‘Most comedians do one type of comedy. We do it all.” That’s the goofy boast at the top of this show by visiting American comics Carmen Christopher and John Reynolds, and they go some way to fulfilling it. You won’t find a more ragtag collection of act-ups, gags and antics than this. No Tengo Escuela (it translates as I Don’t Have School) finds the duo collaborating on a loose, semi-improvised hour, delivering solo sets and doubling up for oddball sketches, all in sort-of character as two slacker bros only dimly aware that time has been called on this kind of unchecked masculine self-indulgence.
It feels like the kind of palate-cleansing hangout two buddies might contrive between higher-pressure projects – which may be the case, given both have big-hitting TV CVs. Christopher featured in Disney+ hit The Bear; Reynolds starred in the great Search Party as beleaguered Drew Gardner – fans of whom will be blindsided by his emphatically silly and expansive persona here. The show also accommodates a special guest (tonight, Lolly Adefope), with whom the pair perform so-bad-it’s-funny improv.
That anti-comedy vibe, inviting us to laugh at (the expense of) the pair’s duff jokes and juvenile behaviour, is ever-present here. But there’s more to the show than that. In Christopher’s hangdog standup set, there’s a delightfully tricksy gag about marking the death of Ray Liotta on Twitter, which makes mincemeat of social media etiquette. In the pair’s sketches together, there’s a pleasing sense of anything goes, as scenes unfold along unpredictable lines, not so much in pursuit of a presiding comic idea, but following the nose of whatever Christopher and Reynolds find funny from moment to moment.
So we meet two dudes at a barbecue competing over who gets to grill the burgers, or a man incapable of offering the appropriate response when his friend tells him a story over lunch: premises roomy enough to let Reynolds and Christopher riff the scene in whichever direction they choose. Usually, they bear down on absurdist-funny, although it’s usually more about the journey – blokey, bantering, while subversive of both – than the destination.
At Soho theatre, London, until 15 July
