Sci Fi Sitcom Trials video

From the Sci Fi Sitcom Trials, held at the Camden Head London on Weds Nov 28th 2012, here is a video capturing a taste of the night. As ever you really had to be there, but hopefully this gives you a feeling of what you missed.

See a full report and photos here.

Thoughts on the Sci Fi Sitcom Trials

Tonight's was an excellent show, with the highest standard of scripts, equalled by the quality of the productions. I can safely say there have never been this many sound cues used in a production of The Sitcom Trials, and as far as I could tell not a single one was missed. All hail the iPad, and occasional use of an iPod, it's the future kids.

The quantity (and, arguably quality) of props was also at a high, with Myles McLeod's team on Starship Impossible supplying the most. There was, at one point, a wig moment, a beard moment, a moose moment, and recurring appearances of a plague doctor / Venatian masque mask. Top marks. Best use of a sound cue goes to Event Horizon Crescent's "I'm not your Mum" line, and most self-effacing casting goes to Nick Ewans who was the unseen yet titular Burrax Bringer Of Desserts.

Usually with the Trials we have a "Sacrificial Lamb" syndrome with the first sitcom of the night faring poorly as the audience gets to grips with the style of the evening. This show had the opposite situation, with the early sitcoms having such an impact that by the time Not From Round Here hit the stage, its props and sound effects seemed less novel than they might have done. And the science fiction brief resulted in the unusual situation of space-time conflux and every other permutation of alien being a bit passe by the end of the night. Other shows would be jealous of our variety.

The victor of the night defied many odds. Alice and The Genie was a stonking script, blessed by a stonking Chris Fitchew as the Genie and Emma Packer as Alice. But, and I'm being honest here, the Sitcom Trials on-the-night voting system might normally have squashed it like a bug. Why, you ask? Because you can only fit fifty people in that room, and a good few are the writers, the actors and their friends. Which can sometimes result in the sitcom with the most popular writer (or, worst case scenario, the sitcom with the biggest cast) getting most votes and winning.

So it was the proudest result of the night that the only sitcom whose writer wasn't in the audience, and which had the smallest cast of all (just two), won. Hallelujah for comedy lovers, their good taste and honesty.