Four Screws Loose review

Word is clearly getting around that this four-man sketch group are worth checking out - their Free Fringe show has been packing out Bannermans every day. Settling into my seat, I must admit I was wondering whether it was just an image thing bringing in the crowd (there were a notable number of young, single, admiring girls in the audience) but within seconds of the show starting it became clear people were actually flocking to see Four Screws Loose present Latecomers Will Be Shot as it is a very funny show performed by four talented comic actors.

The first sketch showed what to expect of the hour: lots of fun. It's a super high-energy skit involving a uber-camp wedding photographer, some silly wigs and broad acting. Like many of the sketches, it also showed off the group's creativity - in this case, a real camera was used to snap the audience posing (see the group's Facebook page for the results).

A sketch about those phone in quiz shows which litter the late-night TV schedules followed, something that made me wonder whether the opener was the group's one and only hit sketch (the idea of Quizcall being cheap and exploitive has been done to death); but things thankfully picked up after this with the rest of the hour being pretty much solid hit after solid hit. Some of the sketches were clearly aiming for a cheap, simple laugh (with gross, adult themes) but the audience laughed, so that's job done.

Highlights for me were the slightly more delicately written sketches though, including a psychopathic Crackle from breakfast cereal gang 'Snap, Crackle and Pop'; a potential romantic liaison conducted using random French words; and a pair of arguing testacles (which, you'll have to trust me, is much funnier live than written down thanks to the inventive staging of this skit).

The group's real strength though is combining music with sketches. From a We Steal Any Car advert, to a dance number set in a call centre, everything that the group combined with music became a massive crowd pleaser. Their re-creation of CrimeWatch using music from iTunes to supply the words for the characters was probably the best sketch I've seen all festival - simply brilliant.

In summary: if you get a chance to catch these guys in London or at next year's Fringe (I really hope they'll make the trip to the festival again) then do!

Four Screws Loose Present: 'Latecomers-Will-Be-Shot' listing