Max & Ivan working on Radio 4 pilot
Up-and-coming sketch double-act Max & Ivan are working on a pilot for Radio 4.
Max & Ivan - aka Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez - debuted their unique brand of narrative sketch comedy in 2011. The duo's 2013 show, The Reunion, was critically lauded and nominated in the Best Show category at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.
The comedians have previously won the Panel Prize at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards for The Wresting, a one-off show in 2011 that blended comedy with fights involving world-class wrestlers.
Max & Ivan have previously appeared on Radio 4 as part of Sketchorama. Their TV credits include acting roles in Badults and as the non-speaking digital strategists Ben and Jerry in BBC management satire W1A.
A post on the duo's Facebook page says: "Edinburgh Comedy Award-winners Max and Ivan are, at this very minute, writing and editing a pilot for Radio 4. Come see the fruits of their labour at four intimate preview performances."
Max & Ivan will be trying out material for the show on 22nd, 23rd, 29th and 31st May at various venues in London. They will be supported on the try-out nights by Nick Helm, Joseph Morpurgo, Joe Lycett and Adam Riches. To find out more visit the event page on Facebook
The Radio 4 pilot will be titled The Casebook Of Max And Ivan. The BBC explains: "Before they became an award-winning comedy duo, Max and Ivan were the UK's most affordable private detectives. Now, due to obscene public demand, they are opening their archive to relive some of their greatest triumphs/failures/triumphant failures in this Radio 4 sitcom.
"In this pilot episode the boys go deep undercover and find themselves surrounded by pushy parents and precocious children, as they are plunged into the murky world of junior beauty pageants."
The below sketch, filmed by BBC Comedy in 2012, sees Max & Ivan playing characters on a train: