Showing @ Pleasance Dome until Mon 26 Aug @ times vary
The Beta Males are fast becoming an Edinburgh establishment. Sketch comedy but with an overlying theme and plot rather than a disconnected jumble of vignettes. Their current target, superheroes, could generate a very basic understanding, relying only on blockbusters for material. However, as self-professed comic fans (or at least some of them) the Beta Males present a far greater mining of a rich vein of material.
Under more simple parodies, such as The Strongth, are references to the Infinite Crisis and other more niche jokes. Further, the darker humour of an uncle using his nephews to fake superpowers and the parodies of police brutality give far more depth to the piece than one would expect. Alan Moore and Garth Ennis have definitely been read. This is not a specialist show though and the packed house had plenty to laugh at. Comedy comes in puns, satire, clowning and excellent breaking of the fourth wall. As endearing as The Beta Males slapdash approach is, after several years in their medium space one feels it is time for them to move up to being one of the key sketch acts on the Fringe.