Manchester Comedy Festival- Lady Garden and Idiots of Ants

The Comedy Store

Tuesday 20^th October

4 1/2 stars

It was not so much a battle of the sexes as a perfect alliance that I witnessed this evening on the Comedy Store stage. All girl comedy sextet Lady Garden joined four boys of sketch troupe Idiots of Ants for a night at the Manchester Comedy Festival. Both acts use their collective gender to their advantage, showcasing material from the achingly true to the wildly surreal.  The result is a performance with enough originality to ensure the audience’s smile never dims.

Lady Garden’s performance is refreshing, refined and comically honest. A sketch featuring a quest for the most ‘vintage’ piece resulting in the girls donning genuine Shakespearian dress is notable for its cunning observation and playful silliness.  Their strength as an ensemble ensures a dynamic performance which avoids any dull moments or clunky scene changes. The most popular sketches are undoubtedly those which feature all six women. Playing the money-grabbing hostesses of Garden Air they shine individually yet maintain skilful synchronisation.  Although the energy dips when some of the girls leave the stage the audience is kept hooked on the strong character acting and original material.

Fresh from their nomination at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, Idiot of Ants took to the stage with excitable confidence. Unsurprisingly, the all male troupe haven’t shied away from using the male/female divide as the basis for some jokes, fortunately the ideas are developed with delightful flair and wit. Posing as a hen night party after a drunken sex change they discover, with wide-eyed wonder, possibilities such as driving in fifth gear. Perfectly paced and full of good-natured humour this sketch (like most others) shows the Ants’ fresh and exciting twist on popular comic themes. Taking a diversion from typical format the show includes a video game style analysis of each ‘player’s’ performance (it seems some have let their comic timing slip) and some hilarious audience participation. It is this introspection and sense of spontaneity which add some exciting innovation to a genuinely funny show.