The breezy and welcoming antithesis to Tubbs and Edward, The Silky Pair present an enjoyable if lightweight show

A lively hour if ever there was one. The Silky Pair are comedy duo Kathryn Bond and Lorna Shaw, and they've decided to open a shop to sell their wares, dropping into songs, characters and sketches inbetween speaking to us about the vagaries of running a shop.

And it's a lot of fun – the show is defined by dynamism and imagination, and they are a proper comedy duo in that they come across as a partnership, not two individual acts who have been thrown together. In the comedy landscape, the Silky Pair's breezy and welcoming shop lies across the dale from the League of Gentlemen's twisted one run by Tubbs and Edward.

Tubbs and Edward will do better business though. The Silky Pair's shelves are more lightly stocked by comparison, some excellent ideas not quite sculpted into comedy nuggets. The writing is so often the weak link in sketch/musical acts and that is the case here. For example the songs a similar enough to Flight of the Conchords, but aren't quite good enough to stop you craving the real thing, and a "calling your boss to chuck a sickie" routine could have been funnier.

They also haven't helped themselves by falling between two stools with the shop concept – had it been less intrusive, or committed to more wholeheartedly (a la Tubbs & Edward, or Mick n Keef in Stella Street), the show as a whole might have benefited.

Still, there is much to enjoy and with a bit of refining and defining the Silky Pair could get a following of their own. Their bipolar Irish folk duo and the workout video are stand-out moments, a heckler gets despatched impressively, and they win over the audience from the get-go. A fun way to wile away the afternoon.

3 stars

The Silky Pair are on at 3.25pm at Just the Tonic Caves

Review written by Paul Fleckney