Kokova Magazine

The Leeds Tealights return to the Edinburgh Fringe for a seventh year after sell-out shows in London, Leeds and Cambridge to premier a brand-new sketch comedy show.

Currently bearing the title Best Student Sketch Group (National Student), the Tealights bring their infectious energy and charming wit to Just the Tonic at the Caves, taking place each day at 5:00pm from 2nd - 26th August.

Our Kokova Magazine reviewer at the Edinburgh Fringe 2012 gives us his impression of the show.

Initially, when I was led into the venue for this show, I was wondering what I had let myself in for. We were brought in through a nondescript entrance to the side of the venue, which brought us through several, rather confusing passages and rooms; the latter of which had an overwhelming smell of mildew.

As we came upon the end of our journey, I was relieved to not only see a stage, lights and speakers, but to no longer be able to smell the damp.

The show itself is a four piece comedy troupe and my initial thoughts from the first few skits were that the show would center around male/ female tensions, as well as making fun of as many disabled groups as possible. Fortunately there was a lot more depth to the show than that!

Throughout the show there were some minor technical errors, but the group held it together rather well and the errors could almost have formed part of the show. I found all four performers to be extremely entertaining and when the jokes worked, they were very funny.

Unfortunately there were a few times during the show that the jokes fell flat and this was not so much a problem with the abilities of the performers but problems with the writing itself.

For the good percentage of sketches that did work well it is definitely a worthwhile show to watch - though at times it is not for those that can be easily offended.

In conclusion, a good show with great performers, that is at times let down by poor writing.

Adam Meyers, YST Reviewer @ The Edinburgh Fringe 2012