TOsketchfest23 Review: Birbs of Paradise & The Understudies

Birbs of Paradise is an all-women of colour sketch comedy troupe. Their show is just the right mixture of silly and serious, sometimes addressing public breast feeding, sometimes tracking down the notorious Cotton Eyed Joe. 

Even sketches addressing more serious issues still maintained the same wacky tone, providing a fun vehicle for education.

The pacing was good and there were callbacks to previous sketches throughout the show, tying the whole thing together. The sketches were funny, though sometimes the delivery was a little awkward. 

Overall, a very fun show. My only complaint is that there weren’t enough real birds in it.

The Understudies was up next with their absurdist sketch show. According to their blurb, this is their first show back after a 13-year hiatus, which I never would have guessed. All of them were great actors, portraying a variety of characters and a variety of exaggerated accents. They also played live music in several of their sketches, like their parody of Space Oddity by David Bowie, where Ground Control and Major Tom clearly have some major workplace tension.

The tone is set from the first sketch, a summer song that devolves into a creepy tale of something in the muck at the bottom of the lake. Every sketch has some kind of hilarious twist, sometimes of the creepy variety, sometimes silly, sometimes just plain weird. Despite the absurdism, the sketches feel very grounded and well-executed.

Even though their blurb says they’re “disconnected from the culture zeitgeist” personally I thought their sketches had big Tumblr energy, which I promise I mean as a compliment.

The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival runs until March 19.
Birbs of Paradise plays again on March 17.