Good to see The Komedia Studio deliver a full audience for Rory Marshall touring his successful, sell out, Edinburgh Fringe show. Sketch comedy live is a very difficult medium and in my experience it fails more often than succeeds. However Marshall has nailed it with his ‘Pathetic Little Creatures’.
The set is deliberately stripped back with just a chair and a table holding a couple of glasses of water on stage. Similarly Rory Marshall is dressed in a simple white t-shirt and jeans. There are no costumes as he jumps from one character to another with just music bridging between each one.
Over 60 minutes the individuals he has created are universally irritating, obnoxious starting with AJ – a Love Island spoof – who’s equally over active and we realise insecure and lonely. We move onto to the Bedfordshire police press conference who screws up a murder announcement and shoots off on tangent sinking into disastrous hilarity.
The worst dinner guest you’ve ever been exposed to who won’t shut up and is clearly out of place amongst his fellow diners. His manic, terrible jokes are cringe making.
Next we meet the American dad having one on one time with his 8 year old son who says all the things you shouldn’t say to your kid. He’s self-possessed with the ultimate ‘crime’ being when he takes his son clubbing then leaves him behind. He has no redeeming factors.
The clubber who is at E level activity and seems unable to deliver anything but the worst chat you’ve ever, or hopefully never, heard.
There’s the nazi psychotic teaching assistant who is a manipulative bully, ready to kill for respect.
My favourite to hate is Bar Man. I have worked bar and there are many times during a shift that you think insulting things about your customers but Bar Man says all those things in extremis. This is an arrogant misogynist and the antithesis of the customer is always right. It is sharply, hilariously drawn with extreme comic precision.
It was a greatly entertaining comedy set once you get over your initial cringe reactions to the characters. Marshall is a comedy genius. It is a show that you should take the opportunity to see if possible.
Saturday 17 January 2026
Tickets: https://www.komedia.co.uk/shows/rory-marshall-pathetic-little-characters/?eid=18080
Doors 6pm / Event 6.30pm
Age – 16 +
