A naked bum within the first five minutes? It’s safe to say this is not your average cops-and-robbers show.
Police Cops: The Original took place in the main Spiegeltent, which was pretty packed out, so packed that the man next to me was practically sat on my lap, but that’s another story… Meanwhile, the stage was pumped full of atmospheric smoke (the smoke machine type rather than the nicotine kind), perfectly ramping up the drama for what was to come.
This show is a three-man comedy cop farce which charts the journey of a rookie officer who teams up with a retired – and revered – ex-policeman to bring down a Mexican drug cartel. What ensues is a 60-minute masterclass in absolute laugh-out-loud physical and verbal comedy.
Right at the start, one of the cast corpsed because of the sound of a lively brass band playing within the nearby gardens. But rather than let it ruin his performance, he quite ingeniously embraced it, maybe even making that particular scene funnier than originally scripted. This happened on a few occasions throughout the show, but somehow the cast just rolled with it and managed to incorporate it within the act.
Police Cops is full of clever musical interludes and improvisation woven into the show. In fact, at times, it was difficult to tell what was improvised and what was scripted as the performances from all three cast members were so slick, and the script was clever as hell. We don’t usually enjoy slapstick-style humour, but somehow this show just felt different and we were properly engaged from start to finish.
If you love cop comedies such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Naked Gun silliness, you really need to see this. There’s also a little partial nudity thrown in for good measure.
The rest of the Brighton Fringe run is now completely sold out, but they’re off for a stint at London’s Soho Theatre (8th – 13th June) where they’ll perform their whole trilogy as part of their ten-year anniversary celebrations. Surely an opportunity not to be missed – on so many levels.
By Kemi Ayoola
Thursday 28th – Saturday 29th May, 2026; from £15.50
brightonfringe.org
