Palindrome. Same forwards as it is backwards. Think ‘racecar’ or, my favourite, ‘tacocat’. 

This is the kind of perfect symmetry I’m expecting from writer and performer Elliott Wright as he walks through the door. We shake hands. We’re close friends and normally I wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole, but for the sake of the interview, we’re both taking on an air of professionalism. Reminding him not to call me ‘buddy’ or ‘mate’, I ask him what we can look forward to from the show.

“The idea is that it’s structured like a palindrome – the final sketch contains a callback to the first sketch, the penultimate to the second, and so on. We realised that a lot of our more successful sketches in our past shows played around with callbacks, and we felt the idea of placing that at the heart of the show had a lot of potential.”

It’s a device that we see a lot in Cambridge comedy, and I for one am excited to see how it works in the context of an hour-long show. This kind of sketch show premise, more of a structural device than a ‘theme’, has been pretty trendy in the past couple of years.

“This kind of sketch show premise, more of a structural device than a ‘theme’, has been pretty trendy in the past couple of years”

“I think one of the best things about the concept we’re running with is that it gives the show more direction and cohesion without actually limiting the sort of material that you can write. In the past we’ve done sketch shows which have tried to run with specific themes, but even if you have a fun idea, this can only really limit the scope of what you can do.”

The sketch shows to which Elliott refers hardly need introduction. Quinoa: A Middle Class Sketch Show relaunched Pembroke as a sketch show venue (selling better than any previous show). It’s undeniably still part of our collective cultural consciousness a year and a half later. After a term or two out of the Cellars, where Elliott is comedy rep, the boys are back. I ask what makes the venue so special. 

“It feels a bit like a homecoming – we did the Quinoa sketch shows at the cellars last year, then they gave us a slot at the ADC last term with Dropouts! Naturally, we were sent straight back to the Cellars this term. Chuckles aside, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the Cellars is the hotbed of sketch comedy in Cambridge. As a venue it allows an unparalleled amount of freedom to create something a bit more out-there.”

Patrick Wilson and Elliott are known for doing things a little differently. Their new show, a three-hander with theatre veteran Tim Vaughan, is no exception. Though stalwarts on the Smoker scene, their sketches tend to go to wackier places than most. They’re not what you’d call ‘safe’.

“I like to think we take a lot more risks than a lot of comedians on the scene, both in the sense that we often veer into darker territories, and that we like to shake up the structure of sketches a bit. There can be a tendency in a lot of comedy we see here in Cambridge to fall into certain patterns and formula, but we try to avoid that.”

They’re up for trying something new, even if it’s not the conventional ‘Cambridge’ style.

“Ultimately this is student comedy, and not everything in the show is going to be gut-bustingly hilarious – but I’d rather we tried something fairly original and fell flat on our faces than simply pandered to a safer idea of comedy.”

It’s a refreshing attitude. Elliott explains that, in his role as Comedy Director, he’s relished the chance to promote an ethos of inclusivity and experimentation at Pembroke.

“I think it’s so important to foster an unpretentious environment for people who want to give comedy a go, and I like to think I’ve helped to give performers a platform who you wouldn’t necessarily normally see at other smokers around town.”

Review: Laugh, Why Don't You

Elliott, Patrick and Tim are the veritable ‘nice guys’ of the Cambridge comedy scene, and you’d be a fool to miss their next venture into sketchy-weirdness. And I’m not just saying that because they’re my only friends. 

Palindrome runs from Thursday 9th - Saturday 11th March, at the Pembroke New Cellars, 9.30pm