AWARDS AND HONOURS SKETCH OFF 2022 WINNERS ALICE WICKERSHAM AND ANDY BUCHAN

VED NATHWANI (RGS

2016-2021)

QMUL School of Law’s Student Award for Creative Legal Innovation.

The Queen Mary School of Law’s Student Award for Creative Legal Innovation. This award is given to a student who has shown an outstanding talent for creative legal innovation in activities outside of their degree programme.

After seeing some friends doing comedy on London’s open mic circuit, in 2017 Andy Buchan (RGS 2004-2011) and Alice Wickersham (RGS 2004-2011) started performing sketches. They put their heads together to come up with something that hopefully other people might find funny. Living in a houseshare at the time, gave them plenty of opportunities to write together. The next year, they entered the Leicester Square Theatre Sketch Off, reaching the semi-finals. After a hiatus when they started their PhDs (and, obviously, the pandemic), they eventually got round to rewriting some material, and decided to enter again. This time, they won!

What do they put their win down to? “If you sit a pair of monkeys at a typewriter for long enough, they will eventually write a tight seven-minute comedy set!” Alice told us.

Of their winning performance, the judges said, “The modestly named duo, Low Effort Sketches, deservedly romped away with the first prize for their preparedness, writing, smart ideas and ability to improvise when the tech gets in a twist. For all their clever virtues and making it look easy, what rammed home their victory was their screaming murder of a song, which piled on the ridiculousness until it collapsed in a noisy heap. There had been plenty of shrill and shriek through the evening, but this was controlled, weapons-grade caterwauling that was unfollowable. Hilarious.”

Since Sketch Off, Low Effort Sketches have featured on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. They have also been writing and trying out new material at various gigs in London. One of the prizes from winning Sketch Off was their own showcase at the Museum of Comedy in London, so they are currently trying to hone an hour’s worth of material over the next year – watch this space!

Find Low Effort Sketches on Instagram (@low.effort.sketches), Facebook (Low Effort Sketches), and Twitter (@WeAreLowEffort).

REBECCA PUTTOCK (RGS

1998-2006)

Rebecca has been shortlisted for Luxury Travel Designer of the Year Award, sponsored by Pure Luxury at the TTG Luxury Travel Awards 2023. Winners to be announced at the event 24 February 2023.

Have you won an award? Or perhaps a friend or relative has, but they’re too shy to tell us! We love to share the successes of our community with others, so email foundation@reigategrammar.org with all the details.