Cleverly constructed silliness where every sketch lands
A newsreader sitting down to interview a self-help guru; a caretaker nursing the hangover from last night’s swingers party, and the gnarled presenter of “World’s Deadliest Animals” walk into a bar, or at least a theatre above a bar. Hilarity ensues. Jonty O’Callaghan’s one-man sketch show is a wonderfully wry skewering of everyday moments, which has the audience laughing and clapping throughout its 50 minutes.
There’s always a risk that a solo sketch show ends up excruciating, as there’s no co-conspirator to toss them a lifeline when a joke fails to land, or to maintain a skit’s momentum. Jonty overcomes this both through sheer force of personality, and by co-opting the audience as a second cast member. They supply not only the laughs, but also a host of characters: from the author of a book on the meaning of life reading a pre-prepared statement, to a schoolboy being told off by their teacher. During these moments, Jonty has plenty of jokes himself, ensuring audience engagement only ever enhances an already funny performance in its own right.
These interactions are handled carefully, building a genuine dialogue between performer and audience. This collaborative warmth ensures participants have the freedom to shape each sketch into something unique, but if an answer is short or awkward Jonty moves straight to the next gag. The result is a small crowd that leans into every interaction. They’re genuinely excited to be involved.
The overarching narrative is that the show is an audition to find the ‘ideal sketch show audience’. This is a neat way to move between sketches, and also genuinely hilarious as O’Callaghan’s overly officious casting director queries audience CV claims, and runs through nightmare audition tropes – the fixed smile and hollow praise, and the dreaded “don’t call us, we’ll call you”.
Every sketch’s comedy is multi-layered, never content to milk its first idea for laughs. A particular highlight is a PE teacher who takes his Primary School bowling league way too seriously, sourcing gags not just from the situation’s absurdity, but also astute observations about sports media and lively audience interaction. There’s also a guy confessing his addiction to playing the guitar at parties, whose inevitable musical outburst provides a nice change of pace towards the show’s end.
Each sketch follows a clear formula: take an everyday event (a sickeningly cheerful children’s TV presenter sits down to read a bedtime story), insert a curveball (the story is about marital breakdown), and then look for new places to take this idea, throwing in a good dose of observational humour along the way. It would be great to see the creativity Jonty could unleash when freed from these constraints, but it’s undeniable that it works – every single skit lands and none outstay their welcome, which is almost unheard of for a sketch show at any level.
These successes are a result of skilful writing – every line reaches for new, untapped hilarity – and also the warmth of both the show and its delivery. Jonty O’Callaghan’s Got Some Notes is like a cosy late-night lock-in with your funniest friend – everyone’s included, and you all do a lot of laughing.
This Camden Fringe run has just one show left, taking place on a Monday afternoon, and despite its inconvenient scheduling deserves to be packed out. This genuinely hilarious collection of character-driven skits zips along quickly and leaves the audience hungry for more. There’s no doubt that Jonty O’Callaghan has a bright future ahead of him – see him before he’s famous.
Jonty O’Callaghan’s Got Some Notes has its final show at the Etcetera Theatre on 18th August at 3pm. Tickets can be purchased here.