Award-winning sketch duo who started in Bristol to return, on UK tour

Rosie Nicholls and Sullivan Brown first met during their acting training at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, from where they graduated in 2015.

It was at BOVTS that they first discovered their love of comedy. Fast forward a decade, and they are on tour with their award-winning sketch show, Grubby Little Mitts, which earned them the Amused Moose Comedy Award for Best Debut Sketch Show at the Edinburgh Fringe, 2022.

Described as “the culmination of 10 years of friendship and silliness”, the show – encompassing slapstick, sitcom and surreal comedy – is coming back to the city where it all began, with two nights at The Wardrobe Theatre on March 15-16.

The duo are excited to return to their old home, and are intending to visit their old theatre school for a chat with the current crop of acting students. Ahead of their Bristol trip, Nicholls shared some insights about how how far she and Brown have come since their student days.

Sullivan Brown and Rosie Nicholls – photo: Grubby Little Mitts

Having first trained as actors, what then drew you to comedy?

“From the moment we met as students, we have always been on the same wavelength in terms of our sense of humour, styles of comedy and also our comedy heroes, and we had both separately been writing comedy scripts with other people for many years, always giving feedback on each other’s work.

“Neither of us left BOVTS with an agent and even though we have both worked regularly as actors since 2015, we both started doing comedy in earnest when we joined No Rolls Barred, a YouTube panel show where comedians play board games together.

“We both became regulars on the show and after a while we realised we had an opportunity here to take all our riffing and improv a bit more seriously and formalise the mad energy we cultivate on the channel into a show – so after talking through some show ideas we knew a sketch show would be perfect for us. After 10 years of making each other laugh, it seems so obvious now!”

Rosie Nicholls – photo: Grubby Little Mitts

How did you first discover that you had chemistry as a double act?

“We were first paired together for comedy in our second year at BOVTS, where we played Heidi Soldinac and Vatelin in a west country tour of Sauce For The Goose by Georges Feydeau, which is a farce featuring these two (completely polarised) characters madly trying to keep their affair a secret from various spouses – and then later in the tour in the same production, we all swapped parts and we played the old army major Pinchard and his deaf wife.

“We had the time of our lives on that tour and had so much fun performing together – initially as some of the central characters and then later as two side characters in an almost perfect comedy cameo roles – and then we were never paired together again while at BOVTS! But the relationship was definitely cemented then.”

Sullivan Brown – photo: Grubby Little Mitts

Who are your sketch comedy inspirations?

“French and Saunders, Chris Morris, Victoria Wood, Harry Enfield, the League of Gentlemen, the Two Ronnies, Mitchell and Webb and Laurel and Hardy, as well as sitcoms like Arrested Development and Malcolm in the Middle. We also love the Delightful Sausage, Crybabies, Siblings, Shelf, and Britney – the sketch comedy genre is so broad and we love being part of the sketch world!

“We draw masses of inspiration from our clowning tutor at BOVTS, Toby Hulse, and are hugely inspired by the choreography and rhythms of slapstick comedy.”

Photo: Grubby Little Mitts

What is your working process like?

“We are always writing down little ideas or funny lines we come up with, but generally we sit down and write our material together over a short period, and then chose which sketches we want to rehearse.

“We try to start with broad ideas of the themes we want to look at in the show, and do lots of spider diagrams and lists to give us plenty of inspiration. It’s been really fun creating the material for the next show! We try not to give ourselves too many production limitations so we write what we want to write and work it out later. Having said that, our director Jon Gracey did put his foot down at the stage direction “They fly away.” which we thought was a bit of an overreaction.”

Can you sum up the role that Bristol played in your creative evolution?

“We both feel such a strong familial connection to Bristol. It was the first place both of us lived away from home and was a very warm, friendly and safe city to develop as artists and young adults – we often would go to Bristol Old Vic to watch shows in the studio and the main house, as well as Tobacco Factory Theatres and the Watershed cinema.

“Bristol is such an exciting place to be a student. We both had countless experiences of just stepping out on a night out or going to a gallery or show or comedy night and just seeing what happens – so it definitely allowed us to have a brilliant time as students.

“The school is also right by The Downs where we were often out walking up to the Gorge or the bridge, and we even had lessons outside sometimes. Training at Bristol Old Vic has opened up doors for us both, and its nice meeting other people with a connection to Bristol – there’s an understanding there and a shorthand.”

With a successful debut show under your belt and growing momentum, what’s next for Grubby Little Mitts?

“We are writing our new show at the moment, and are currently on tour – we have Newcastle, Glasgow and Brighton coming up, as well as another year at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer which we can’t wait for. We are planning on creating some more digital work as well, so stay tuned! Grubb on grubbs!”

Grubby Little Mits: A Sketch Show (age recommendation 14+) is at The Wardrobe Theatre from March 15-16 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at www.thewardrobetheatre.com. Follow Grubby Little Mitts news and upcoming tour dates at https://linktr.ee/nixbrowncomedy.

All photos: Rich Dyson

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