Spruce Moose Comedy are a UK-based comedy troupe that has sporadically produced sketch comedy for social media for a number of years. Last year they came to the Fringe with Knightclub, a deeply silly affair that felt like an extended Horrible Histories skit but with more anarchy. This year they’re bringing back their 2024 Pirates: You Wouldn’t Steal A Boat, which has returned to the Fringe tighter and funnier.
To be clear, this show is broadly a parody of movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, up to the point that one of the characters is a straight-up pastiche of Orlando Bloom. It pokes direct fun at a whole load of movies that have long outlasted their cultural welcome, whilst also simply being daft, knock-about humour. By which we mean things get hurled at the cast by the crew in a slapstick way, and that is somehow much funnier than it has any right to be.
The plot involves one Sharkbait Mulligan and his weak-willed but competent buddy Louie getting kicked off their pirate ship because the pirate captain just isn’t terribly nice. That and the fact that Sharkbait keeps bragging about his romance with a mermaid, which everyone strongly doubts. Hilarity ensues, pirate treasure is discovered, and boat, well, you’ll have to go see the show to see if a boat gets stolen.
We get some lovely fourth-wall-breaking moments, some very well done running gags and mostly a jolly good time is had by all. Ahmed Amor steals the show as Louie, and Ariel Hebditch is hilarious as Orlando Bloom. The crew in general are fabulous, and we can’t wait to see more from this very promising team.
