More Revelations is a Week 3 fast-paced sketch comedy by the Pembroke Players. It is a sequel to the hit sketch show Revelations, but features a new cast. Emma Ansell caught up with the performers to find out more.

Emma Ansell (Varsity): The cast of More Revelations auditioned for the roles, and didn't know each other before rehearsals started. How do you think this has changed the dynamic of the show in comparison to other sketch shows?

Christof Epaminondas: It’s exciting because you're discovering things as you go along. I think it's quite nice to do sketch shows with slightly different groups of people, as opposed to sticking with the same group over and over. You get to test yourself in different ways.  It's more 'learning as you go' in terms of how the individual sketches will work and what people will bring to it.

Matt Gurtler: It certainly makes it more of a challenge. When you first start rehearsing you're not quite ready to step out of yourself and bring a big character to a sketch or something. I'd say it brings a new challenge, but once you get to know each other it's a lot easier.

Will Hall: I think we've all also at some point contributed sketches to the show which brings in different styles of writing which is quite nice. There's a bit more variety.

 

EA: The name of the show is More Revelations, obviously as a sequel to the show Revelations that was performed last term.

CE: You do not have to have seen Revelations. In no way does it follow some sort of long narrative - it's very much stand-alone. I think it's definitely learnt from the mistakes of Revelations: it's definitely snappier, it doesn't take concepts too far. But we do have a couple of callbacks throughout it which should be quite fun.  

 

EA: How do you feel about the potentially disruptive powers of comedy? Do you have any kind of secret agenda with the show?

WH: I think comedy can have that potential, certainly in our sketch show we're not trying to... I think the number one aim of comedy should be to entertain, and if you lose sight of that with the intention of making a point or pushing an agenda then you do it at the risk of not being funny anymore. We're hoping to be funny.

MG: We were rehearsing a sketch the other day which I wrote about two navy personnel in a submarine in the Second World War. People were asking me 'Is this a commentary on World War Two?' and I said 'No it's just a joke.'

CE:  The reason the first one was called Revelations was because in quite a lot of the sketches things happened that you wouldn't necessarily expect: characters weren't who you thought they were. In term of the aims of comedy, in a more general sense, it can be a way to be subversive and make political commentary, but I would not say those are the aims of this show. Especially if you haven't been writing comedy for the long, you should probably just aim at making things funny and enjoyable – you obviously don't want to get preachy. I also think there is a tendency where a lot of political comedy can be 'We get it, you're left-wing', 'We get it, you don't like the Tories' - quite stale, nothing's particularly new. And obviously there's a lot of stuff that's not like that, but I do think student comedy which tries to be political can just fall into the trap of essentially just bringing out the same themes.

EA: What the most outrageous, strange or odd thing you've done in the name of comedy?

CE: When I was quite young, me and a family friend would always try and put these miniature plays on, and the only joke was that it was quite violent. Which was quite weird in hindsight. I suppose my seven or six year old self had a weird sense of humour. I don't know how comforting that was for the parents watching.

MG: I read a copy of 50 Shades of Grey on stage, which kind of made me choke on my lines when I came across some dodgy bits in the book.

WH: In Black Comedy, the freshers' play last term, my job every night was to come on literally at the end, have these glorious couple of lines and then fall down a trap hole. I got to know the underside of the ADC stage a lot better than anyone else, I would say.

EA: How would you describe the show in 3 words?

CE: Snappy and fun - but why have an 'and' as one of your three words?

MG: Funny, I hope.

WH: Buy a ticket.

More Revelations will be on at Pembroke New Cellars at 9:30pm from Thursday 4th-Saturday 6th February 2016.