!
Then the sketch ends with the baby tricking me into soothing it when it's crying, and I angrily swear at the baby for the punchline which I'm only realising now might have been inappropriate for the actual baby.
Sullivan: There's one reviewer who is convinced we're a couple and has referenced this every time they've reviewed us (both in lovely reviews I will say), but we aren't a couple and never have been, it's proved disastrous for my personal love life on several occasions.
How do you feel about where your career is at, right now?
Rosie: A hat-trick of Soho transfers; creating a growing community of sketch comedy nerds at our monthly night Sketch Book; producing and directing some very cool projects; nice new agent; getting to write and perform all the time with my best buds; honestly I'm deeply unfulfilled and I'm going to become an accountant.
Sullivan: Fantastic, wonderful and great! I'm living my actual dream in life. And it's terrifying!
Grubby Little Mitts: Eyes Closed, Mouths Open is at London's Soho Theatre 22-24th May. sohotheatre.com
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